TALKING
AND START
LISTENING
In 1895, John Deere published The Furrow, a periodical for farmers (which is still published today). The plow company decided the best way to reach its customers was to print a magazine.
More than a hundred years later, other companies are discovering what John Deere knew. Customers like good, relevant content and they reward the brands that offer it. Content marketing (aka branded content, custom content) has never disappeared, but the Internet has made it easier than ever before for companies to put content in front of an audience.
Content marketing is on the rise because it works. It’s more effective than traditional advertising and offers greater returns in terms of lasting relationships with customers and prospects.
But... the Internet has made everyone a publisher the same way karaoke has made everyone a singer. Just because you’re doing it doesn’t mean you’re doing it well or that anyone wants to hear it. Content marketing, like singing, is tougher than it looks. Here’s how to avoid being the guy murdering “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
WHAT
YOUR
AUDIENCE
CAN TEACH
YOU ABOUT
CONTENT
MARKETING
Acting like a publisher doesn’t mean you should push out whatever you find interesting. That’s not what good publishers do. They publish what research, experience, sales and feedback tell them will grab an audience. It’s a harsh truth that your audience doesn’t care much about mission statements, ISO certifications, Lean Six Sigma or the new recycling program at the East Waddlesworth plant. It doesn’t matter if that’s what you think is important about your business. What matters — the only thing that matters — is what your audience cares about. So save that other stuff for the annual report and company newsletter and go in search of what your audience really wants from your brand.
Don’t make the mistake of assuming you already know what that is. There is only one way to know for sure and that is to ask. The Adcom Group’s Audience-Driven Content Strategy is built around studying audience members to determine what they like and how they want to consume it. Research also finds the gaps in the existing content put out by you and your competitors and the best ways to fill them. Similarly, we examine your company to find the most compelling stories to tell.
With content marketing brands have to learn that waiting to talk is not a winning strategy. Just as everyone avoids party guests who drone on about themselves, a brand whose content is only about itself will soon be standing all alone. Don’t worry that your brand will be overlooked if it isn’t the star of every blog post or video. The audience will know who’s behind it—that’s the art of content marketing.
YOU’RE
NOT IN
CHARGE;
YOUR
AUDIENCE
IS
Sure, you say, content marketing is easy for companies such as Nike, Virgin and Red Bull. They sell fun, popular things that people want to know more about. But you sell caulk and even people who need to know about caulk aren’t exactly excited about it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do content marketing. It just means you have to work a bit harder at it.
To begin with, adjust your expectations. Nike’s potential market is the 14 billion feet in the world. Yours is probably smaller. If you sell caulk, nothing you do is likely to attract an audience much larger than those people whose jobs involve caulking. But even if that audience can’t be widened, it can be deepened.
Of course, tell your audience members everything they need to know about caulk, but don’t stop there. Find out about their lives and work. What are their interests, what problems do they face, where do they need help, what other topics are intrinsically tied to their jobs? Those are the areas ripe for content marketing.
You can entertain your audience with caulk jokes or engage them by asking for their best on-the-job stories. You can inform them with a video about how caulk is made and instruct them on how to be better caulkers through online tutorials. If your customers are contractors, then widen your scope to include topics you know are of interest to them, like how to estimate jobs and hire subcontractors.
HOW TO
MARKET
CONTENT
WHEN YOUR
CONTENT
IS, WELL,
DULL
In short, give them something of value, whether it’s a laugh, a tip or a piece of knowledge.
The Kauffman Foundation, the largest foundation in the world devoted to entrepreneurship, wanted to start a conversation with the educators, planners, economic development officials and others fostering startups in their cities. Realizing it could never accomplish this with white papers and blog posts alone, it launched ID8 Nation, a digital magazine that examines entrepreneurial ecosystems city by city through articles and videos. Another example is RIDGID, which hosts an online forum for commercial plumbers, pipefitters and HVAC contractors. It’s where they ask each other for advice, troubleshoot problems and swap on-the-job stories. RIDGID moderates with a light touch, interjecting with helpful information when necessary, but not selling tools or pushing an agenda. The result is that customers associate the brand with problem solving and useful information.
HOW TO
MARKET
CONTENT
WHEN
YOUR
CONTENT
IS, WELL,
DULL
Content marketing requires a commitment to quality and duration. A short burst of content, no matter how good, will be ineffective. Likewise, a lengthy campaign featuring boring or irrelevant content will fail.
It’s not easy to do and it shouldn’t be undertaken without planning and adequate resources. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all content marketing strategy. It must be tailored to each company and brand. Brands should not only study their audiences, they should examine themselves for sources of content, which sometimes can be found in surprising places. Often, it takes an outsider to spot the material to which audiences will respond best. The results of content marketing are seldom immediate. It’s an iterative process and, like any good conversation, it involves back-and-forth until both parties find a subject they’re interested in.
GET
COMMITTED
One of the most clichéd characters in sitcoms is the interloper who makes a fool of himself by pretending to be part of a culture he doesn’t understand. Think of the moms and dads who try to talk slang with their kids only to end up demonstrating how out of it they really are. The kids don’t buy it and neither will your audience. Content marketing is venturing onto your audience’s turf and asking to join the conversation. Because you have something in common (your product or service) you might think you speak the same language. Odds are you don’t. This is particularly true when reaching out to a new audience. Before launching a content marketing strategy, it’s
essential to know the content and conversation as well as those who are most deeply engaged in it. If you’re talking with skateboarders, you’d better know an ollie from a noseslide. If it’s home chefs, then you should make a red wine reduction worth bragging about.
Inauthentic or, worse, incorrect information in your
marketing will be sniffed out immediately and your brand’s credibility with the audience will be destroyed. And starting a conversation for the sole purpose of sneaking in a sales pitch as soon as possible doesn’t work. Audiences know when they’re being sweet-talked.
The content must be presented knowledgeably and in a spirit of genuinely wanting to help.
BE REAL
(OR HIRE
SOMEONE
WHO IS)
There is a misperception out there that content marketing Return on Investment can’t be measured, that it’s all warm, fuzzy feelings between brands and audiences, and how do you measure love, anyway?
In fact, the ROI can be measured, though it requires more sophistication than merely counting clicks and page views. The ROI is less about sheer numbers and more about the depth of the relationship with the audience. That’s why engagement is key. For that reason, measuring engaged time by tracking such things as scrolling, mouse movements, active windows and tabs can show just how much attention the reader is paying. Another strong measure of engagement is how often the same audience members return for more content. Buzzfeed’s case studies have found that repeated exposure to a brand’s content greatly increases audience loyalty.
That data, along with content consumption, lead generation metrics, social media and sales metrics, provides an accurate picture of what audiences are responding to and how. That data should be used to refine your content marketing.
Of course, content marketing takes longer to show results than more traditional campaigns, but the results can be longer-lasting as well.
No one knows how many extra plows John Deere sold because of The Furrow, but the fact that it’s still published ought to prove something. A recent study by consulting firm Demand Metric provides more solid evidence:
• 70 percent of consumers feel closer to a company as a result of content marketing.
• 80 percent of people appreciate learning about a company through custom content.
• Content marketing costs 62 percent less than traditional marketing.
• Per dollar spent, content marketing generates
approximately three times as many leads as traditional marketing.
Content marketing can appear intimidating at first, but it’s as simple as learning to be a good conversationalist. There’s an art to it, both at parties and in marketing. Be entertaining, be informative, have something worthwhile to say, and, most of all, be a good listener.
