Digital Marketing Solutions Summit | Forum Events Digital Marketing Solutions Summit | Forum Events Digital Marketing Solutions Summit | Forum Events Digital Marketing Solutions Summit | Forum Events Digital Marketing Solutions Summit | Forum Events

Posts Tagged :

Content Marketing

UK consumers reckon 50% of personalised content is a turn off

Over half (51%) of UK consumers say that the targeted content they receive online is often “boring” or “unhelpful.”

That’s according to new research from Optimizely, the leading digital experience platform (DXP) provider, which reveals that while personalisation holds great potential for enhancing customer loyalty, the reliance on assumptions and outdated technology remain major obstacles.

Based on a comprehensive study of 100 UK marketing leaders and 1,000 UK consumers, the Personalised to Personal report shows that an overwhelming 70% of consumers feel frustrated that the promotions they receive are not directly relevant to their personal interests.

Concerningly, 83% of marketers admitted that their current personalisation efforts heavily rely on assumptions about customers rather than high-quality insights. 71% also acknowledged that generalisations still form the foundation of too many personalisation campaigns, pointing to a significant gap between the personalised experiences consumers desire and what brands currently provide.

The study also shed light on how outdated technologies hinder effective personalisation. Only 33% of marketers claimed to possess the necessary technology to deliver hyper-personalised experiences tailored to individual customers.

These shortcomings largely stem from outdated technology, with a staggering 74% of marketers feeling that their current personalisation tools are no longer adequate.

However, the report also highlights the immense potential of personalisation to foster customer loyalty. A notable 65% of consumers are more loyal to a brand that has taken the time to understand them on a deeper, more personal level.

“In 2023, delivering truly personalised content is absolutely essential to meet individuals’ interests and needs, as well as to foster brand loyalty,” said Shafqat Islam, CMO of Optimizely. “But when the vast majority of marketers are using outdated technology, it’s nearly impossible for them to regularly meet consumer’s expectations, leading them to miss out on the strong growth opportunities that a data-led personalisation strategy provides.”

The findings of Optimizely’s report highlight the urgent need for brands to bridge the gap between customer expectations and the personalised experiences companies currently deliver. By investing in modern, data-driven technologies, such as web experimentation, brands can optimise their personalisation efforts and forge deeper connections with their customers.

While having modern personalisation technology is crucial for providing relevant online experiences, brands must also focus on making their content engaging and exciting to avoid appearing dull. To achieve this, marketing leaders should think about adopting a content marketing platform, providing a dedicated workspace where teams can organize workflows, collaborate on assets, and efficiently run campaigns. By simplifying the content creation process, marketers can dedicate more time to crafting and refining content and less time on administrative tasks.

Over half (51%) of UK consumers say that the targeted content they receive online is often “boring” or “unhelpful.”

OPINION: Creating a trusted source of news

The pressure on media outlets to rapidly get good quality footage to support global news stories has never been greater. Understaffed news rooms are rushing to beat the competition – not just the vast number of global online, print, radio and television media but also the factories dedicated to creating fake news stories that are propagated through social media.

As trusted organisations, NGOs play a vital role in providing a news hungry global audience with fast access to verifiable footage. The challenges, however, are significant. Every day of the year, video content taken in the field, often at great risk, must be available within minutes in a ‘media ready’ format to support hard pushed journalists. It must be vetted to ensure the messaging is neutral and individual identify is safeguarded. It must be secure and continuously accessible to subscribers despite constant and escalating attacks from cyber criminals. And it must be trackable to provide the NGO with information to support funding and enable continuous improvement of the media content strategy. 

Guy Parry-Williams, Managing Director, Imedia8, explains why NGOs that embrace a better, faster, more secure and trackable way to manage the end to end content production and management process will play an ever more significant role in turning the tide on fake news, reinforcing their credentials and boosting awareness in the process…

News Confusion

The concept of ‘news’ has become tarnished and confused over the past few years. Fear and panic fuelled by the global pandemic, the war in Ukraine as well as global financial meltdown have escalated demand for immediate information. The problem is that immediacy now takes precedence over accuracy in far too many cases.

