Guest post by Cokey Falkow
Why is digital content taking over the marketing world?
What is it that makes it so powerful and why should you be concentrating more on becoming a content creation machine, rather than using only traditional marketing techniques? One reason above all: The return on investment of customer acquisition and retention.
It’s much more cost-effective to capture your customers’ attention through great content – content they find valuable and actively engage with – than trying to grab ahold of folks’ attention via traditional ad or PR campaigns.
Most marketers agree, through survey and actual business experience, that you have to impinge on your target audience at least 7 times. That means you have to cut through the attention-sucking clutter that surrounds people at any given moment.
Back in the easy ‘old days’, when all you had to do was think up a great TV and radio campaign and pair it with billboards or some print advertising, you were guaranteed to get people to pay some attention. Nowadays, the average member of the public is bombarded by constant content – through the web, apps and all sorts of push notifications.
In 2013 the TV business reported its worst year ever. Shows are watched on-demand or, when they do watch in real-time they’re using three screens, including phones and tablets. They’re reading the Tweet stream and commenting as they watch. Or they’re searching for additional info.
The public has a ravenous appetite for good content. By feeding it to them you guarantee a real audience with a vested interest and far deeper engagement, which ensures a better conversion rate.
5 things to do to be a content powerhouse in 2014
- Upgrade your online newsroom. Give the media what they need, when they need it, in an easy-to-use format.
- Produce high- quality video. It is the future of the web.
- Invest in digital training. Get your social media, PR and Marketing teams trained to produce excellent content, so you have a strong in-house team that can create content or respond to events on the fly.
- Learn to use visual content. Maximize the benefits of a visual experience on the web. Fill your newsroom and Pinterest boards with excellent visuals. Experiment with Instagram.
- Make sure your site is tablet and mobile responsive. This is vital. Those customers you want to reach? They’re rapidly moving to mobile.