Category: Content marketing

Content is king. There’s no denying that, and it’s an integral part of digital marketing.

Around 87% of marketing visionaries consider content as the core of their marketing strategy. That explains the significance of content and its influence in the digital realm.

Content is everywhere. Blogs, tweets, pictures, movies, music, ads, video games, NFTs, and more. We consume content daily in its traditional or evolved forms.

Whether you’re a giant in your respective niche or just getting started, content is the key to ensuring consistent growth.

Content helps you outdo the competition in digital rivalry. Plus, it fuels your sales funnel by enabling you to generate quality leads.

So, content is king in digital marketing. But, if you think differently, here are the eight reasons that would change your mind.

1. You Can’t Have a Digital Presence Without Content

You need content to tap into the digital world. Think of your website with no content published and without pages or blog content — just existing with no information. Would a blog like that add any value to your brand? Obviously not.

Content transforms a blank website into a platform that offers bespoke solutions. It helps you tell your story as a brand and relay the message to the target audience. Without it, your digital identity is nothing more than a parked domain name.

2. Content Helps You Connect With Your Audience

To understand the significance of content in digital marketing. First, think of how you generally communicate with your audience. No matter the mode you prefer, content helps you reach out to your current and potential customers.

People either explore search engines, social media platforms, or online communities to seek answers to their questions. And the only way to earn their trust is by providing them with the best-suited solutions.

Content enables you to generate awareness and solve problems concerning your respective niche. In addition, it helps you communicate with your audience through blogs, videos, social media posts, podcasts, and more.

Educating your audience and solving their problems is a sure-shot strategy to gain traction and become a trusted brand in the industry. Content makes it all possible.

3. Content Facilitates Value Proposition

Customers don’t associate themselves with products or services; they associate themselves with brands. You can’t outdo your competition just by offering good products or services. You have to embrace a brand persona.

Content makes it possible for you to breed brand loyalty through value proposition. It enables you to stand out among other players in your industry. How? By helping you answer the queries of your target audience.

Through content, you facilitate your audience to explore desired solutions. First, look for areas in your niche that your competitors have neglected. Then, based on the data collected, create a content strategy that boosts the topical depth concerning your niche and shoulder niches.

Your brand would grow and become more relatable with every customer query answered. You’d be adding value by providing answers that people seek. This not only sets you apart from the competition but also helps you gain the trust of your target audience.

4. Content Offers Scalability

Content has a variety of forms, text, audio, visual, virtual, augmented reality, and more. Content diversity facilitates scalability in your digital marketing strategies. In addition, it helps you tailor your messages to your audience demographics and their preferred digital platforms.

Around 43% of people research desired solutions via social media. Now, think about all the social media platforms that exist. For example, each platform has different user demographics and respective content formats for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok.

Content enables you to leverage various digital platforms to get your message across. You can design marketing campaigns to serve best your audience profile powered by different content formats as per the use case.

5. User Generated Content

Businesses often struggle to capture quality leads, especially when they’re just getting started. There are many reasons for it. The significant one is that people find it difficult to trust new brands.

In this scenario, adding social proof to your site is one of the viable strategies you should consider. User-generated content can help you gain the trust of your target audience by showcasing the experiences of satisfied customers.

People are often reluctant to try new products. So, they rely on the experiences of others who tried the products before them. Many companies have acknowledged an average increase in conversions by 161% because of user-generated content.

User-generated content is a powerful tactic to fuel your conversions. Sometimes, it’s the final push that a customer needs to make the buying decision. Moreover, there’s no cost associated with it.

User-generated content fuels not only your conversions but also your search engine rankings. Since search engines prioritize user experience, ratings and reviews are likely to significantly impact your SERPs.

6. Content Helps You Earn Quality Backlinks

Did you know that around 91% of websites don’t get organic traffic due to an absence of backlinks?

With content, you earn quality links for your site by publishing your articles on third-party platforms. This process is called guest posting. And it’s one of the effective content marketing tactics to generate leads that are likely to convert.

Quality backlinks not just get you the desired traction on your site but also help you to build authority around topics that resonate with your niche. Moreover, backlinks help you boost your search engine rankings on targeted search queries.

That’s not all. Backlinks created via guest posts increase your reach exponentially. You’re writing on topics that appeal to your audience and publish the content on third-party sites. This helps you increase your reach exponentially and attract quality leads.

7. Content Helps You Climb the Search Engine Rankings

According to Google’s guidelines, the search engine prefers quality content above all else. That’s why around 72% of marketers consider content creation as the most effective SEO tactic.

Content is one of the most effective ways to boost your search engine rankings. This is because people use search engines to explore suitable solutions for their respective queries. And most of them don’t go past the first page to see the recommendations.

That’s why climbing search engine rankings is one of the top priorities for growing businesses in diverse industries around the globe.

To make this happen, start by finding the keywords that best represent your niche. Next, produce content on your audience’s most searched topics. Third, ensure topical depth because you’re not the only one targeting the selected keywords.

If your content addresses your audience’s queries and details, you will likely rank higher on the respective keywords. Again, this is because search engines prefer detailed content created around the respective audience’s concerns.

User experience also matters a lot for search engines. So, you must ensure that your content is readable, fresh, and comprehensive. In addition, your content should facilitate users, not overwhelm them. So, stick to the topic and keep it simple.

Overall, to climb the search engine rankings, know your audience, follow industry best practices, and create quality content as per search engine guidelines.

8. Content Facilitates Influencer Partnerships

Influencer marketing is one of the digital marketing strategies that has grown in popularity over the years. It’s one of the smart marketing tactics in which you reach out to the masses by onboarding famous personalities.

There are many reasons for the surge in influencer marketing. For starters, around 72% of customers look for reviews when purchasing. In addition, it’s reassuring for customers to know that others before them purchased a product or a service and had a decent experience.

Most influencers are as famous as renowned celebrities. So, their recommendations are often perceived to outweigh those of a layman. That’s why around 49% of customers trust recommendations given by influencers to make informed decisions.

However, finding and onboarding the right influencer can be difficult. Nano and micro-influencers just don’t have enough following, and the influencer bracket from mid-tier onwards isn’t easily persuaded.

Most partnerships don’t last long, even if you successfully onboard the right influencer. In most cases, the reason behind these failed partnerships is content. Influencers demand creative freedom, and businesses are reluctant to liberate them due to their brand image at stake.

A well-designed content strategy solves this issue once and for all. It helps you develop a message that’s well in line with your brand and resonates with the audience of the influencers onboarded.

It’s a Wrap

Many reasons prove content’s worth in digital marketing. But, those above are a few significant ones to consider.

Content is versatile and has diverse implications for all industries. It helps you connect with the target audience, generate awareness, score quality leads, initiate your sales funnel, and offer bespoke solutions.

No matter the use case, you can’t take content away from digital marketing. It has a direct or indirect impact on every strategy you create.

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Thank you!

Syed Balkhi

Syed Balkhi is the founder of WPBeginner, the largest free WordPress resource site. With over 10 years of experience, he’s the leading WordPress expert in the industry.

(Image credit: Pixabay)

According to an annual Content Marketing Survey conducted by the Content Marketing Institute, creating brand awareness is the top goal brands achieve through content marketing. This is followed closely by building credibility/trust and educating their audience. 

Content marketing, which brings together multiple marketing approaches – such as blogs, email marketing, social media marketing, and more – is a critical function for all brands. But it’s even more vital if you’re looking to increase brand awareness. 