A news hungry audience is never without a device, but individuals lack discrimination – indeed many people struggle to distinguish fact from fiction. As Ofcom researchreveals, every minute sees 500 hours of content uploaded to YouTube, 5,000 videos viewed on TikTok and 695,000 stories shared on Instagram and more than a third of internet users are unaware that online content might be false or biased. With highly organised factories dedicated to creating fake news, backed up by video footage,  it has never been more important for trusted organisations to step up and provide a global audience with trusted information.

With media outlets operating on far smaller staff numbers than in the past, journalists need support.  NGOs such as the Red Cross and United Nations, play a valuable role in capturing and sharing video footage of their activity in the field – from war zones to natural disasters. Ensuring this content is ‘journalist ready’ makes all the difference. By providing not just the video but the full edited story, with transcripts, an NGO will reinforce its credential as not just a trusted source but also a ‘go to’ destination for the media.

Time Pressure

High quality mobile phones and ever increasing cellular coverage have transformed accessibility, enabling NGO staff on the ground to capture video content and reducing the need for dedicated camera crews. Getting this footage from staff on the ground back to HQ and into the right format to be shared with media outlets can take days, however. Given the immediacy of the news agenda, such delays will often mean the opportunity has been lost.

But there are no shortcuts – this is often highly sensitive information. NGOs must ensure the messaging is neutral, especially during conflict where it is vital to avoid any political affiliation. It must also remain anonymous: it is essential that individuals, including those who work for the NGO, are not exposed to any risk as a result of the coverage.

This is hugely challenging. The process is far more demanding than simply uploading to a video content platform. Content needs to be verified to confirm messaging and avoid any referenceable names. It needs to be presented to the media in a way that is immediately usable: including the presentation of a lightweight preview, as well as associated photos, graphics, infographics and story content.  Plus, it needs to be watermarked to enable the NGO to track the take up and usage of each piece of content across the world. Only then can it be uploaded to a site, and the global media outlet subscribers informed the latest content is available.

Feedback Loop

Achieving this in a timely fashion is tough for any individual organisation without round the clock staff. What happens if the story breaks on a weekend or Bank Holiday, over a religious festival or during the August holiday escape? Miss a deadline and the story will never get picked up; take a short cut, and the essential neutrality of the content could be compromised.

With the right, managed service approach every aspect of this process can be achieved in as little as 20 minutes, ensuring the NGO maximises the value of time sensitive information. It is, however, also important to time the content upload to maximise global exposure. Using intelligent planning to ensure the content timing reflects the likely audience and country/ continent specific news cycles will increase the uptake by media outlets. In addition, reports based on continual monitoring of content usage can provide vital insight to NGOs to inform the video content strategy.

Tracking subscriptions demonstrates who is watching and when, highlighting any news outlets that have looked at but failed to use the content. This information will help NGOs to understand the evolving news landscape and timescales, including the way media outlets want to consume content, providing a complete feedback loop and enabling a continual evolution of the content strategy.

Conclusion

Video content also plays a vital role in supporting future activity. With governments and high value donors facing escalating demands for support and the challenges of an inflationary economy, funding activity is key. For most NGOs there is a direct link between the amount of footage achieved across global news stations and income – content usage reports give NGOs with important evidence about both on the ground activity and the role played in improving awareness and understanding among the general public.

Plus, of course, some of this footage will have long term value. With an archive of footage stretching back over years, NGOs provide academics as well as media outlets with access to a valuable, deep resource.

Indeed, with a light touch subscription model, anyone in the world can access this resource, improving the quality of verified information in the public domain. And that is key: with a trackable archive of carefully curated, verified video content, an NGO can maximise public awareness and understanding while also leading the fight against the fake news factories.

Content Management

Content marketing ‘providing increased value to CMOs’

Over a third of CMOs believe establishing a thought leadership position provides best results for sentiment and relationship building.

That’s according to the findings of iResearch Services’ thought leadership research, which asserts that content marketing, supported by issues-led thought leadership, is the way forward for CMOs.

The research gathered insights from 500+ CMOS/-1 professionals spanning the UK and USA. The aim of the research was to establish how, when and where marketing budgets are being allocated and through which brand channels the majority of effective content is being published.

