The Content Marketing Show 2013 Round Up

Jessie Rasmussen 10 years ago

The UK’s foremost content marketing show hit London for the second time this year on Friday November 8th with more than 1,000 attendees gathered to listen to a collection of the nation’s top content creation and marketing minds. Our team was there to bring you the highlights and top takeaways from all of the key talks. You might also be interested in our coverage of the previous event earlier this year.

Talks

  • Throwing Shit Against the Wall & Analysing What Sticks...
  • Twitter Tips from OptaJoe
  • Content Marketing Trend Watch: 2014 and Beyond
  • Inbound Marketing – The Art of Not Sucking
  • An Idiot’s guide to Getting Content on the Telly
  • Don’t Forget About Long Form Content
  • The Do’s and Don’ts of Hiring a Freelancer

Throwing Shit Against the Wall & Analysing What Sticks…

How we consume content has and will change.

The goal is to persuade and convert; but we must start with entertaining and educating your audience. People need to love your marketing in order for it to be shared.

content-matrix2-1

Content should be goal driven! Advertising to persuade and convert isn't shared unless it also entertains and educates.Your brand is not what you sell - your brand is how you sell it.

Take Red Bull, for example. Their content revolves around extreme sports rather than how great their product is, because that is what their audience is interested in. So share what your audience like!

Another example is for Concert Hotels. This involved a simple interactive infographic showing how much an iPod could hold in vinyl. This was much more entertaining and educating for their audience.

What you create depends on what you want to achieve but, it is incredible hard to predict what will resonate online ultimately, you have to throw shit against the wall and analyse what sticks. Research your audience, study what works and find out why but, remember what works for one might not work for another.

Takeaways

  • Pick your battles
  • Focus on content to persuade or convert first
  • Recognise pitfalls and stumbling blocks when you come against them
  • Be prepared to start over if you have to
  • Make your content go further
  • Make sure it works across all browsers and devices
  • Use analytics to work out what browsers and devices your audience are using to browse your content
  • Make sure your social share buttons work
  • Make your headline and social share copy clicky: http://www.upworthy.com/you-will-not-believe-how-easy-it-is-to-make-something-go-viral
  • Retarget people work more content, place retargeting pixels on all of your content
  • Test paid promotion, this is fine and good, it increases reach and audience
  • Plan to fail, be honest and talk openly
  • Manage expectations and agree what success looks like before you launch
  • Learn from failure
  • Learn from what did and didn’t work
  • Share your learning with everyone
  • Keep going, build a catalogue of content
  • How we consume content will and has continued to change

Why Content Needs Strategy

 

There are very real differences between Content Marketing and the development of a Content Strategy.

"Content strategy plans for the creation, publication and governance of useful, usable content”
Kristina Halvorson, Brain Traffic

“Technique of creating and disturbing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire and engage a clearly defined audience”
Institue of Content Marketing

Introducing a strategy to a content marketing campaign revolves around the formulation of the 6 P's.

Purpose – applicable to every item of content rather than just a campaign. The things that clients do to support the message and the intentions of the brand.
Principles – forming the foundations of the content based on the content commandments including the style guide, tone of voice and level of content consistency
Platforms – tools to use at every stage of content production to source, create, publish and amplify
Processes – actions that need to be repeated each time content is created. There is a reference to the 5th P or people, as content should be created with people in mind e.g. the audience.
People – those involved in the content process and they way they are related to it. This also includes the audience as they are the people that shall be receptive of the content and its intended message.
Performance – measuring the impact of the content going beyond social shares and ROI’s which include visits, unique visits, page views, time on page, bounce rate, edit rate, downloads and comments, etc.

Takeaways

  • Strategy is all about creating a formula for creating great content again and again
  • It can be intimidating but one step at a time means you will get it right eventually

Twitter Tips from OptaJoe

World leading sports data B2B company specializing in statistics and factual information.

Basis of Twitter usage for the company is to keep the brand at the forefront of people’s minds.

-Consistency is key; it’s important to develop trust by being reliable with your content, tone and approach.
-Opta’s general style guide for a tweet consists of a number fact and quick one word summary.
-Tailor your consistent approach across markets, where it is appropriate; if you’re able to move through to different languages, then do so.
-With that in mind, segment your audience and accounts; always tweet relevant and appropriate things!
-Be human, and approachable. Don’t be afraid to conversation with your followers and those you follow.
-Ensure regularity of tweeting. Don’t let people forget they’re following you!
-Your tweet timing is important – people can and will amplify your message if targeted correctly.
-Don’t platform hop… find what works for you and stick to it.
-Have patience… building a Twitter following will take time, but of course, it will be worth it in the end.
-Don’t forget – Be interesting. Whether in the form of being helpful, offering a different perspective; your followers follow you for a reason.

Content Marketing Trend Watch: 2014 and Beyond

What is the true purpose of Content Marketing? It is a way of creating and sharing content to promote an idea, engaging an audience and spurring them into action.