By incorporating some simple tips and tricks when it comes to content, you can get in front of audiences in a fresh way and drive awareness to new heights.

 

The importance of brand awareness

Since it takes a consumer 5 to 7 different brand interactions before they remember you, increasing their awareness requires a lot of work. 

90% of consumers believe that authenticity is important when they’re deciding to support a brand. And there’s no better opportunity for you to display authentic values and connection points than with a content marketing strategy. 

Ready to ramp up your connection with customers, increase awareness, and drive loyalty? You need to do content marketing right.

 

6 ways to harness the power of content marketing

The world of content marketing is constantly changing. A few years ago, we had no idea that short-form video would be the primary form of media in content marketing. But today, without video content, your brand may soon fall behind the competition.

Although the content landscape can shift at a moment’s notice, there are a few ways to ensure your brand is leveraging the power of content marketing to its full potential.

 

1. Strategize

Content marketing is so much more than posting an Instagram Reel every few days or sending out a monthly newsletter. It takes time to figure out which channels work best for your audience, so consider a broad approach if you’re just getting started. 

You’ll need to regularly publish blog content, have a strong social media presence, curate interesting videos, and more. With so much to keep track of, strategizing can help you stay organized, understand which tactics perform best, and get stronger as time goes on.

 

2. Understand your audience

Trying to market to a young adult audience? Email marketing and Facebook ads might not be the best way. 

Instead, try building a TikTok presence. Adopting user-generated content. Meet your audience where they are. 

B2B marketers, for instance, can use platforms like LinkedIn. With 94% of marketers distributing content on the platform, it’s the top social media channel for B2B brands. Getting your content to the right people is easier than ever, but you have to know where to look.

 

3. Use multiple channels

Since it takes 5 to 7 touchpoints for a customer to remember your brand, you want your messaging to be in as many places as possible. 

Content takes many shapes, and it’s best to use as many channels as possible, just as long as you’re seeing results. Social media platforms are commonly used to distribute content, but a strong website, email blasts that recipients want to open, and more provide multiple touchpoints with your customers. Remind them who you are.

 

4. Be authentic

Authenticity is all the rage today. Instead of a pristine, curated approach, try and be a bit more real with your customers. Consumers can see through old, tired, marketing approaches. 

Fifty-one percent of consumers say that less than half of brands create content that resonates, though 92% of marketers believe that most or all the content they create is authentic. There’s a clear disconnect from both sides, and customers are practically begging for authenticity. 

Show behind-the-scenes clips about running your business. Be vocal about your brand’s take on social issues. Don’t be afraid to use humor to connect with your audience. 

 

5. Take advantage of social media

Though content marketing offers a much broader approach than solely using social media, these platforms are still a vital part of your strategy. You can use social media to advertise published content such as a new blog post, or you can create original content that lives solely on social media. 

Forty-seven percent of people who follow a brand on social media are more likely to visit that brand’s website. Social media is no longer optional if you want to compete in your niche.

 

6. Invest in data analytics

One of the most powerful tools you have at your fingertips is data. With more access to data than ever before, you can leverage your website’s traffic, consumer behavior data, social media metrics, case studies, and so much more to adjust your approach to content marketing.

Take the time to understand the digital metrics that can propel your brand to the top. Data is a superpower that every brand has access to, so use it!

 

Subscribe to SmartBrief’s FREE email newsletter for the latest marketing insights. It’s among SmartBrief’s more than 250 industry-focused newsletters.

 

Read more about content marketing on SmartBrief.com:

3 content marketing trends for marketers to watch

How to advocate for a bigger content marketing budget

Maria Sibirtseva is the content team lead at Depositphotos. For The Drum’s Content Marketing in Focus, she shares her top five tips for brands to boost their content marketing strategy in 2023 and beyond.

Today, content marketing is integral to any brand effort. It helps achieve a wide range of goals, from tailoring brand perception and raising awareness, to attracting traffic and increasing conversions, smoothly paving your company’s way towards becoming a market leader.

As content marketing is all about long-term perspective and indirect impact, teams often consist of a few people and operate with budgets given out on the “residual” principle. Considering the limitations that content marketers face, how do you ensure you succeed in your effort?

Depositphotos, an international content marketplace with over 240 million files, has been doing content marketing since its very foundation in 2009. In over 13 years, the team has developed its vision of making the most of these efforts. In this guide, you’ll find five proven tips and helpful advice for your 2023 content marketing strategy.

1. Develop a content ecosystem

It often starts with a vague idea. Someone in your team says, “What if we create content that covers industry trends for the upcoming year? This way, we’ll continue building expertise on the market, engage with existing clients, and attract new ones.” The topic sounds great and is extremely relevant at the beginning of the new year, but how do you make this piece visible to larger audiences and of use to several teams within your company?

The answer is: by building a content ecosystem as the core of your strategy. At the stage of planning, come up with topics for pillar articles or projects that are in line with your business purposes, but easy to adapt (or repurpose) to multiple communication channels. The same amount of attention should be given to both execution and distribution. This way, you’ll be able to optimize your team effort, as well as provide consistency across all communication channels.

Below is a scheme that works for the Depositphotos team. Most often, at the center of our content ecosystem lies a pillar project, which later unfolds into separate content pieces for other channels:

For each company this ecosystem can be different, however, you can ask yourself a couple of questions before settling on an idea and ecosystem structure:

If we realize this project, how many channels can we use to promote the piece?

What angle, approach, and formats will help us make the most of it?

What metrics will we use to measure success in different channels?

2. Play with formats

In the contest for user attention, content formats are another option for you to stand out. In 2023, quality will continue to win over quantity, with more brands prioritizing user’s informational needs over the company’s sales messages.

When planning content distribution, make a list of formats that, based on your experience and research, work for chosen platforms best. For instance, data shows that short-form videos and interactive content such as polls and games drive the most engagement on social media. At the same time, case studies and interviews are the most popular formats for blogs.

If you have not experimented much with different content formats before, then list everything you can think of, state your hypothesis, and start testing it out. Also, don’t limit yourself to just repurposing the piece. The opportunities are almost limitless, as you can later extend your communication into an entire series or campaigns by running thematic interviews, challenges, or webinars.

3. Go all in with collaborations

Collaborations are the future of content marketing, and day by day, they become integral to many brand strategies. Whether you’re partnering with another brand, content creator, or organization, you get an extensive list of benefits in addition to creating a unique and interesting content marketing piece.

Perks that you can get from content marketing collaborations:

• Audience extension
• Raised brand awareness
• Stronger reputation
• Additional media attention
• Sales boost and more

Who can you collaborate with? Here’s a list of recent Depositphotos partnership types:

• Brand + Brand (from another field)
• Brand + Artist or content creator
• Brand + Brand (your competitor)
• Brand + Institution or non-profit
• Brand + Influencer or opinion leader

The most interesting part about collaborating today and in the future is that you can go all in with them. Don’t limit yourself to one opportunity per project and you’ll be able to see greater results faster.

