In recent years digital marketing has become less about exploiting the shortcomings of the search engines and more about building real brands via content that engages, captivates and educates whilst differentiating your brand from the sea of competition.
It all begins with the brand. No matter what market you’re in – from sports nutrition to accountancy – there must be a clear sense of what defines your business and why this matters to your target audience. A key part of this is the creation of a brand personality, in which the messaging, language and tone of the content is defined. Will it be concise, punchy and exact, or warm, friendly and informal?
What are kinds of words you would use, and more importantly what are the kind of words you would never use? Likewise for images, should they be candid and in the moment, or more professional and serious? Should the subject be looking at the camera or focused on their activity?
We must also conduct significant research into the content marketing activities of anyone that is attempting to engage your target audience (even if they are not a direct competitor). From this research we can build up a sense of the kind of content (both in terms of subject and format) that will resonate with your audience, and the gaps among your direct competition. This is where the opportunities lie.
A content framework
In order to ensure the smooth production of consistently effective and high quality content, it’s essential there is a clear structure in place that segments the content by:
Subject
What are the topics we will be talking about?
Format
Will the content be in video, text or image form? What will the precise format of each look like?
Objective
Is the content intended to help the website be found in the search engines? Is it there to engage and educate an existing audience? Is it intended to inspire a connection with a new audience? Is it intended to drive sales?
Channel
Where will this content be placed? The blog? Email? Social media?
Influencer engagement
Organic search, particularly Google, continues to be the starting point for the majority of consumer journeys. Furthermore, the intent to buy/enquire is so much higher than through our channels. The upshot is that for most businesses the search engines represent not only one of your biggest traffic sources, but also the highest converting source of traffic – a pretty powerful combination!
You can see more on our influencer marketing campaigns here.
Media planning
Creating the right content is just the beginning. There needs to be an accompanying media plan in place to ensure that the content reaches the audience and achieves the intended objective. This is now particularly true across social media where organic reach has dropped to almost negligible amounts on some platforms. A well constructed media plan, however, can ensure the content cuts through the noise and hits the audience at exactly the right time.
Go big or go home
It’s important to realise that even with a sophisticated content framework and highly influential brand ambassadors, there is still no guarantee that you will be doing anything that the other major players in your market are doing. To ensure you cut through the noise and do something truly unique, you need to lead with a number of big ideas that spearhead all of your activity. Something that you could genuinely imagine your brand becoming famous for in years to come. The more audacious the better.
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