In today’s digital landscape, where attention spans are fleeting and competition is fierce, content marketing has emerged as an effective strategy for businesses who want to connect with their audience.
As technology continues to evolve and consumer behaviors shift, staying relevant in the world of content marketing requires an understanding of the entire digital realm. Let’s explore how content marketing has evolved and what it takes to succeed in this dynamic landscape.
What is Content Marketing?
You might not have heard of the term “content marketing” before, but it isn’t a new concept. Companies have been using content to engage audiences for decades. However the rise of the internet and social media in today’s digital world has transformed the way that content is distributed, consumed, and created.
In the past brands have been restricted by “one-way communication” streams with their target audiences. However, in today’s age if brands aren’t delivering personalized, interactive experiences then they are likely falling behind the competition. Consumers today have become accustomed to the sheer amount of content on the internet and in order to stand out companies must deliver content that resonates with their audiences interests and aspirations. This means marketers need to heavily consider a “customer-centric” approach, focusing on building relationships with their target audience rather than pushing sales pitches and obvious CTA’s.
Current Content Marketing Trends
1. Videos (especially short ones)
Today’s popular platforms (TikTok, Youtube, Instagram) have brought an increased demand for video content, especially short-form video content that’s typically 15 seconds. Consumer data indicates that the first 3 seconds of a video determine whether the consumer will watch the video or keep swiping so it has become necessary for marketers to take advantage of the first 3 seconds of a video otherwise it’s likely to be ignored (this is especially true for younger audiences). At the same time, video content has proven to be a very effective tool for telling stories, demonstrating products, and connecting with audiences on a more personal, emotional level.
2. Interactive Content
Due to increased competition and higher consumer expectations, one dimensional content just isn’t enough for marketers anymore. Instead of working with static content, marketers need to experiment with ways to incorporate interactive formats such as quizzes, polls, games, etc. Not only do these formats offer a more engaging experience for our target audience but in many cases it can also provide marketers with valuable data to help learn more about their target audience or product.
3. User Generated Content
In today’s content filled digital landscape authenticity is everything in the minds of consumers. In fact many users on social media will swipe past an advertisement the second they realize it’s an advertisement. In order to combat this marketers must take advantage of user generated content. This may take the form of reviews, testimonials, and other related social media posts. The easy way to do this is to pay an already established influencer to review or promote your product, however this does require a decent amount of research into the influencers and can quickly become an expensive strategy. Because of this it’s important for brands to monitor their social media feeds to highlight anytime their brand or product is mentioned and interact with more organic user content, typically at no cost to the brand.
4. Data and the Rise of AI
If there’s one thing that hasn’t changed in the last 50 years of marketing it’s the importance of data, and that’s never been more true today. Data is what allows marketers to deliver personalized and effective messages and it remains true that marketing decisions should be data driven. The recent rise of artificial intelligence has only increased the effectiveness of market research allowing for hyper-targeted campaigns, personalized recommendations, and real-time performance tracking.
Digital Content Marketing Strategies
1. Understanding your audience
In order to effectively communicate your message you must have a competent understanding of your target audience’s preferences, pain points, and behavioral patterns. This is where market research and data analytics become necessary, allowing for marketers to come up with detailed and accurate buyer personas in order to tailor their content effectively.
2. Quality over Quantity
In today’s digital landscape filled with mass amounts of content, quality is key to standing out. A content marketer’s focus should be on creating valuable and relevant content that communicates a message to the target audience whether that message be educational, entertaining, inspiring, etc. In order to stand out from competition marketers must be willing to invest money and time into storytelling, visual design, and production quality.
3. Understand your Channels
With the growing number of channels available for marketers to communicate with their audience through, it can be intimidating for marketers to determine what channels to utilize. While utilizing all available channels can be effective for gaining consumer trust by allowing more people to become familiar with a brand, it can also be costly and a waste of effort for smaller companies that have more focused target audiences. Another advantage of utilizing market research is discovering which channels are most effective for reaching your target audience, as you can imagine these are the channels that should require the most focus. Ultimately how marketers utilize their channels is derived from their overall marketing objective but understanding the advantages to each channel is key for the effective use of content.
4. Experiment
One of the things that makes content marketing difficult in this digital world is the constant evolution and changing of the digital landscape. While this can be intimidating, it’s important that content marketers are comfortable experimenting with new forms and styles of content without being afraid of failure or setting expectations too high. The reality of today’s digital landscape is that if you become too complacent and post similar content every time then it’s more than likely you’ll be passed by competitors and fall behind in current trends.
5. Build Relationships
It can be difficult calculating statistics such as ROI when it comes to your content marketing efforts, but it cannot be emphasized enough that effective content marketing isn’t focused on transactional goals but rather relationship building between brand and customer. This can be difficult to comprehend especially for investors but building a relationship with customers can be much more effective in the long term through concepts like brand loyalty, lifetime-value of a customer, etc. and we’ve seen many brands such as Nike or Starbucks maximize this concept and distinguish themselves among consumers.
Conclusion
In today’s age marketing is about more than transactional benefits between a business and consumers, it’s about relationship building and creating meaningful connections. By understanding current trends, embracing technological evolution, and prioritizing audience engagement, brands can build strong relationships with their audience and benefit in more ways than simple statistics can convey.
If you’d like to learn more about content marketing in the digital age checkout this article from MailChimp
If you’d like to learn more about my digital marketing experience checkout my home page.