The survey asked experienced marketing professionals to choose which form of marketing engages best with their audience and the budget allocated to each area; share their preferred techniques they use as a marketer to research their target audience when creating their marketing strategy; and analyse what types of content they believe provide the best engagement.

Key findings include:

  • Content marketing receives the biggest marketing budget allocation (23.5%) compared to just 10% spent on product marketing and social media marketing separately.
  • On a scale of 1-5, most marketers believe that content marketing delivers the highest levels of audience engagement compared to other forms of marketing.
  • One third of marketers believe opinion based content provides the best engagement and almost three quarters (71%) believe thought leadership provides the best results for sentiment and relationship building, yet two thirds (66%) of marketers still believe advertising is an effective element of a marketing strategy. 
  • 61% of marketers believe that issues-led content that shows an understanding of the audience’s business or industry challenges receives higher engagement.

The research shows the way people are consuming content is changing, with more CMOs utilising content marketing (23%) as opposed to investing in event marketing (11%), as the remainder of the calendar year will continue to focus on virtual events as a result of Covid-19.

Yogesh Shah, CEO of iResearch, said: “It is important for us to continue to address the needs of CMOs and to ensure they can effectively communicate with their target audience and therefore strengthen their sales pipeline. Creating relatable, issues-led content is key to this and it is clearly a form of content that is an integral part of all marketing strategies. Organisations need to position themselves as industry leaders by sharing their expertise, and a data-driven thought leadership strategy is exactly the way to do that.”

For the full research findings, click here.

Coronavirus: ‘Content marketing imperative grows’

Many marketing organisations lack the necessary capabilities and processes to keep pace with a growing content marketing imperative amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to new strategic report from the CMO Council.

Cleary, the impact of COVID-19 on face-to-face business interactions, particularly large gatherings, has been swift and pervasive.

Content will need to pick up the slack, according to Donovan Neale-May, Executive Director of CMO Council and author of the strategic brief, Making Content Marketing Convert.

“Marketers must act quickly and decisively to increase the impact, scope, reach and return of their content marketing investments in 2020,” said Manuel Hüttl, Senior Vice President Europe beim CMO Council. “Our research also shows there is a critical need for marketing organizations to bring more discipline and strategic thinking to content specification, delivery and analytics.”

Developed in partnership with NetLine the report provides insights into the problems marketing organisations face in elevating the business impact of content development, distribution and lead conversion. It also provides a concise set best practices, along with a self-assessment check list for lead performance improvement.

Among CMO Council research insights that underscore the problems and shortcomings in current content marketing initiatives:

  • Only 12 percent of marketers believe their content marketing programs targets the right audiences with relevant and persuasive content.
  • Only 21 percent say they are sufficiently partnered with their sales counterparts in developing and measuring demand generation programs.
  • Most view their content marketing process as ad hoc, decentralized and driven by internal stakeholder, rather than customer, interests.
  • While 88 percent of business buyers say online content impacts vendor selection, just nine percent think of vendors as trusted sources of content.

The report offers commentary and advice on the top 10 essentials for effective authority leadership-driven content marketing:

  1. Partner with credible + trusted sources
  2. Produce relevant + compelling strategic insights
  3. Add customer-contributed views + validation
  4. Present authoritative, newsworthy and enriched content
  5. Engage qualified, verified and predisposed audiences
  6. Target the whole influencer, specifier + buyer ecosystem
  7. Embrace multi-channel distribution, promotion + syndication
  8. Authenticate content consumption and buyer engagement
  9. Ensure lead legitimacy and compliance 
  10. Cultivate, Activate and convert prospect flow

It also offers a set of best practices for lead lifecycle management. These practices cover:

  • Functional alignment between marketing and sales
  • Lead qualification—prioritization and scoring
  • Lead nurturing and relationship development
  • Hand-off and optimization of the conversion process
  • Campaign measurement

Download the report here.

Is your brand’s content is working as hard as it can?

By Carrie Webb, Head of Content, The Bigger Boat

It’s no secret that a brand’s content is hugely important. It can mean the difference between and organisation being discovered online or not.

