First, let’s go over some fairly recent history, shall we? When the internet first changed the world, the concept was a superhighway, a conduit for people across the globe to share information. The hacker culture from which it was born had a pure, share and share-alike vision.
But then, about a minute after the internet was created, people started selling things. Consumers really couldn’t get away from marketing then: direct snail mail pieces clogged the mailbox, telemarketers clogged the phones, commercials ate into our favorite TV shows, and pop-ups dogged the computer experience.
Evil interruption marketing became the bane of a consumer’s existence. Businesses sought another way to reach consumers, and content marketing was created as a reaction against the old way of promoting goods and services.
With content marketing, consumers seeking information on the internet can find you, instead of the other way around. Businesses selling products and services have been given the opportunity to knock down the walls consumers had built up to block pesky ads. Content in the form of blogs, podcasts, speeches and video tutorials now educates audiences about any subject you can imagine.
One minute of video is worth about 1.8 million words (Forrester Research).
85 percent of the U.S. internet audience watches video online. (comScore)
Today, you can become a thought leader, sharing information with followers far and wide.
If you invest the time and resources, you will become top of mind for consumers. Your website content, and hence your products and services, will also become one of a consumer’s favorite haunts. You will be content rich. Here’s how you do it:
1. Determine your voice and message.
Is your company’s image playful? Traditional? Quirky or serious? A bank, for example, may handle serious products (people’s investments) but have a warm presence in the community. If your bank identifies financial planning for young people as a key message, you are on your way to discovering the best way to create and manage content. Warm, educational videos or blog posts about planning for the future in casual language targeted at youthful clients can be a guideline for your content.
2. Know your audience.
Have you studied the way your target demographics interact with the internet? Many businesses and organizations have multiple audiences; for example, a university may have the obvious student population but also needs to share information with faculty, alumni and the community. Some of your social media analytics should demonstrate the differences among these populations, and your content should reflect the diversity you discover. What do you wish to communicate to each audience? What is the best way to deliver these messages? A more academic audience may prefer to read the written word or listen to podcasts, while approaching the broader community may require a variety of methods of communication.
3. Research how they use the internet.
Did you know that 21-year-olds today have never known a world without the internet? Many younger consumers access content exclusively from their mobile devices. Does your current marketing plan address this audience? Some consumers appreciate holding a print-out in their hands. Does your content work seamlessly with this audience as well?
4. Come up with a game plan.
Once you have simplified your message, you will need to use multiple forms of social media to share it. But which forms? One big box home improvement store took the six seconds Vine videos offered and created brief vignettes to educate its consumers. One six-second video simply showed how to un-thread a screw. Of course, a Vine video would not be the only way you would share your message, but it could be part of your tool box.
Perhaps you produce a corporate video that shares your content to its best advantage. One step in your rollout might be writing about the upcoming video in a blog post. You could share production photos on Facebook or tweet about the content yet to come.
During this step you would also determine what constitutes success. Do you hope to gain 300 “Likes” on Facebook? Do you want your Instagram video to go viral and make the morning news shows? Or do you plan to direct all potential employees to an informational video on your website that will reduce the strain on your human resources department?
5. Share your content.
By the time you get to this step, you may be coasting. You’ve laid all the groundwork, produced the video or written the content, and now you share.
Just like your fellow pre-schoolers back in the days of sharing sandbox toys, this step should feel good. You can see the payoff from all of your hard work. If you share your content in various ways, through guest blogs or at conferences, to your Twitter followers or via Pinterest, you will begin to feel content rich. (Or at least be able to afford a little more than a content fast food burger.)
6. Analyze your results.
Don’t skip this step. Analyzing and evaluating the success of your efforts are the key to succeeding in the future. Don’t treat your (content) money earned as a day trader would. You are in this content marketing gig for the long haul so think long-term investment. How many people downloaded your e-book? How many people watched your Vine? How can you replicate this success…or improve upon it?
7. Oops. I tricked you. I didn’t mention a seventh step, did I?
That’s because you’ll never really be finished with your content marketing.
Don’t assume that the time and energy spent on your content marketing will pay off immediately in services purchased. Content marketing is cumulative. Just like we don’t receive a college degree after a year of kindergarten, we must continue to build on and share our knowledge. Continue to build and streamline, educate consumers and assimilate your content marketing efforts into your everyday work culture.
Six easy steps, rinse and repeat. Soon you will be feeling content rich.