How to Effectively Market Content in Australia
Everybody in the Western world is talking about content marketing — it’s an effective way of communicating with consumers while also adding value and building credibility. Although it seems impossible, content marketing is even more popular in Australia.
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According to many different studies, marketers and companies in Australia invest more funds into content marketing compared to their Western counterparts. What’s more, they’re also willing to try a wider selection of strategies. The Content Marketing Institute recently revealed that only 4% of Australian marketers avoid content marketing. The three most popular strategies are as followers:
- Articles and blog posts — 88%
- Social media content — 83%
- Email campaigns — 82%
For those who thought that email marketing was dead, you may be surprised to hear that over four in every five marketers utilize some form of email marketing strategy. Recent changes in the digital world have brought email back to the forefront of modern thinking. With more privacy rules and restrictions, consumers tend to pay closer attention to their inboxes because they only receive emails from those they choose.
Marketers in Australia may spend more resources on content marketing compared to the UK and the US, but does it work? Well, in short, yes. Several reports suggest that content marketing strategies are up to 10% more effective in Australia. In other words, those in Australia should look to start including content marketing into their strategies as soon as possible. In this guide, we want to explore some exciting statistics that show the prominence of content marketing. Then, we’ll look at some real-world examples to see how you can implement content marketing this year.
Read More: The Importance of Email Marketing in 2021
Content Marketing Statistics
Thanks to a report from Digital Marketing Community, we can see that businesses are fairly split between having content creation teams themselves and outsourcing to specialists. While 55% of respondents outsource to designers, writers, video producers, and other experts, four in ten do everything in-house.
What does this mean? For one thing, there’s no right answer when it comes to content creation. If you have the resources inside the business, feel free to create all content in-house. On the other hand, those who lack the right skills can outsource to professionals knowing that it’s a common process.
As part of the same survey, around 43% of businesses said that they are either ‘very committed’ or ‘extremely committed’ to content marketing. In 2018, 66% of respondents in the survey believed that their strategy was either ‘much more successful’ or ‘somewhat more successful’ than the previous year. This shows that content marketing is growing each year and that businesses optimize their strategies over time.
Interestingly, there’s also an even split between businesses that document their content marketing strategy and those that don’t. While 43% of respondents do document their content marketing efforts, around 38% don’t go to this effort. If you’re to succeed with content marketing, we highly recommend planning and documenting your investments. Documenting the process allows for an overview of your strategy, a review of ROI, prevents confusion, and ensures that everybody in the business is moving in the right direction.
If you need to manage your content marketing efforts, know that you aren’t alone if you choose an analytical tool for help. You would be in the minority if you choose to forgo this step. Nearly 90% of people in the survey admitted to using an analytical tool while just short of 80% said that they used email marketing tools.
Finally, we want to provide some insights into emails and social media. As you can probably imagine in 2021, social media plays a vital role in all marketing strategies. Especially after the pandemic, consumers are accustomed to spending their time on social media (and consuming lots of content while on the platforms!).
While 90% of marketers use social media posts, around three in every four now create videos for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other social media platforms. Though they aren’t as prominent as videos, research suggests that case studies are more effective with Australian consumers too. If you’re going to the effort of making videos for social media this year, consider also dipping your toes into the case study water.
Last but not least, the most common form of content distribution comes in the shape of emails. Once again, the trusty email shows its longevity and power many years after the first wave of email marketing. Two reasons why email marketing is still so effective are welcome emails and newsletters. If you can integrate these two examples into your marketing strategy, you’ll see why marketers can’t stop talking about this traditional content marketing method.
Real-World Examples of Content Marketing
1. Intrepid on YouTube
Based in Melbourne, you may not have heard of Intrepid, but the travel agency has managed to boost its reputation in the relevant market with some very clever marketing techniques. With a history spanning back to the late 1980s, the company specializes in getaway trips and has helped many consumers to book their dream vacations.
While much of the focus originally was on its travel blog, this changed in 2015 when the brand started a video series on YouTube. Highlighting so-called ‘Top Destinations’, consumers could see landmarks, different cultures, and highlights of particular locations.
With a high production value and incredible quality, it’s not hard to see why many of the videos have now surpassed 150,000 views. One of the reasons why these videos are so successful is because the themes within the videos meet the needs of the audience. Remember, when producing any content, you need to always keep the audience in mind. This is exactly what Intrepid achieved with videos addressing key topics such as:
- Traveling on a small budget
- Eco-friendly and sustainable travelling
- Local tour guides
- Experiences for all ages
After lots of hard work and many high-quality showcase videos, Intrepid has built its following on YouTube, received hundreds of thousands of likes, and even now has a following on Twitter and other social media platforms. If you’re still nervous about video marketing, allow Intrepid to lead the way in explaining the powerful effects a single strategy can have.
2. HBF Health Insurance Advice
When most people think about the health insurance niche, they probably struggle to imagine a single company getting praise for content marketing. However, HBF Health Insurance has surprised everybody recently with a particular campaign.
Called ‘Direct Advice for Dads’, the company wanted to focus on fathers after noticing that much of the content online was written for new mothers. With the campaign name shortened to D.A.D (clever!), new and expectant fathers suddenly had lots of resources.
One reason this campaign was so successful was that the company simply wanted to help fathers (whether expectant or new to the role). Head over to the website now and you’ll see hardly any HBF branding. Instead, it’s simply a website where dads can get advice about childproofing a home, parental leave in Australia, managing expectations, choosing a name, and more.
If there’s an example of providing genuinely useful content for an audience, this is it. Back at the 2017 Content Marketing Awards, HBF walked away with three prizes for this campaign alone and it set an example for companies all over the country that providing value to an audience is vital.
We believe that the D.A.D campaign from HBF teaches us a valuable lesson about helping others. Sometimes, good things come just by helping sections of the audience. If you can either help or entertain some of the audience, everything else will follow naturally.
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3. Pursuit from Melbourne University
Lastly, we want to finish with Melbourne University because most people wouldn’t associate universities and other educational facilities with content marketing. However, perhaps we shouldn’t be so surprised when you consider the high-quality research generated from within the university.
Recently, Melbourne University launched the new Pursuit initiative. As we saw with D.A.D, Pursuit belongs to Melbourne University but operates independently. It’s a publication that comments on the best research currently taking place at the university. Not only does the publication come from a reputable establishment, but the university also managed to hire a former Herald Sun editor-in-chief to head the publication.
The university’s research generates interesting insights, and the Pursuit publication means that it’s getting attention in the real world. So far, many reports and research papers have made their way into international news outlets. Every day, more and more people sign up for the publication and it makes the university research papers and reports more accessible than ever before.
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Summary
Despite what you might hear, content marketing is still on the rise in Australia. Hopefully, these three real-world examples give you an idea as to the themes currently important in 2021. Provide genuinely useful content for your audience and you’ll reap the rewards. Also, remember that email marketing is not dead (it’s just a myth!).