But so much more than that, quality content elevates brand perception, nurtures lasting relationships with an audience and enables companies to build authority and credibility.

In such a content-rich environment, it can be difficult to know how to grab consumers’ attention, drive real engagement, create conversations and ultimately increase conversions. Whether it’s via a well-designed infographic, a collection of helpful blog posts or a fully-fledged PR campaign, here’s how to give great content the best chance of surviving and reverberating in such a crowded place.

Build out a strategic approach

Don’t create content simply for the sake of posting something. There should be a sound detailed strategy behind it that takes into account many factors, but most importantly aims to create a connection between brands and consumers.

The first step is to identify the brand’s strengths and consider this alongside a competitor’s offering. Take a holistic view of how those in the same space behave, and look at the types of content they’re producing – what’s working and what isn’t and, crucially, how audiences are responding.

A structured, analytical approach is required to then apply learnings to the content strategy. This will provide internal guidelines and is the brand’s ‘why’ and ‘how’.

Begin by defining audience personas (include their needs, where they consume content and any challenges and pain points), the organisation’s story and messaging and nail down content purpose.

There should also be considerations for business-wide and content KPIs. Detail success metrics for every piece of content – traffic, views, shares, conversion rate, brand awareness, for example – and jot down outreach plans for them. Collating and assessing all this information leaves an overarching strategy that plans ahead for every aspect of the organisation’s marketing activity in an effort to produce the best results.

Consider shareability from the outset

Creating a fantastic piece of content that ticks all the boxes – for example, it’s user friendly, relevant, and has SEO coursing through its veins – is great, but it’s not enough to simply upload and sit back in the hope results will flood in.

If a business isn’t promoting its own content, it’s missing out on many outreach possibilities. There’s no harm in giving customers a helping hand in finding content. If there’s budget, look towards PR, consider paid promotion or use influencers to shout about the work.

Email marketing provides a good way to round-up and tease content on the brand’s site and, of course, sharing contentacross the relevant social platforms is always a winning tactic when looking to start conversation.

Finally, don’t underestimate the value of employee advocacy. If a workforce shares its content, this shows customers that staff members have bought into the brand – and its content is credible. It also ensures a much higher reach without having to put extra budget behind it.

Write for the desired audience

A business should know its audience better than they know themselves, and create content that perfectly tailors to their needs and behaviour. This is key to content success.

Provide answers to questions asked, offer a viewpoint on topics customers are interested in, and ensure the brand is operating in a space where the target market is digitally active.

Genuinely useful, purposeful content gains more traction and is more likely to resonate in a meaningful way. Knowing – and serving – an audience is vital in content marketing. After all, the goal isn’t always to simply clinch a sale – there needs to be an effort to work hard and gain their trust, and convert them into advocates. Consistent, quality content that provides for their needs should do just that.

Ensure CTAs are simple and structured

Find subtle ways to encourage an audience to share thoughts, move through to another piece of relevant content or perform a customer action. Whether it’s to download a PDF, buy a product or simply head on to another blog within the site, the call to action (CTA) should be well-designed and strategically placed, with clear and compelling text.

Use the right words to give the CTA an obvious thrust – the user must be left in no doubt as to what’s being asked of them, and what they’ll receive if they click.

Make it timeless

The best content is evergreen – it doesn’t have an expiry date. Its information is as useful and relevant now as it will be five years down the line.

‘How to’ guides are a great example of content that doesn’t date. While there will always be a place for seasonal, topical content, it won’t have much appeal once conversation around it has subsided and an organisation is left with an initial increase in traffic that will quickly fade.

During its 20th anniversary celebrations in September 2018, Google announced a selection of new search features. Among them was the ‘Topic’ layer in the search, which aims to recommend new content to the user after analysing the web for a topic and developing a huge range of subtopics. It favours the most relevant content, namely that which has shown itself to be ‘evergreen and continually useful, as well as [being] fresh content on the topic’.

Harness the power of analytics

Insights software provides invaluable data as to how content is performing and can help to make strategic decisions.

For each piece of content created, its objectives and goals should have been set out in the content strategy at the very beginning of the process – using analytics gives specifics of whether it’s meeting them. Find out what’s working and what’s not by measuring traffic, bounce rate, dwell time and engagement, for example.

