The content marketing world moves quickly, and this week isn’t any different. With web content exploding as a way to reach audiences, brands are quickly running into wild successes and pitfalls side by side. This week featured a variety of think pieces discussing how organizations can avoid content problems and get more from their marketing efforts.
Your Content Marketing Isn’t Working. Here’s Why.
In a recent Business2Community article, industry expert Autumn Sullivan detailed a few of the most common reasons why content marketing initiatives fail and provided some straightforward guidance on how to deal with those issues. One of her tips particularly resonated with me. She said that content strategies often struggle to gain traction because the content is too focused on the business.
Sullivan likened organizations that frequently publish self-focused blogs to conversational narcissists who seem to turn any topic into a chance to steal the spotlight. Instead of turning your blog into an avenue for sales-focused copy, Sullivan recommended that organizations take the time to listen to their customers and develop a content tilt based on the interests of audiences. To illustrate this point, Sullivan pointed to how GE has created sci-fi podcasts as an example of how brands can engage potential customers.
I still remember the early days of content marketing, when keywords were often product lists and entire strategies centered around simply driving traffic. Readers are getting more discerning about how they engage with content. They want engaging, thoughtful information from brands. If your content feels like advertising, they’ll tune it out.
People are so used to being marketed to online that they will see through efforts to plug products. But if you take the time to give them content that is relevant to them in a more general sense, you can begin to build a relationship and sense of trust that can foster lead generation and sales down the line.
You can check out the full article over at Business2Community.
The Content Marketing Myth
Sometimes, a business will get burned in content marketing. A MarTech Advisor report explained that many companies felt this way after content’s initial rise in the marketing world. Organizations had been pumping out blogs and waiting for the readers to come to them, but the strategy never really came together to create enough value to justify the effort.
Has your business faced that kind of problem? The news source explained that the issue in most of these cases is a lack of cohesive brand storytelling across all content. In response, organizations should embrace native marketing tactics as a way to more intuitively distribute their content and aim it toward audiences that it is relevant for. If it’s time for a content comeback, consider taking a more strategic approach.
Learn more by reading the whole story.
How Content Marketing Can Help Your Company Do More For Less
If you’re in marketing, then you know getting the funding you need to do what the business wants isn’t always simple. Content marketing is increasingly emerging as a way to get better results while spending less. In an Entrepreneur report, Alex Ionides, Managing Director for Silx, explained that consumer desire for authenticity from brands is leading more people to turn to content, not traditional advertising, as they work to make purchasing decisions.
Because content is more relational and personal in nature, it is a natural fit for today’s consumers. Ionides explained that content marketing will typically be 62 percent less expensive than outbound marketing while also generating three-times the leads.
Four Simple Steps To Winning In Content Marketing
In today’s cluttered digital world, brands are racing furiously to not only get the attention of their audience, but keep it. The Forbes Communications Council outlined a few key tips it has for organizations trying to get ahead, and many of them follow a common theme: Take advantage of what data can offer.
The news source explained that brands should both use data to set clear, measurable goals that align with tangible needs and to evaluate internal capabilities, customer demands and audience personas. The key, in both cases, is to blend the ideology of what you want content to achieve with real-world knowledge about what will drive success. This can create a cohesive vision that lets you stand out from the crowd and adjust to maximize return on investment.
That’s it for this week’s content marketing roundup, but don’t worry, we’ll be back again next Friday with more insights.