Here’s a case:

With most of our team based in Ukraine, Depositphotos couldn’t stand aside when the war began. The company left Russian and Belorussian markets, and initiated a charity project to boost awareness of destroyed cultural heritage in Ukraine and raise funds towards its reconstruction. The Revival Project consisted of several parts with different collaborations for each of them:

1. Part 1 of the project showcased collages of the before and afters of destroyed sites, which were specially created by a Ukrainian collage artist.
2. Part 2 of the project was to evoke empathy and make the project more relatable to wider audiences, we interviewed and shared stories by 12 representatives of Ukraine’s creative community about these sites.
3. Part 3 was to raise funds for reconstruction, we collaborated with 7 Ukrainian artists that shared their unique, artistic vision of how the destroyed sites might look in the future.

In addition, the project was made in collaboration with the META HISTORY museum and the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. Combining all these opportunities together, we got a chance to gain international coverage and bring the project to a new level.

4. Remember the technicalities

Although it might sound quite obvious to seasoned professionals, remembering the below-mentioned points is crucial to achieving your goals and having a positive experience with new projects:

Careful SEO optimization

According to Ahrefs, an SEO tool to analyze websites, 90.63% of content has no traffic from Google. However, stats prove that 68% of online experiences start with a search engine. Sounds paradoxical, right?

For content marketers, SEO is more important than you think, and before you start creating a piece for your website, blog, or any other channel, be sure to turn to your SEO team for help. Having a detailed technical task from them with keyword and heading suggestions, and top-ranking content examples will allow you to make your content seen by audiences and extend its longevity.

Content readability

An important part of content optimization is ensuring its readability. When writing and publishing, draw attention to the logical structure, flow, headings and subheadings, highlights, bullet points, and visuals to illustrate your paragraphs. By following these things, you will be able to show that you care for and respect your audience, while also improving some metrics such as engagement and bounce rate.

Analytics

Although content marketing activities can be complicated to measure at times, it does not mean that you shouldn’t set your KPIs and track your results. You need to clearly understand what works for your brand and audience best, and whether your efforts are worth it. What metrics can you measure?

• Users, page views, and unique page views
• Average time on page
• Entrances, bounce and exit rates
• Conversions
• Likes, comments, and shares
• Mentions and hashtags
• Referring domains
• Click-through rate, and more

Depending on your goals, you can prioritize some metrics and analyze them based on the used channel.

Social media tags, hashtags, correct links, and CTAs

The last rule is to simply be careful when using tags, hashtags, links, and CTAs. Ask your colleague or a friend to skim what you’re posting; after working on something for a long period of time, it’s crucial to get a fresh pair of eyes to take a look at your work. Double-check everything to avoid obvious mistakes and boost your content performance from the very beginning.

5. Engage with your audience (like you mean it)

User-generated content has been one of the most popular ways to engage with your audience for a couple of years, but it’s not the only way to do it. In addition to introducing branded hashtags and encouraging your audience to tag you in their posts, you can create audience-oriented projects that include:

• Challenges and competitions to grow your community
• Open calls and contests to better understand your users
• Interviews and case studies to give your audience exposure

Quick example. Recently, after the pandemic hit, the Depositphotos team was looking for ways to better engage with their audience and distract them. To do that, an Instagram-based photography contest was launched, with communication running on social media and the Depositphotos blog. In just a month and a half, we received 5.2k Instagram tags from 1,884 photographers worldwide, as well as a loyal community that we’ve reached out to for other projects in the following years.

Wrap up

If there were only one suggestion to give on content marketing, it would be to get as creative as possible. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and test different content formats, draw inspiration from other fields and brands, and engage with your audience like you mean it. In 2023, attention will be on brands that communicate consistently, don’t scatter, and manage to stand out in today’s overly saturated market.

Visit The Drum’s Content Marketing in Focus hub for more news, insights, and strategies around content marketing.

As content marketing demands grow, media and creative agencies are turning to Web3 and content creators as the way forward.

Increasingly, agencies are outsourcing their content work to freelancers to keep up with volume and produce authentic, credible content that meets client expectations. Yet there are a host of challenges in content marketing — from limited resources to a lack of industry knowledge on particular subjects.

For some media agencies, establishing specific metrics and exploring new mediums, such as Web3, have been part of the solution. More firms are experimenting with how they can invest in Web3, a model for the decentralized internet. Eric Levin, chief content officer at Publicis Media, told Digiday that content “is too broad of a term as it literally means everything” — including Web3 experiences more recently.

To bridge the gap, Publicis Media has worked with clients like Samsung, which put its flagship NYC store into Decentraland, a virtual reality platform, to get them into the metaverse.

But creating immersive content in the metaverse is only part of it, Levin added. Agencies need to get strategic about what this actually means to drive internal and external adoption with clients. To match its investments to this strategy, Publicis Media has been building out its production, Web3 and APX content ventures for opportunities outside of linear television and ad-supported or ad-free environments.

“We need to have the insights and tools to deliver meaningful content to people regardless of where they’re watching,” Levin said.

Media agencies also grow content marketing by working with content creators and social media influencers. Bill Durrant, managing director of independent Exverus Media, compared earned coverage and affiliate types of content — the latter “turns you into a true business partner with a publisher or influencer,” he said.

Because there isn’t always the space to tell a deeper story about a brand or product in performance channels, Durrant said, having affiliate content helps complement the media mix. Additionally, leveraging publishers and influencers helps them to build trust in a brand by establishing authenticity and credibility — and potentially has greater appeal with Gen Z and, to a lesser degree, millennial audiences.

“By pushing the content creation to these partners, it frees up the agency’s and the brand’s bandwidth and allows more content to be created, tested and supported,” Durrant said. “Publishers and influencers can best write about my brand and their experience with it in their authentic voice. This is especially critical now as Gen Z and millennials value authenticity.”

Generating effective content also means having the tools and metrics to dissect all the data to understand results. While search engine optimization and customer relationship management systems are widely used to understand audiences, agencies still need to turn that intel into actual content and deliver on metrics, said Allison Madell, chief collaboration officer at ad and marketing agency Bader Rutter.

“We always look for content that connects, converts and conveys the brand,” Madell said. “Is it harder to create today? Absolutely.”

What Madell’s firm realized was that integrated teams play a huge role in their content goals. Content teams need to include people of different disciplines and be “collaborative, nimble and skilled in client relations and content development,” she added. “Approach content development as a team sport. Finding a way to effectively engage multiple disciplines from SEO to analytics to UX in content creation is only going to get more important.”

Because some agencies rely heavily on content for their income, they will likely continue investing in it as part of their content strategy. One-fourth of agencies said more than half their income comes from content creation these days, according to content creation agency Verblio.

While many are outsourcing the work, holding companies like Publicis have a team of more than 300 content experts within the organization. Levin said this is the largest centralized content practice of any holding company. Although the Publicis team has nearly 10 years of experience in building content, the last two years have changed content marketing fundamentally.

“Especially over the last two [plus] years, there’s a paradox in traditional linear and there’s a lag in adoption of what’s possible in these newer spaces, like streaming,” Levin said. “In the meantime, audiences are getting used to limited commercials or no commercials and have rejected traditional approaches to these spaces.”

With the overwhelming amount of choices in content and experiences, it is up to agencies to create material that can break through. For Levin, balancing what a brand needs to convey and the voice of the partner or platform is the answer — and this is where client education will become more important than ever.

“It’s important to ground the client in the difference between the role of content versus the role creative is meant to play,” Levin told Digiday. “Where creative is used for brand messaging, content is used to tell deeper stories, engage consumers in new ways and ultimately meet them on their terms, that don’t interrupt [but] add to their overall experience.”

