Content marketing has never been more important. Similar to branded content, it allows you to provide the consumer with something valuable, rather than just selling a product.
This can occur in any number of forms, but popular examples include blog posts, videos, interviews and webinars.
McNenney says “the world” of content marketing is growing quickly as “Google continues to reward relevant and unique content”.
For this style of marketing to be effective, McNenney says businesses need to “understand what influences their audience, what problems their audience needs to solve and what they will find entertaining and useful”.
“We do a lot of consumer intent modelling using big data on a useable scale. We utilise Google analytics and trend analysis and data coming from the client’s website related to searches and more qualitative information about customers’ behaviour in-store,” he says.
Other successful content marketing initiatives include e-books, infographics, podcasts and gifs.
Businesses can use user-generated content by doing things like repurposing user comments into a blog post, or forming an article out of tweets. Brands such as Woolworths, Schwarzkopf and the Commonwealth Bank are increasingly starting to collaborate with bloggers to reach a wider audience and add another level of authority to the content.
“Reaching out to external influencers is an extension of public relations which is a critical component of content marketing .You need to understand who is influential to your audience.
“It’s often much easier to amass a group of influencers to spread your message than do it yourself,” McNenney says.
Research compiled by United States content marketing firm NewsCred found 27 million pieces of content are created daily, nine in 10 organisations currently market with content and 78% of chief marketing officers think custom content is the future of marketing.
A study conducted in 2013 by ContentPlus also found companies with an active blog reported 97% more leads.
“When you move from interruption to attraction and engagement, you are talking directly to the customer and building a relationship with the customer, which is more beneficial for the brand,” McNenney says.
In some cases content marketing is an example of pure salesmanship, but it’s also about informing consumers, inspiring in them a greater passion for the brand and cultivating a connection.
Brands are continuing to work together to attract customers by leveraging their mutually beneficial skills, products or customer bases. This style of marketing is beneficial for small businesses looking to easily extend their reach.
Qantas and Disney have recently collaborated, with Disney featuring Qantas symbols in its new movie Planes, and Qantas hosting the movie premiere 30,000 feet in the air.
Small businesses, while unlikely to score collaborations with the big brands, are also able to “cross-fertilise” with other small businesses. This can be done in the form of joint competitions, co-hosting and organising a local event, or co-creating content or innovative products.
Hack says the main benefit of this type of partnership is the expansion of your customer base.
“For example, let’s say I’m an apparel brand and I know my customers are people who also travel frequently. You’d look to a brand like Qantas or Virgin and think there could be a partnership there because this would be complimentary, rather than a conflicting collaboration.”
A conflicting partnership is one where the two businesses compete for the same customers.
“In this day and age of customer loyalty programs, big data and CRM (customer relationship management) understanding, you can easily grow your business and client base by cross-fertilising in these co-op deals,” Hack says.
Hack says businesses need to find a brand with an already existing small number of cross-over customers, recognise the alignment between the brands and determine a project which both businesses can work on which will result in long-term benefits.
Other new collaborations include Hewlett Packard and Sasa.com promotions, Hershey’s Syrup with Betty Crocker Brownies, the ‘rock and run’ sports kit created by Nike and Apple, and the Best Western and Harley Davidson’s rewards program.
Online marketing has been a necessary and growing part of most businesses’ strategies for the past few years, which means it’s even more important stand out in order to achieve a return on investment.
Hack says one of the latest online marketing innovations is shoppable media.
“YouTube has excellent functionality through its shoppable function. Juicy Couture did a cool branded content piece for their fashion label and users could click immediately on the item and go straight through to the point of sale. This is integrated though lots of different digital and even print media,” he says.
International grocery giant Tesco has given shoppable media a real world application, using it on its billboards. Hack says this technology has re-defined grocery shopping from a grudge purchase to a positive experience.
“Tesco actually used subway stations in South Korea as an advertising medium. It put up billboards of its grocery products and shoppers could use QR code technology to buy the items and have them delivered straight to the door on their way home from work,” Hack says.
Despite international retailers embracing these new opportunities, Hack says it’s unsurprising Australian companies are yet to jump on the bandwagon.
“The billboards to me as a marketer seem like a gimmick, so I’m surprised Coles and Woolworths haven’t jumped on this by now since they already have the delivery services in place. But for some reason these things can either not get up at all or take a long time here in Australia,” he says.
Hack says it’s hard to predict which of the new digital technologies will be implemented in Australia.
“There is a big hesitation from clients here and they want to see the technology proven by somebody else first. In Europe and the US there is a lot more willingness to try new things,” he says.
“A trend we’re starting to see is a drop in effectiveness of Facebook advertising. It’s hit a critical mass like many social media platforms before them. The more saturated it gets the less effective it is.”
Hack tips Facebook will begin to see a decline in advertising revenue and this money will be spent in other areas of the digital sphere.
“This could be clients considering building their own applications, but it’s most likely to go toward loyalty programs and big data.”
Big data, the other huge trend in marketing at the moment, can be applied to all of these forms of marketing, with measuring consumer behaviour online a good way to generate the data.
Australian companies have once again been slow on the uptake of big data. Barriers to entry remain low for this style of data analytics, which makes it a good option for some small businesses, however academics warn it will be ineffective for those where there simply isn’t enough data available.