If content isn’t doing too well, an organisation will gain insight into why that is, and should make changes accordingly to avoid making the same mistake with future content.

Using an analytics tool should be routine for content marketers – do it correctly and learn what makes users tick, where they’re coming from, what type of content they favour and easily pinpoint successes, and where improvements are needed.

Apply detailed consideration to the strategy behind content as well as its aftercare and ensure it works as hard as it can for the brand.

With time, effort and consistency in the approach, content will find its place with the right audience, help raise brand perception and generate the desired results.

Carrie Webb is head of content for The Bigger Boat – a creative digital marketing specialist business based in Yorkshire.

C-Suite execs urged to step up to B2B marketing plate

Even in the age of virtual reality activations, social video and mobile apps, the most effective media format for branded business content remains the good, old-fashioned ‘opinion piece’.

That’s the view of Michael Feeley, Founder of Feels Like Content, who previously spent the five years working as a consultant journalist with marketing media brand The Drum, advising hundreds of marketing agency clients on their content marketing output.

Feeley says that while there he was surprised to find that, on average, it was opinion pieces, above all other content types, which generated most readers, most engagement, and most click-throughs.

He said: “My experience was that a well-written opinion piece would often outperform all other branded content types online – even video, animations or infographics – by a factor of three-to-one.”

Feeley has now launched Feels Like Content to offer a range of content coaching and development services which he believes “plug the gaps” in the traditional agency/client relationship. The first of these services, the Thought-Leadership Sprint, is a 60-minute training and content package that teaches senior executives how to recognise and develop great ideas for opinion pieces.

Feeley explained: “For opinion pieces to be truly authentic and cut-through to your target audience, they need to originate from the ideas of your senior team, and be based on their sector experience, their real-world expertise and the conversations taking place inside your organisation right now.  

“The problem is that senior executives are busy people. Ask the average over-worked sales or IT director to write produce an article on the latest industry trends at short notice and their immediate response is likely to be unsuitable for publication! However, it’s a big mistake for C-suite executives to view content marketing as ‘something other people do’, so I want to help shift that mindset wherever I can.”

Feeley claims that during the 60-minute group session (and subsequent 1-2-1s with participants) he can convince senior execs to become “enthusiastic content creators” and, using a unique ‘5 magic questions’ approach, show them how to develop thought-leadership articles easily that deliver genuine ROI. Each participant then develops their first opinion piece in collaboration with a professional journalist to kick-start their journey as industry commentators.

Feeley said: “The vision is to make content marketing make less about automation and being on the latest hot social platform without really knowing why, and more about reconnecting your content with the expertise inside your organisation.”

Feels Like Content is currently trialling the Thought-Leadership Sprint with selected organisations in Scotland and will formally launch the training and content development package across the UK from June 2019.

Blog

FORUM INSIGHT: Make your company blog work harder

There’s no sadder sight than a neglected company blog.

The chances are you’ve invested a fair bit of money in your website, which is probably the main channel through which to present your company to potential and existing customers outside of face-to-face meetings.

And if that’s the case, you’ve probably spent a fair bit of time setting up social media channels, and have maybe even paid someone to manage those for you.

First impressions last and your blog is the perfect tool with which to keep those channels fed and your website looking fresh and up to date.

But like New Year resolutions and Arsenal FC post-Christmas, it’s very easy to lose momentum after those initial earnest posts.

The main consideration when trying to keep a company blog updated is time, or the lack of it. Quickly followed by the need for inspiration. Both are easily addressed.

If you’re already paying someone to manage your social media, speak to them about taking on blog duties too. If you’re using an external creative agency the chances are they will be able to help too.

Internal solutions are also easily happened by. That new marketing intern is probably desperate to get his or her name up in lights and should be eager to prove their worth through blogging duties. Failing that, ask around – offices are often full of hidden talents waiting to be released.

Once you have the resource, it’s time to think about the content. The task of conjuring up appropriate subject matter can be a little intimidating, but it needn’t be.