Color by numbers

Influencer marketing platform Humanz released two annual reports on the creator economy and influencer marketing business, calling this one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. With some 4.2 billion social media users online, there are now around 200 million creators making content for constant consumption. But not all creators generate profits — while some of the biggest influencers generate enough to make a living, the majority still make very little and struggle to get scale, especially if they are part-time or haven’t started monetizing their content. Some stats:

• The number of creators surged from 50 million in 2020 to 200 million in 2022.
• The estimated size of the creator economy is $104 billion.
• Some 70% of creator revenue comes from influencer marketing, with 12% of full-time creators making more than $50,000 per year. 68% of part-time creators making less than $1,000 per year. Still, 59% of creators have not monetized yet, and 35% have monetized but do not make a “livable income” with it.
• Instagram is the most popular platform for content monetization, and 69% of creators said brand deals are the highest revenue generator for them. Only 7% said it was through ad share revenue, the second highest category.
• Influencers are in fact influencing consumers, with 40% of people reporting that they bought a product online after seeing an influencer with it. And 92% of consumers said they trust these social media influencer recommendations over advertising from brands.
• For those running campaigns, the top two challenges are measuring ROI and campaign results (28%) and finding influencers for those campaigns (27%). Other obstacles included time restraints, and managing the contract and deadlines.
• Lastly, ad recall is 10% higher and intent is 6% higher for influencer content that is amplified through paid media and traditional brand content on the same channels. — AS

Takeoff & landing

• Pernod Ricard chose Publicis Media to handle its media, and the holding company created a bespoke unit within Performics called Publicis Santé to work with the spirits and wine company’s in-house teams. Wavemaker had previously handled Pernod Ricard’s media.
• Independent media agency Empower won media AOR duties for Zaxby’s QSR chicken chain, which is looking to double its business over the next five years.
• Cafe Media, an ad-driven warehouse for creators and independent publishers, partnered with minority-focused sales-side platform Colossus SSP to reach under-represented audiences.
• Research firm Kantar and TV data platform Blockgraph partnered to create better insights to enable addressable advertising. Blockgraph will use its Identity Operating System (IDoS) to enable direct matching between Kantar’s panel and client data sets, in what they say is privacy compliant. 

Direct quote

“There’s a lot of interest in [attention] from adult beverages… and also in categories where brand equity has a higher impact on consumer choices. Because attention is important regardless of what your end goal is. It’s been proven through a variety of studies that it has a larger impact on the brand, which makes sense. So brand recall is higher if people actually paid attention to your ad. It makes sense when you say it that way, right? But we now have some of these methods to start to prove it out.”

— Jen Faraci, chief data officer, Digitas, on how brands and agencies are using attention metrics

Agency report

Digiday Research generated a report recently on the state of the media agency business in 2022 with a look forward to next year. Issues touched include client spending, media affected by it, staffing challenges and others. Join us this Wednesday for a discussion of the study’s findings, featuring Research editor Catherine Wolf, senior editor Michael Bürgi and media agency reporter Antoinette Siu. Here’s how to sign up.

Speed reading

• Michael Bürgi wrote about IPG’s UM research showing that socially conscious brands advertising on media that share their same values see better purchase intent. They found a brand embracing all three values of integrity, sustainability and equity, purchase intent increases by 75%.
• Julian Cannon shed light on how brands like NBA and Goldfish Crackers are dedicating more ad spend to TikTok, Instagram and connected TV in order to connect with Gen Z and millennial sports fans.
• Antoinette Siu covered some of the ways agencies see retention and engagement boosted after adding mental health support for employees.

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Media Buying Briefing: Media agencies look to Web3, influencers to grow content marketing

Gavin Jordan is the publishing manager of Open Mic – The Drum’s self-publishing content marketing platform. For The Drum’s Content Marketing in Focus, he predicts the most likely content marketing trends for 2023, and how marketers can tackle them head-on.

In 1999, Jeff Cannon wrote, “In content marketing, content is created to provide consumers with the information they seek.”

Almost a quarter of a century on, it’s amazing how many content marketers still fall at this first hurdle. They provide information – yes – but it’s not information that anyone is actually looking for. It’s no doubt why 71% of decision-makers say that half or less of the thought-leadership content they consume offers any sort of valuable insights.

A lot of the time, the line between content that thrives and content that dives is relevance. Content marketers who look inwardly (What can I say about my business? Why is my product/service so valuable? What are the benefits of my offering?), will always lose out to those looking outwardly (What is the target audience interested in? What are they searching for? What do they want to engage with?).

One of the top ways to stay relevant with your target audience is to keep up with current industry trends (i.e. the topics that your audience are flocking to time and again). To help guide your content strategy next year, we’ve scoured through a trove of readership data to predict the most-likely content marketing trends for 2023. Here are our top five.

1. E-commerce

While there was an understandable growth in e-commerce vs brick and mortar sales in 2020 (largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic), e-commerce continues to grow at record speed. A recent report by Morgan Stanley predicts that e-commerce could reach 36% of all retail sales by 2026 (up from 32% now), as more shoppers prioritize convenience.

As e-commerce’s popularity rises, so too will competition between online retail brands. Retail marketers will therefore be watching this area closely to see how to stay ahead of the curve, and where the newest wave of growth will come from. But it’s not just retail marketers. The future of retail will affect media owners and tech providers alike – making it a critical topic to stay informed on from all angles.

What topics are likely to thrive? If the past few months are anything to go by, eagle-eyed marketers will be on the lookout for content that covers:

Buy into all the latest e-commerce marketing trends by bookmarking The Drum’s e-commerce hub here.

2. Metaverse and gaming

Most are familiar with the old marketing adage, “meet your audience where they’re at.” And if marketers are serious about reaching younger generations, then where they’re ‘at’ is the metaverse.

Mostly populated with Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha audiences, ‘metaverse’ is a catch-all term to define a virtual space where people meet, play, socialize, shop – and so on. But really, as Chris Sutcliffe says, the metaverse ultimately represents potential. To many, the virtual worlds (including, but not exclusive to, gaming worlds) that collectively make up ‘the metaverse’ are part of a shift from one era of the internet (Web2) to another (Web3). And no marketer wants to get left behind.

With some analysts predicting that the metaverse will grow into an $800bn market by 2024, and the number of gamers worldwide totalling a staggering 3.2 billion, good metaverse and gaming content will undoubtedly attract marketers’ attention in 2023. This year, readers not only flocked to content that provided an answer to what the metaverse means for the industry, but also how their own brand might succeed in the metaverse, taking especial note of how major brands like Nike and adidas developed their own (albeit very different) metaverse strategies.

In 2023, with a better understanding of what the metaverse means (or is likely to mean), brands will be looking for actionable advice on how to enter the metaverse/hone their metaverse strategies, as well as the marketing opportunities within these virtual worlds, be it in-game advertising, audio ad opportunities or by utilizing virtual influencer marketing.

To stay plugged-in with the latest metaverse & gaming news, trends and insights, bookmark The Drum’s Metaverse hub.

3. Data & privacy

Google announced earlier this year that they’re postponing the end of third-party cookies on Chrome until 2024, giving the industry more time to innovate for a privacy-centric, anti-tracking world. But despite all the delays, there’s no denying the inevitable: one day the cookie will crumble.

Mixed with Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework (which has been described as hypocritical by some), this will spell the end of collecting, measuring and utilizing audience data with relative ease. In 2023, marketers will be preparing to fill the cookie-shaped hole of the future, and content that helps them do this will reign king.

