At Napier, one of the questions clients often ask us is
whether content marketing is too good to be true. They ask why so many people
promise all kinds of content marketing material, and yet many clients find that
the results are not as good as they hoped. bolts
But first of all, what do we understand by content
marketings?
One definition is that content marketings involves the
creation and sharing of material online, so anything from videos, blogs to
social media posts, that does not explicitly promote a brand, but is intended
to stimulate interest on the products or services of that brand.
A lot is about sharing content rather than delivering it.
And that seems like a great approach, one where we can create materials that don't
have to be too commercial or promotional, and will magically help sell our
products.
Is this really the case? To try and answer this questions,
we can see where people have done well and poorly in content marketing.
The good…
Solving problems or helping people do their jobs is key to
good content marketing, but sometimes it pays to take a chance and get
creative. A companies called Midwich started promoting a QR code but didn't say
what it was about, it just sparked some interest around the QR code, which
actually led to their blog. Therefore, creativity can be a very important part
of content marketing, but it will only work if it is of value to the reader.
Some of the best content marketing examples seek to create
value for customers. An example here is one of the best-known content marketing
campaigns, Whiteboard Friday, created by Moz, which is rapidly evolving in the
search engine optimization market.
Moz identified the need for people to stay abreast of new
information and understand what is happening. Whiteboard Friday introduces a
continuing education course, which provides everything you need to know about
SEO, and by doing so, it generates visits to your website. It is a great
example of content marketings.
SEO actually provide a lot of great examples. Rather than
providing content, such as a video or blog post to help people, you can provide
free tools to perform SEO exercises, ultimately helping people migrate to use
your paid offering.
Finally, sometimes content marketing is more about creating
your brand image. Dell, for example, has worked with Girl Scouts of America to
promote STEM education. This raised Dell's profile among many potential buyers,
but it also created a very positive image for the company.
In general, no particular approach is recommended. Content
marketing can create a blog post, video, or tool that people use that relies on
some software engineering - it's about finding the right content for your
customer.
... and evil
There are also some examples of poor content marketings. Take
MailChimp, which decided to offer video content on a channel called MailChimp
Presents. The problem was that people were inundated with content from
MailChimp and it was very difficult to find what was relevant. The lesson here
is that it's not just about volume of content, but also about quality. The content
must also be honest and truthful. One Step Ahead Intel, which released the 11th
generation of core processors and, unsurprisingly, issued a press release
describing how amazing these products were. In fact, there were 18 separate
references to "the best in the world."
The problem was the fine print, which indicated that Intel
may have modified the benchmark to make its processors look better than any
other manufacturer's.
It could still be that these Intel microprocessors are the
best for laptops. But with so many caveats, the claims couldn't really be
trusted.
The third example is Tesla's cybertruck event, which
features a futuristic super truck launched by Elon Musk and positioned as
fundamentally indestructible. However, as the demo team discovered, throwing
stones at the windows caused the glass to crack.
Is it a failure or has it raised the profile of the
cybertruck? There is no doubt that Tesla would have preferred the rocks to
rewind.
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