There are a number of important components which combined, creates a successful Content Marketing strategy:

  • Quality content
  • Connection with audience
  • Interaction
  • Profile raising

It is said that 90% of the world’s information has been created in the last 2 years through the rise in popularity of online content which is not only thanks to the surge in content marketing strategies and processes but also the increase in Internet capable devices which leads to further interest around content.
58% of marketers will spend more on content next year which is a reflection of the new found importance of content marketing within a business, used to build a brand and formulate a strong relationship with the target demographic. There is wide scale awareness of content marketing yet a significant lack of strategy for most organisations. 9 out of 10 companies use Content marketing to attract or engage customers due to consumers being more likely to purchase expensive products if they are engaged with the content the brand publishes.
Content is the kingdom, it has evolved from simply being the king due to its high prominence and level of importance. 100,000 tweets every minute are made and 2 million Google searches a minute means that where you put your content and its timing is key.

Take Aways

  • Context is everything – where your audience are coming from, how they got there and relevancy will maximize content success
  • Owned media, paid media, earned media will become commonly used terms in 2014
  • 65% of the population are visual learners
  • Consumers are 44% more likely to engage with a brand if they share images as visual is becoming a strong part of the future of content marketing
  • The future relies on big data which relates to user experience
  • With 1.08bn of the worlds 4 billion phones being smart phones, smart phones will overtake PC’s in how people access the Internet
  • Context, connection and technology are the future of content marketing – the three areas that are at the heart of content royalty

Inbound Marketing – The Art of Not Sucking

An Idiot’s guide to Getting Content on the Telly

  • Viral and trending stories – online and print media – broadcast news and channels – lead back to the Internet
  • Increased requirement for technology + affordable technology + relaxed guidelines = open season for brands – broadcast is more accessible to brands than ever before
  • Opportunity for content creators to jump on the bandwagon and commercialization of online content
  • Stop thinking as advertisers and marketers and think as broadcast creators
  • News is the ticket to broadcast access – easiest way to get a brand story onto the television
  • If news = content then content = news
  • Television news is free – it is editorial
  • Broadcast is digital so is easy to deliver
  • News editors may love a story and if we are able to help them they will be willing to listen provided the content is newsworthy, relevant and interesting
  • Great news story – common interest story with WOW, big celebrity involvement, announcement of a launch
  • Editorial not advertorial

Don’t Forget About Long Form Content

Consumers want quick, short content that is informative and gains all information quickly and instantly so Content Marketers need to say it quick and say it right through Social Media, vidoes, inforgraphics and news.
Now is more important than ever for long term content, the short term gains attention whilst the long term holds interest.
Mobile technology means we have more time to read an increased amount of content, long form creates a bond between consumer and brand particularly if the brand is able to fulfill the answers to consumer questions. The consumer will then be encouraged to make repeat visits to the site. Content is a big part of the Sales Funnel with long form content being found in  the middle of the funnel whilst infographics lay at the top. Long form produces a 15% lower bounce rate, double the time spent on the page and increased assisted conversions

The Importance of Long Form Content

It is shareable – consumers are more aware of personal brands on social media and want to share them as industry leaders who reflect expertise and knowledge
It is search friendly – there was a focus on specific key words and key terms before but this is beginning to change. There is a need to stop creating thinner shorter content and produce something that has meaning and serves as an aid to the audience. Users now have more specific questions and things they want to know.

Tips for success

1) write because you have something to say – make sure you have enough research to pull something relevant together and enough to say about one topic to ensure it is relevant and beneficial
2) design a create content experience – do not just slam it on the page and expect engagement – the audience want a better reading experience – craft beautiful content through typography, images and make it similar to a print publication piece of content
3) make data driven choices – use data to help make informed decisions when deciding what to write about – hot topics, google trends, query data on analytic – are there areas that can be improved on a website through content and encourage more visits?
4) let your long form feed your short form – produce lots of smaller pieces around a long piece of content – one main topic full of research and data and the produce a webinar, slide share, satellite blog pieces, infographic from the data and even a twitter chat
5) tap into expertise – don’t be afraid to use your own interests and knowledge to produce a piece of content that will develop into a long form piece and will create interest and engagement within the audience – the audience will be able to see errors otherwise if you produce items that you have little to no knowledge about

Takeaways

  • long form is your friend but so is short form
  • wider content strategy
  • don’t make it a burden
  • invest in it or don’t do it at all

The Do's and Dont's of Hiring a Freelancer

Freelance Copywriter - Jo Petty,  gave her expertise on Freelancing from her experience as a freelancer, and from hiring freelancers.

  • Firstly, you need to find the right person, so shop around and don’t choose the first freelancer that comes to you. Look for ‘the perfect fit’.
  • Ways to find freelancers

-       Recruiter,

-       Twitter

-       Networking (maybe the best!)

-       The Farm

-       Wired Sussex

-       Freelance Advisor

  • Tell you freelancer what you want, write it down.
  • Give precise briefs, be detailed and give them all the details that you have – a good freelancer will interpret the brief for themselves with the right information.
  • Get a contract in place. This doesn’t have to be long and is for the benefit for both of you.
  • Give the freelancer good feedback; be constructive.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask questions – it speeds things up.
  • Be responsive
  • Remember to pay the freelancer!
  • Know how the payment process works, and who will be doing it.
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