As well as how to obtain post-cookie data, marketers will also be looking closer at how to best analyze data. 76% of digital marketers evaluate their digital marketing using attribution models, but the so called “walled gardens” that govern these models are making it increasingly difficult for marketers to analyze the data effectively. In 2023, marketers will look to content that helps them overcome attribution challenges, or else provides a clear alternative.

Another opportunity in this space lies in providing genuinely enjoyable, engaging content. Because of its analytical – often jargon-heavy – nature, data & privacy can often be a dry subject to swallow. For content marketers to excel with this topic, content should be accessible, comprehensive and have personality. A lot of content might claim to have the best way to collect first-party data, for example, but it’s the most engaging of these that’ll get the most attention.

Track the latest data privacy news, trends and insights by bookmarking The Drum’s Data & Privacy hub here.

4. Audio

2022 saw a sharp rise in audience interest surrounding ad opportunities in the audio space. This should come as no surprise. With the almost unstoppable rise of podcast listeners, and the multitude of genres to meet their needs, brands have a new way to target niche audiences – and ensure they’re highly engaged. Marketers will be looking to understand how best to advertise on podcasts, how to ensure brand suitability and how to measure results. They may also look to understand how their own brand can utilize an effective podcast content strategy.

But podcasting isn’t the only space that audio can succeed in. With the boom in gamers worldwide, brands are not only using in-game advertising for visual ads – they’re looking to audio ads too. According to a study by AudioMob and YouGov, 75% of mobile gamers prefer audio ads over video. With arguably smoother integration, and less risk of interrupting gameplay, the growing opportunity of audio ads in gaming is likely to spark a lot of interest as we head into 2023 – as is the audio opportunity in the metaverse.

Keep your ears open to all the latest audio news, insights and thought-leadership by bookmarking The Drum’s Audio hub here.

5. Influencer marketing

The past few years have seen a huge shift in attitude towards influencers. The stereotype of the vacuous, Starbucks-sipping, fame-hungry narcissist is dead. Brands have finally come to recognize influencers for what they really are: publishers. And, like any publisher, they use content to build and maintain highly relevant and engaged audiences. For brands, that’s golden.

But influencer marketing is ultimately still in its infancy. For brands wanting to leverage it, there’s still a ton of education that can be supplied through content marketing. How do you find the right influencer? Should you go for one with broad appeal, or opt for a more niche micro-influencer? Do you choose paid content or branded content? What social media is most effective for using influencers?

But beyond these practical questions, marketers will be on the look out to see how influencer marketing continues to evolve. The rise of virtual influencers and live shopping have disrupted traditional notions of influencer marketing, and brands will be looking at thought-leadership closely to monitor these areas.

Stay influenced by the latest influencer marketing trends by bookmarking The Drum’s Influencer Marketing hub.

How to keep up with content marketing trends in 2023

At Open Mic, we keep all our members up to speed with the latest content marketing trends, so that they can target their audience with the right content at the right time. Find out more about how Open Mic can help your 2023 content strategy here.

Visit The Drum’s Content Marketing in Focus hub for more news, insights, and strategies around content marketing.

Gavin Jordan is the publishing manager of Open Mic – The Drum’s self-publishing content marketing platform. For The Drum’s Content Marketing in Focus, he predicts the most likely content marketing trends for 2023, and how marketers can tackle them head-on.

In 1999, Jeff Cannon wrote, “In content marketing, content is created to provide consumers with the information they seek.”

Almost a quarter of a century on, it’s amazing how many content marketers still fall at this first hurdle. They provide information – yes – but it’s not information that anyone is actually looking for. It’s no doubt why 71% of decision-makers say that half or less of the thought-leadership content they consume offers any sort of valuable insights.

A lot of the time, the line between content that thrives and content that dives is relevance. Content marketers who look inwardly (What can I say about my business? Why is my product/service so valuable? What are the benefits of my offering?), will always lose out to those looking outwardly (What is the target audience interested in? What are they searching for? What do they want to engage with?).

One of the top ways to stay relevant with your target audience is to keep up with current industry trends (i.e. the topics that your audience are flocking to time and again). To help guide your content strategy next year, we’ve scoured through a trove of readership data to predict the most-likely content marketing trends for 2023. Here are our top five.

1. E-commerce

While there was an understandable growth in e-commerce vs brick and mortar sales in 2020 (largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic), e-commerce continues to grow at record speed. A recent report by Morgan Stanley predicts that e-commerce could reach 36% of all retail sales by 2026 (up from 32% now), as more shoppers prioritize convenience.

As e-commerce’s popularity rises, so too will competition between online retail brands. Retail marketers will therefore be watching this area closely to see how to stay ahead of the curve, and where the newest wave of growth will come from. But it’s not just retail marketers. The future of retail will affect media owners and tech providers alike – making it a critical topic to stay informed on from all angles.

What topics are likely to thrive? If the past few months are anything to go by, eagle-eyed marketers will be on the lookout for content that covers:

Buy into all the latest e-commerce marketing trends by bookmarking The Drum’s e-commerce hub here.

2. Metaverse and gaming

Most are familiar with the old marketing adage, “meet your audience where they’re at.” And if marketers are serious about reaching younger generations, then where they’re ‘at’ is the metaverse.

Mostly populated with Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha audiences, ‘metaverse’ is a catch-all term to define a virtual space where people meet, play, socialize, shop – and so on. But really, as Chris Sutcliffe says, the metaverse ultimately represents potential. To many, the virtual worlds (including, but not exclusive to, gaming worlds) that collectively make up ‘the metaverse’ are part of a shift from one era of the internet (Web2) to another (Web3). And no marketer wants to get left behind.

With some analysts predicting that the metaverse will grow into an $800bn market by 2024, and the number of gamers worldwide totalling a staggering 3.2 billion, good metaverse and gaming content will undoubtedly attract marketers’ attention in 2023. This year, readers not only flocked to content that provided an answer to what the metaverse means for the industry, but also how their own brand might succeed in the metaverse, taking especial note of how major brands like Nike and adidas developed their own (albeit very different) metaverse strategies.

In 2023, with a better understanding of what the metaverse means (or is likely to mean), brands will be looking for actionable advice on how to enter the metaverse/hone their metaverse strategies, as well as the marketing opportunities within these virtual worlds, be it in-game advertising, audio ad opportunities or by utilizing virtual influencer marketing.

To stay plugged-in with the latest metaverse & gaming news, trends and insights, bookmark The Drum’s Metaverse hub.

3. Data & privacy

Google announced earlier this year that they’re postponing the end of third-party cookies on Chrome until 2024, giving the industry more time to innovate for a privacy-centric, anti-tracking world. But despite all the delays, there’s no denying the inevitable: one day the cookie will crumble.

Mixed with Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework (which has been described as hypocritical by some), this will spell the end of collecting, measuring and utilizing audience data with relative ease. In 2023, marketers will be preparing to fill the cookie-shaped hole of the future, and content that helps them do this will reign king.

As well as how to obtain post-cookie data, marketers will also be looking closer at how to best analyze data. 76% of digital marketers evaluate their digital marketing using attribution models, but the so called “walled gardens” that govern these models are making it increasingly difficult for marketers to analyze the data effectively. In 2023, marketers will look to content that helps them overcome attribution challenges, or else provides a clear alternative.

