Content Marketing: Getting it right

In our last blog post we gave an introduction to content marketing. Now that you know what it is, like any marketing strategy, it is important to implement it correctly to get the desired results.  Here are three tips to get you started on doing content marketing the right way:

1. Be consistent

Content marketing is a marketing strategy not a marketing campaign, as such, it requires consistency and longevity. This means that creating a blog and making just a few posts or not posting frequently, will be highly unlikely to deliver the required results. Through content marketing, your brand is aiming to build a connection with the audience through constant communication, which requires consistent publication of content to keep the audience engaged. There are different ways through which the content can be delivered: blogging in its various forms such as text, images, and video (vlogging), is one of the more popular ways, while some brands create magazines, e-newsletters, and even TV shows as a part of their content strategy.  Consistency in Content Marketing speaks to the frequency with which the content is published to the audience, not necessarily that the same content must be used. Versatility in the content is recommended, it makes the engagement process interesting, however, while changing the content, the underlying message has to be consistent and this is something that comes from understanding your brand’s value- what is the purpose of your brand other than to sell your product/ service? Creating a good Content strategy-a well thought out approach to how the customer will be engaged throughout the process, is a good way to ensure consistency and help to drive engagement.

2. Select the right platform

The basis of content marketing is great content, but after creating the content, it is of utmost importance to ensure you are sharing it with your audience through the right medium. For the content to have the highest impact, the audience needs to actually receive it. In creating your content strategy, indicate where your audience is; find out if they are on social media, which social media platform are they using most, are they high consumers of traditional media content and through which medium?   Social media platforms have become easy and convenient ways to engage the audience, but with this method your brand needs to know which segment of the audience is on which platform, and the language of these platforms, in an effort to ensure that the best version of the content to posted. Some content may be geared toward a segment of the audience that are not high users of social media but rather may be avid consumers of traditional media content. For them, you may want to consider which traditional medium they are using the most, and the best time to publish the content to achieve maximum efficiency.

3. Be clear

In any communication process, if you send a message but the receiver did not understand it then communication did not really occur. The same rule applies to marketing, and more so in content marketing. It’s important not to just post content for posting sake, but to ensure that the content is able to achieve maximum effectiveness, and response from the target audience. To be effective, the content must be communicated clearly (remember content marketing is a conversation), which requires using the right/ relevant language, and making the message as clear as possible. Though you may be telling the same story on multiple platforms, it is important to know and utilize the correct language of each platform. If the language is unfamiliar, the audience may find it difficult to connect to the brand, and the marketing objective would not have been achieved.