We get it. Running a business takes time, energy, and resources. Sometimes we see golden opportunities looming just over the horizon. But, we grab on it with our eyes closed because we’re not really sure if it will turn out well.
You yourself could go into thinking, “Will this solution work?” This does not exclude the opportunity that content marketing provides.
Videos, images, virtual realities, blogs — there are millions of content that are released every day in the internet. What is surprising is that out of all these branded content we see online, only 5% of them receives 90% of consumer engagements. We know this from a report by Beckon.
The question remains: how do businesses effectively penetrate the market without wasting anything?
A Closer Look
How much are you spending on content marketing? A closer look reveals two major categories of content costs. According to Percolate, the costs are divided into the non-working spend and the working spend.
1. Non-working — money that businesses spend on creating content. This includes investments on assets, legal, technology, agencies, ,design, and employees.
2. Working — money that businesses spend on distributing content. This includes investments on social media, print, email, television, mobile, radio, and any other distributing channel.
Furthermore, research indicates the importance of brand consistency. Businesses no longer find it enough to remain in a single distribution channel. They investments scatter on 8 different categories:
- Traditional advertising
- Website and e-commerce
- Search advertising
- Brand publishing and content marketing
- Social
- Digital video
- Influencer marketing and sponsorship costs
- Programmatic
With an increasing number of competitors, businesses are led to a higher standard of content production.
Here are three key takeaways on content marketing:
1. Understand the Goals
Why do you invest on marketing content for your business? Results can be measured depending on what you ultimately want to achieve.
Are you perhaps just interested on increasing your visibility, or do you even have a clear idea as to why you are creating and distributing videos, games, ebooks, blogs, and other forms of content? What is your why?
“Traffic without lead generation and sales is pointless.” -Jeff Bulas
Having a lot of people reaching your content is nice. It increases your visibility online. But business is business — it’s not all about being being seen across a number of channels.
It requires you to get results in the form of leads and conversions. Leads guide you to potential customers, and conversions increase your sales — more income to run and maintain your business.
To better understand your goals, you may consider:
- What is your business about?
- Who are your target customers?
- What do you exactly want to achieve?
Having the heart to help individuals and other businesses is good. But there’s so much to empathy. And, simply getting people engaged through likes and shares could get you just as far as having more views.
Well, how do you know if you have helped someone? Is it enough to present the remedy or solution? Will likes and shares suffice?
2. Go for Quality
Quality covers a variety of areas in content marketing. It includes the choice of language, design, and the overall experience provided to customers.
“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution.” -W.A. Foster
We could ask ourselves about what top marketers have in common. What makes Jeff Bulas, Seth Godin, and other top individuals stand out from the crowd?
Customers first. They don’t publish content that highlights their services or brand. They publish great content that speaks directly to their customers.
Seth Godin, for example, does not even publish lengthy blogs. But why do so many people continue reading his blog posts? Do people find reading a chore perhaps that they just stick to short articles?
The thing is…
Not a lot of people may have the time to read through a lengthy post. This goes on to encourage business owners to consider their audience. Who are they and what keeps them busy?
Understanding the preferences and identity of your target audience helps you determine the right strategy for marketing content.
From the way he tells his stories, we find that Seth fully understands that his readers want to get to the heart of things. He cuts through the chase, and gets the readers’ attention to what is important. And, he succeeds in his own peculiar way.
Just as the saying goes, quality is never an accident. It comes with a clear understanding of your business and a deliberate action on that frame of understanding.
Whether you are into videos, blogs, webinars, ebooks, or anything else, it is worthwhile to consider why you are doing it and for whom it is for. It may seem easy but difficult to do, but in the process you can find a working content marketing strategy that is just right for you. Only keep going for quality.
3. Come Up with a Distribution Strategy
With the existing social media management software, you can appear on different social media platforms in one go. You can schedule your posts at the same time and date.
But even with this convenience in automation, you still need to create your own content.
The thing is…
Brand consistency is important in any type of business. The quality of the images, the overall experience that you provide to your customers matter. At the end of the day, it is that experience that they will remember.
Consider your favorite shoe brand for example. Why do you prefer it over the other brands in the market?
Currently at Slapshot Studio, we are very happy to have our very own brand strategist on board — Jared Angaza. We are in the process of “rebranding” and he has been such a great help to our team. You too can work with Jared Angaza to develop your own brand.
Eyes on the Buzz
When it comes to distributing your content, we can consider the example set by BuzzFeed. So many businesses ask, “What made BuzzFeed successful?”
You may also have come across their posts on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms.
What they did was they deliberately took the data they received from people, and studied it carefully. They studied to understand the behaviors of the people receiving their content.
Guess what?
More than the number of shares and likes and comments, they discovered the underlying structure of how these engagements were formed. Which platform are the users most active and how do people share them across platforms — these basic questions, in a way, help business owners understand which distribution channel to focus on.
Once you have a working distribution strategy, you can be more confident to achieve the results you expected.
Here are some relevant articles that you too might find helpful:
- 3 Basic Concepts in Marketing through Social Media
- Consistency — A Game Changer in Business
- 5 Key Lessons on Storytelling for Brand Marketers
Slapshot Studio is also on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