Another opportunity in this space lies in providing genuinely enjoyable, engaging content. Because of its analytical – often jargon-heavy – nature, data & privacy can often be a dry subject to swallow. For content marketers to excel with this topic, content should be accessible, comprehensive and have personality. A lot of content might claim to have the best way to collect first-party data, for example, but it’s the most engaging of these that’ll get the most attention.

Track the latest data privacy news, trends and insights by bookmarking The Drum’s Data & Privacy hub here.

4. Audio

2022 saw a sharp rise in audience interest surrounding ad opportunities in the audio space. This should come as no surprise. With the almost unstoppable rise of podcast listeners, and the multitude of genres to meet their needs, brands have a new way to target niche audiences – and ensure they’re highly engaged. Marketers will be looking to understand how best to advertise on podcasts, how to ensure brand suitability and how to measure results. They may also look to understand how their own brand can utilize an effective podcast content strategy.

But podcasting isn’t the only space that audio can succeed in. With the boom in gamers worldwide, brands are not only using in-game advertising for visual ads – they’re looking to audio ads too. According to a study by AudioMob and YouGov, 75% of mobile gamers prefer audio ads over video. With arguably smoother integration, and less risk of interrupting gameplay, the growing opportunity of audio ads in gaming is likely to spark a lot of interest as we head into 2023 – as is the audio opportunity in the metaverse.

Keep your ears open to all the latest audio news, insights and thought-leadership by bookmarking The Drum’s Audio hub here.

5. Influencer marketing

The past few years have seen a huge shift in attitude towards influencers. The stereotype of the vacuous, Starbucks-sipping, fame-hungry narcissist is dead. Brands have finally come to recognize influencers for what they really are: publishers. And, like any publisher, they use content to build and maintain highly relevant and engaged audiences. For brands, that’s golden.

But influencer marketing is ultimately still in its infancy. For brands wanting to leverage it, there’s still a ton of education that can be supplied through content marketing. How do you find the right influencer? Should you go for one with broad appeal, or opt for a more niche micro-influencer? Do you choose paid content or branded content? What social media is most effective for using influencers?

But beyond these practical questions, marketers will be on the look out to see how influencer marketing continues to evolve. The rise of virtual influencers and live shopping have disrupted traditional notions of influencer marketing, and brands will be looking at thought-leadership closely to monitor these areas.

Stay influenced by the latest influencer marketing trends by bookmarking The Drum’s Influencer Marketing hub.

How to keep up with content marketing trends in 2023

At Open Mic, we keep all our members up to speed with the latest content marketing trends, so that they can target their audience with the right content at the right time. Find out more about how Open Mic can help your 2023 content strategy here.

Visit The Drum’s Content Marketing in Focus hub for more news, insights, and strategies around content marketing.

NEW YORK — Retail media generated a lot of buzz at Advertising Week New York, reflecting its status as a growth driver in an otherwise cooling ad market. While the category has drawn a deluge of new entrants, Kroger has been operating a network since 2017, a degree of maturity that led to it recently expanding into other emergent channels. 

The country’s largest grocer in September added connected TV and video inventory to its private programmatic marketplace, another step beyond the display and sponsored product listings that make up a sizable chunk of retail media activity. The latest addition to the program includes ad-tech partnerships with Magnite, OpenX, PubMatic and Xandr to help advertisers better target their messages. Kroger’s retail media business is part of the Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM) arm and is powered by shopper data derived from a loyalty program that claims to capture 96% of transactions.

“There are multiple channels and the channels need to be leveraged for the right time,” said Cara Pratt, senior vice president of Kroger Precision Marketing at 84.51°, about the CTV push. “Working through the sequencing of an effective investment strategy is really important.” 

Cara Pratt, senior vice president of Kroger Precision Marketing at 84.51°.​​​​​​

Permission granted by Kroger Precision Marketing at 84.51°

 

As KPM broadens its purview, it’s set for an even bigger shakeup. Days before the show, Kroger announced it would merge with rival Albertsons, a self-admitted “late mover” in retail media but one with a vocal presence at Advertising Week. Pratt declined to discuss the deal beyond pointing to a press release but spoke about KPM’s CTV ambitions and how the landscape is changing (also a topic on a panel she led later in the day).  

The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

MARKETING DIVE: When we first met last year, Kroger was launching a private programmatic marketplace. This year, you’ve got a big theme around CTV. Why is that a channel that’s come into focus?

CARA PRATT: When we made the announcement last year for the private marketplace, it was wave one, with programmatic display the first wave. 

A lot of the work that we’ve been doing over the last several months has been tethered into ensuring that we have the right integrations with the SSPs. The inventory side of things is critical with the announcements we’ve made, with Magnite being a primary one. That extends on top of OpenX and PubMatic and some other core players as well.

Obviously, we’ve been watching CTV viewership trends for some time. Nielsen officially announced that streaming surpassed cable for the first time ever in July. Really, it’s around making sure that we’re creating the right access to where consumers are consuming content. It’s a step in the journey.

A topic of discussion on your panel is addressability. CTV has seen increasing consumer adoption, increasing brand investment, but there are still gaps. What about Kroger’s data gets over the gap? 

PRATT: We’ve got access to the right inventory and brands because their traders can have hands on the keys. They can put their own brand safety standards on top of that. It’s creating an environment where we’ve identified who are the right households to expose and what’s going to drive the highest business impact.  

A lot of the conversations we have with brands and agency partners are also around the ultimate objectives they have. There are brands that are leveraging a real pinpointed activation opportunity for a re-engagement plan for lapsed buyers. There are brands that are really looking to drive net incremental shoppers from a household penetration gains perspective. Being able to slice and dice the cohorts of consumers that you want to expose content to or different creative to is really critical. That’s why the connection back into their own tech stack and their own safety standards is a really important piece. 

Then, there’s living up to the measurement standards. It’s a real challenge in the industry right now with the lack of standards that exist. We want to continue to put focus on standards that get into business outcomes versus standards that get into media consumption. Moving beyond viewable CPMs and click-through rates and those types as an engagement proxy to an actual business outcome. There are a lot of ways to augment what has historically been a common view of performance that has never really gotten into the heart of what performance really means. 

If you could have a solution tomorrow to enhance the CTV side of the business, what would you want?

PRATT: The operational side of influencing media at scale is really front of mind for us. What does sustainability in media really look like? Supply path optimization is going to be an interesting set of innovation and technology accelerations that are going to create a meaningful opportunity for operators that are fueling media investment activation to optimize at scale in different ways than we’ve optimized for to date. We’re excited about the continued evolution of the landscape.

Kroger has been in the retail media game a lot longer than other retailers. It is now this huge investment channel across the board. Is CTV the next big competitive battleground? 

PRATT: There’s no doubt that mature retail media businesses that have the right scale in addressability and in their data foundation can impact advertisers well beyond owned and operated properties. It is making sure that we bring a more performant media ecosystem in the off-property space as well and make those publisher assets work harder. That’s where CTV is going to be a big play as investment starts to evolve between linear and streaming. Social commerce is going to be a really fast-moving place because of consumer adoption and the ability to inspire and connect that inspiration. You can go from awareness to conversion in an instant.

Those are the spaces that we think are gonna be really strong engines to the future. That retail media, again, for those that have the right scale and rigor and appropriate practices at play, are going to be able to influence productively.