A good place to start is drilling down into your product line – what do you sell? How were those products created? Look at mini FAQs, staff profiles, product announcements and commentary on industry news that affect your business. Does BREXIT have implications in your market? Tell your audience why.

To keep organised, draw up a simple content calendar, containing subjects, publication dates and responsibilities to keep things on track.

And the more content you post, the better it is for SEO too. Search engines will see that your site is being maintained and kept fresh, and that will score you brownie points against competitors in the rankings wars.

Plus, as alluded to earlier, the great thing about blog content is that it will feed your social media channels, which can also become neglected quite quickly. Each blog you post should be shared on LinkedIn – via employee profiles and your company’s own page – Twitter and Facebook.

All all three platforms you can then increase your reach if you pay to ‘boost’ posts to reach specific demographics. But more on that anon.

So, brush those cobwebs off your CMS and start posting – the world of content marketing awaits…

Mapp

Industry Spotlight: Say hello to Mapp

Mapp is one of the largest independent digital marketing technology companies in the world.

Built by marketers for marketers, Mapp provides a comprehensive family of software and customer-centric services, including a sophisticated data management platform; tools that optimise email, mobile, app, social and web marketing; and campaign management and strategy consulting.

Mapp has more than 3,000 customers including Puma, PepsiCo, KFC, PacSun, Thomas Cook, Deutsche Telekom, Bon Prix, Cnet, Xerox, TUIfly, Lloyds Banking Group, TSB Bank, and Deutsche Bank.

Guest Blog, Catherine Spencer: The real problem with content marketing…

‘Content’ as a word has seemingly got itself a bad name and it’s starting to cause a real problem for our industry – or so a number of recent articles would have it. It is a vague term that’s entered our marketing lexicon but, love it or hate it, it’s here to stay. Content marketing itself is not the problem, it’s the fact that most content has little to no impact on its target audience and really, it’s helping no one. We just get overwhelmed with clutter.

Take a look at any major UK company’s blog and you’ll see that most of the “content” they’re churning out doesn’t do the following:

  • Teach visitors something new or useful;
  • Give away handy resources for free (such as templates, cheat sheets and how-to-guides);
  • Inspire their visitors;
  • Clearly and concisely answer the question implied by the title.

The ‘Definition Problem’

One of the quirks of this industry is that we love coming up with complicated or vague words to describe what we do – and often they stick a little too strongly.

Remember when “selfie” became the Oxford Dictionary word of 2013 and we collectively went mad over how our country was going to the dogs? Well the unfortunate bystanders in the marketing industry mightn’t like it, but new words like “native advertising” and “content marketing” have quickly become the new normal.

Just by looking at Google search trends, it is clear that ‘content marketing’ has become widely accepted within the industry above ‘marketing communications’ since 2004.

 

equimedia-image-1

The ‘Practicality Problem’

While it is agreed that “content marketing” fits under the definition of “marketing communications”, referring to web content as “Marketing Communications” is tricky when working day-to-day in the ad industry. Actually, content marketing is just a small part of the overall marketing communications strategy.

When you’re working for global brands, you’ll find referring to a blog post as “marketing communications” will create more confusion than it’s worth. Confusion costs time and money in our industry and it goes back to the definitions problem – you might not like it, but the easiest way to be on the same page is to use the same language.

The ‘Content Problem’

Whilst most content indeed fails, it doesn’t mean content marketing itself is the problem. It means the people who’ve made the content maybe.

We’re not here to defend crappy content. But content marketing done right has tremendous value, there’s a reason it’s so big! It just needs to be matched with relevance.

To succeed with content, marketers need to develop content around a brilliant idea, focus on overwhelming the target audience with value, amplify the message by sharing the content with the right people, and finally ask for (and listen to) audience feedback.

Are we using the wrong word to describe content marketing? Maybe.

But let’s not forget the bigger picture: we should be focusing on value, not semantics. Whatever the buzzword might be that describes how we’re doing it, we really just need to get on and do it.

 

Catherine is a senior content, PR & social executive at equimedia. She joined equimedia in 2015, previously having worked in-house for a large charity. Today, Catherine manages marketing campaigns for a number of our large charity clients, as well as retail and insurance, from planning and production right through to delivery.