Sort your content marketing shit out

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Sort your content marketing shit out

When brands become newsrooms

A few years ago, copywriters were panicking that digital was going to kill publishing. We needn't have worried, as digital turned every brand into a newsroom, making us hot property.

The phenomenon was triggered by the marketing emperor's new clothes; content.

With power firmly in the customer hands and budgets tightening, content became the best way to add value and do everything sexy above-the-line marketing does, for cheap.

Even though it solves the problem of selling to a jaded and cynical population without selling, most brands are behind the curve on how to do this effectively. I mean, I don't browse the B&Q content hub for shits and giggles. And I don't necessarily convert.

So, how do you set up and run a content marketing strategy?

Show me the money
My ideological situation would be that businesses run with the good of the people and planet at its heart, not money. But this is a capitalist system, so everything is about the spondulics.

Make sure you have clear KPIs, so you can prove the effectiveness of content. And you still need investment - there's no point creating content, even if it's the greatest thing ever written since Don Quixotes if you're not going to spend money distributing it through social media, either organically or targeted by your company or through media agencies like Buzzfeed.

Nice tightbody processes
Sorry for the Patrick Bateman phraseology, but the way he describes waitresses perfectly describes how we should approach processes (but without the kill-y bit). They need to be tight.

Only with this can you deliver on your strategy, ensure your content is always current and performing. And also to assess briefs based on SMART acceptance criteria. That way you avoid damaging the integrity of your brand or waste money continually pumping out dubious dross.

There are also bigger questions like if it aligns with the customer journey and is it filling a content gap to empower customers and aid decision-making, do you have permission to play and is it relevant to your target audience. Then you're onto a winner.

Content's got talent
As mentioned in a previous post, a lot of people pitch themselves as copywriters or creatives. And when it gets down to it, they just lightly edit what they're given by a product or marketing manager.

You need a team (not necessarily large) with an understanding of people and culture to write content that resonates with readers. They need to be able to write attention-grabbing headlines and long form copy that meets SEO demands, adheres to brand tone of voice, hold a reader and gets them to think or behave in a certain way. No matter what the business may tell you, this is not easy.

One vision
This isn't just about where you want content marketing to lead you or meeting objectives (although, it's the biggest thing), it's about thinking big.

Content doesn't always convert. It's information to:
Add value to product/service or brand
Change brand perception
Educate about products/services
Build loyalty and improve retention
Appeal to prospects through brand awareness
Meeting customer needs
Boost acquisition
In order to meet these, you need to think of innovative ideas, not just in terms of creating content, but all in the execution. If your article is one click away from a sale, do it. If your article embeds money off vouchers, do it. If your article encourages interaction, do it.

If your article is just another badly written, body of copy that doesn't say or do anything, don't do it.

Then just apply everything you know about the production process and creative, and run with it (while always checking your results).

Remember, you're building digital equity. The formula is:

Relevance = prospects = acquisition ( not, clicks = sale).

Ignore these tips at your peril. As every brand is now a publisher, it'll only be a matter of time before people get wise to it and content becomes marketing noise that's ignored, mistrusted and mocked.

Don't underestimate how savvy people are to marketing techniques and how easily they'll drop you like a cup of cold sick.