Social and streaming commerce are interesting. It seemed like they were set for a bigger moment earlier in the pandemic, and then some platforms pulled back their investments. Are you generally optimistic?

I’m an optimist for it, not necessarily for Kroger to be a publisher at scale on the social commerce side, but really about enabling core social commerce platforms to be able to inspire, engage and convert in a frictionless way. 

Anything else you’d highlight?

PRATT: The one thing that I’m hearing and seeing, not just here at this conference but that has been happening for the last nine to 12 months, is this attention measure. That’s something that I have a level of curiosity around as we think about the future of media, measurement practices and making sure that there’s discipline, from an industry perspective, around what we’re solving for.

The industry doesn’t need another vanity metric. That’s a pseudo-lens into whether an ad had a degree of influence into changing behavior. It really is about continuing to drive that rigor and focusing on brand outcomes. There’s a great degree of intrigue and then inconsistency in understanding the role that, potentially, this new measure could bring forward. 

The problem with so much of content today? Frankly, it’s cliché.

Nothing is less differentiating or exciting than stale content repackaging well-trodden ideas. Audiences know it, too. If they can find the same information across any of the million other search results, what reason is there to stay and engage? Why bother with the same-old, same-old?

Meaningful content makes an impact on the reader and leaves them wanting more. It gives them something that they couldn’t get anywhere else, whether that’s a nugget of information, a tool, checklist or video.

 

 

It’s time for marketers to level up content development –- and here are six principles to make it happen:

Be a visionary -– or, at least, have a vision

Anyone can write a piece of content and throw it online. A simple search will pull up page after page of formulas for crafting the perfect blog or whitepaper. That’s one of the reasons why the web is cluttered with so much dull content.

Instead, consider the why behind content. Know who the audience is, their expectations and what perception marketing wants to convey. Ask what actions the content should encourage, and then combine this information into a sentence or two.

Voila! A content vision. Now, rather than producing the same stale content as competitors, marketers can say:

“We are creating retention-centric content to provide our customers with knowledge and resources to maximize their investment with us and keep them engaged.”

Don’t be afraid to be ruffle some feathers

It’s easy to get caught up in jargon and specifications. But customers are never purely rational –- they have feelings and emotions fueling them. Rather than playing it safe, adopt a unique point-of-view that stands out, or perhaps is even a little provocative.

For example, rethink overused themes. Listicles are popular because readers like brevity. But too many listicles are straightforward and unimaginative. Instead, try taking a narrative-driven approach –- rather than “5 reasons cybersecurity is essential,” try “5 times companies wished they had better cybersecurity.”

Humans also don’t talk like machines or computers. Limit jargon to the bare minimum and work to engage audiences in a conversation. Build rapport and serve as a trusted source (or…maybe even a friend).

Embrace your new salesperson

Forget the handshake. Content is the new first impression. Seventy percent of B2B buyers engage with content before they reach out to a salesperson. The upside is companies have more space to tell their story. The downside, however, is audiences’ ever-strained attention spans.

Remember: most buyers are looking to solve a problem, not engage with content or vendors. Amid a hundred other solutions on the market, marketers have to demonstrate and differentiate their company’s value above and beyond any other. Keep in mind the famous quote, “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.”

Then, once content has done its job and the buyer is ready to seal the deal, do not make them struggle to find someone to speak with. Content, especially down-funnel, should provide a clear next step to engage, start a conversation and make a purchase.

Follow the Rule of 7

A great piece of content should never stand alone. Reuse, repurpose and recycle it to reach an even broader audience – whatever their preferred channel or format. One rule of thumb, if content cannot be converted into at least seven assets, it’s time to think bigger.

For example:

• Cornerstone: The core piece of content that serves as the foundation for multiple assets across multiple mediums. For instance, use survey research to draft a meaty, content-filled whitepaper.
• Infographic: Take the survey results and whitepaper to create an infographic summarizing the findings.
• Social media:  Break apart the infographic into individual stats and soundbites for animations and interactive content on social channels.
• Blogs:  Use each survey finding as the premise for separate blog posts.
• eBook: Then combine all the blog posts into a punchy eBook.
• Webinars: Harness subject matter experts from your business to host sessions discussing the survey findings.
• Videos: Now, edit the recorded webinars into a fast-paced video or two. There you have it! Seven pieces of content to suit any and all audiences or channels.

Keep the content rollin’

From “Stranger Things” to “Bridgerton,” bingeable content keeps audiences glued to their screens and looking forward to the next season. The same holds true for content marketing.

Consider Netflix or Hulu. Every time a show ends, what’s the very next step? The streamer either transitions to the next episode or provides a recommendation. Do the same with content! Relate them by industry, problem or solution and make it a compelling transition for audiences.

Likewise, pay attention to how audiences engage – and with what. Which videos do they watch all the way through? What content do they click on next? What gets downloaded? There’s a reason streamers keep those numbers close to the vest – they offer a tremendous amount of insight into audience behaviors and trends.

1% to make a difference

The internet is awash in content. But 99% doesn’t speak to buyers’ problems, uses terminology they don’t understand or repeats advice they’ve heard before.

Remember the phrase, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, say nothing at all?” Use a similar phrase as the guiding star for content development, “If you don’t have anything unique or interesting to add, best say nothing at all.”

Be a part of the 1% that makes a difference. Those million other search results are no problem when you deliver something no one else can. Using these principles, marketers can differentiate their content and give their audience what they cannot get anywhere else.

Karsten Burgstahler and Traci Scherr are senior content creators for Arketi Group, an integrated digital marketing and public relations firm that helps B2B technology organizations generate revenue and accelerate growth.

COMMENT

Using videos to drive more visitors to your website is a smart move. Such is the popularity of videos, that big and small companies are investing thousands of dollars in video content creation. Keeping people on your site for an extended period is likewise an effective marketing approach. Using this method, you may lower your bounce rate and boost your search engine rankings.

More than 60% of the firms use video marketing to boost traffic to their websites. Businesses might see a large improvement in their return on investment by integrating videos on their website.

Listed here are a few of the reasons why you must implement video content marketing into your marketing strategy:

• An increase of 130% in conversion rates can be achieved by including a short movie on your landing page.
• Websites featuring video content can rank up to 53 times higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) than those without.
• Reputation and trust are built through video content because it establishes an emotional connection with the viewer. According to research, video content has been shown to raise purchase intent by as much as 97%.
• Using videos to educate and entertain your clients is a great way to get their attention and keep them coming back for more.

With consumers unable to look away from their screens, marketers have a golden opportunity to capitalize on the power of video marketing. Its influence continues to increase, and internet firms are capitalizing on it. However, despite the fact that there are numerous videos out there, some do better than the rest.

Video Content Marketing Drives Sales & ROI

In addition, films allow prospective customers to interact with a brand’s products or services by simply narrating a story. Videos can describe a brand’s offerings clearly and concisely, converting potential customers into customers and ultimately increasing sales and ROI.

Video Content Marketing Promotes Social Shares

Videos are the most popular material for readers to share with their social networks. It’s not just about increasing sales and ROI that videos do; they also raise social media shares and engage your audience.

Video has 1200 percent more social shares than text or an image, according to a Small BizTrends survey.

Videos Content Improves Website Traffic

Your website’s visitors will spend more time on your site as a result of the amusing video content you publish. To put it the other way, your videos can both maintain and attract new customers and retain old customers. Videos not only increase client loyalty but also help with SEO.

More time spent on your website tells Google that your material is worthwhile. It boosts your website’s search engine rating and brings in more free and targeted visitors. According to a Cisco study, video marketing will be responsible for 80 percent of internet traffic in the near future.

Techniques/Strategies For Video Content Marketing

1) Optimizing Your Video Landing Page

There are various ways for marketers to spread the word about a video. Video landing page optimization is a terrific place to start. If prospective clients can’t seem to find you, your landing page is of no use. Ads and social media postings that include completely optimized video landing pages would make your page more valuable and noticeable. As a result, creating videos to go along with your website’s written content is a must.

In addition to writing content, you can utilize short films to encourage visitors to discover and explore your website. As previously said, search engines are a big fan of video content. It’s easier for people to find you in search engines if your landing page has videos with relevant SEO-optimized keywords.

2) Develop and Publish Short Video Content

Short videos feature a high percentage of viewer involvement. The vast majority of viewers either prefer this format or simply don’t have the time to go through a 15-minute commercial for handbags.

Seventy-five percent of all videos made on Vidyard are under two minutes long. It’s also important to emphasize what you want your viewers to do if you plan to incorporate a call-to-action (CTA). Your conversion rates may suffer if your message isn’t clear.

3) Responsiveness of Landing Page Design

Second, responsiveness is an important consideration in video landing page optimization. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly. Creating a user-friendly website will attract viewers and readers to read your content, learn more about your company, and ultimately become customers.

Check the numbers if you’re still not satisfied. According to a Blue Corona study, 38% of visitors abandon a website that does not have a mobile-friendly design, and 48 percent of website visitors believe a website’s legitimacy is based on its design, according to the same study.

A poorly designed landing page should be avoided at all costs. Your website’s design should be handled by a professional.

4) Loading Time of Website

Third, web browsers despise websites that take a long time to load. If a page takes longer than two seconds to load, people will leave the site. Evaluate your website’s running and loading performance with Google.

Faster loading websites equate to faster video downloads. Boost your company’s bottom line by making your website load faster and gaining more customers with video content marketing.

5) Choosing Various Marketing Channels for Videos

For your video content to be effective, it must be seen by the correct people. Your video marketing plan needs to be based on the correct channels.

Brand exposure, customer trust, and lead generation can benefit from the correct marketing medium. It all depends on the demographics of your customers, the location of your business, and the level of client happiness.

Using these platforms, you may generate leads and turn them into clients for your videos:

• Owned Media: Website, Blog, Email, Social Media (Organic)
• Paid Media: Search Ads, Social Media Ads, Native Content, Paid Influencer
• Earned Media: Review, Publicity, Endorsements, Influencer Marketing

6) Develop Your Own Personal Video Content

Customers like material that is specifically customized to their wants and needs. Video marketing is not an exception to this. As a marketer, you must tailor your videos to the specific demands of your customers. Targeted customers are more likely to watch a video if it is personalized.

Content customized to the buyer’s needs, especially video content, is sought after by buyers. As a result, you must provide video content tailored to your target audience’s preferences.

Personalized video content improves the number of people who watch it, increasing the number of people who buy from you. For this service — you could acquire content writing services as the professionals can help you tweak the content according to your audience.

Customers are more likely to buy from a company that treats them as individuals rather than just a number. There are numerous examples in this regard of brands that celebrate individuality and have used it to perfection in their marketing campaigns. Customer engagement with a brand’s products or services can be greatly enhanced through personalization, according to a recent Evergage poll.

An effective tailored video now includes a subliminal call to action (CTA). You must make it clear to potential customers what you would like them to do. For each video content, you create, have a clear objective in mind. It can be done in one of the following ways:

• Add a window just at the end of the clip with the call to action (CTA) that tells the audience what to do next.
• During the video, provide text boxes that serve as reminders to viewers to subscribe and leave comments.
• Make use of video overlay ads.

7) Provide Sharing Options to Video Content

It’d be ideal if your videos were watched by a wide audience, wouldn’t it? Therefore, make it convenient for them to participate. However, you must be careful as marketing to everyone is actually marketing to no one.

Including sharing options in your videos is an excellent method to accomplish this. Our argument is the best-evidenced example by The Guardian. The Guardian’s video content can be shared on a variety of social media networks.

You can also add a comment urging people to share your video with their network if it isn’t being shared enough already. Viewers who enjoy a particular video are more likely to share it along with their friends and families, increasing the video’s popularity.

Increasing your brand’s exposure and visibility through social media is essential if you want to positively impact your bottom line. A sharing button can allow the user to visit your website while they are watching the video.

8) Adding Video Transcript

People are more likely to view a video if the content contains the information they are looking for. If you want your viewers to be more engaged, you may provide them with extra information by providing them with a video transcript. Using a transcript, you can read your video content out loud. With a glance, viewers will have a good idea of what to expect from the video.

The information viewers gain from watching videos drives their interest in the content. A video transcript can be added to the video to provide further information. This will increase your content’s number of views, interactions, likes, and sharing of views. Including the main keywords in the URL improves search engine rankings.

Incorporate your viewers’ advantages from watching your video into your transcript. To make it easy for viewers to see what they may expect from a video, you should transcribe the content of the video into text. If you want your video to show up in search results, make sure to incorporate the primary keyword in the title.

9) Reviews, Ratings, & Testimonials

You’ve probably seen influencers’ Instagram accounts. There are a lot of commercial posts on them. As a bonus, these firms frequently feature influencer-provided testimonials on their website. People are more likely to buy a product after reading a positive testimony about it from a well-known person. In addition, the audience will be able to read the reviews. Approximately 27% of consumers who shop online consult customer feedback and reviews just before deciding.

Adding social proofs to your video content marketing approach increases the number of people who watch your videos and increases your sales. To assist your video rank better, you can incorporate reviews, ratings, feedback, and testimonials into your video marketing strategy.

Your former consumers (or paid influencers) can give a review of your service or product if you have the money to do so. For frequent buyers, include it in the “Thank you for your purchase” email or in the weekly newsletter.

As previously said, purchasers are drawn to items and services that have been utilized and praised by others. Use testimonials to drive traffic to your video content. They will inspire visitors to see videos and undertake action as a result of their stories.

10) Develop & Publish Different Types Of Videos

As a business owner, you need a variety of videos to promote your brand. Making a variety of videos is an essential part of any video marketing campaign. Here are some examples of videos you could make for your video content marketing campaign to help drive traffic to your website:

• Explanatory Video Content:

Using videos like this, you may educate potential customers about your company’s offerings. For the most part, online shoppers would much rather view a product video clip than read a description page.

It’s more convenient, quicker, and more enjoyable than ever before. Your explanatory video is a great way to demonstrate to potential customers how your items may alleviate their concerns.

Video is a great way for customers to connect with brands. It has been found that shops and B2B websites which utilize live video streaming have a 30% boost in sales. You should select software that will produce high-quality images, videos, and music when live streaming.

According to a study by 50 Wheel, 62% of consumers have an unfavorable opinion of brands that post low-quality live streaming videos on social media. Better equipment is definitely needed to solve the problem.

Image Credit: George Milton; Pexels; Thank you!

Harsh Dutta

Harsh Dutta is the Founder of Content Writing Agency – Italics. He is a seasoned entrepreneur, Digital Marketer, and Professional Copywriter with a heavy passion for digital marketing.