Category: Content Marketing

An internship is a great opportunity for students to gain first-hand exposure to the professional world as it allows them to become acquainted with the working environment in the industry related to their field of study. During the internship, students can apply the knowledge they gained in the classroom in their work and it is a great way to explore different career paths upon graduation. Not only does it prepare students with practical experience in professional settings, but it can also give them a competitive edge in the job market. Soft skills such as leadership, problem-solving and teamwork can be developed through the experience. Additionally, during the internship, students get the opportunity to gain in-depth insights into the business, dive into the workplace culture and everything that once mentioned in the textbook.

The name of the programme International Communication Management suggests the international elements in the study; hence, the internship has to include some international aspects. Working as an intern in an internationally-oriented company, students will have a better understanding of a given field in a global context and can project themselves as professional individuals with a global outreach. During my internship, this element is addressed in internal communication with employees from different cultures and backgrounds and marketing campaigns with a focus on international organizations.

The internship period helps students establish newfound confidence to rise above challenges and make well-informed decisions on which facet of communication or department works best for them down the line. Moreover, the opportunity gives students access to mentors that can help them navigate in the working environment. The students are not only helping out but also receiving assistance from the organizations they intern at. The professional feedback from the mentors will benefit the students’ career development in the long run.

This final placement report will go into details about my own internship experiences at Octagon Professionals, an employment agency based in The Hague, Netherlands. My position at the agency is a Content Marketing Intern, in which I support their Marketing department in developing and executing content marketing strategy. In this report, I will revise and reflect on the learning objectives I have set out for myself from the beginning and how I have developed my personal and professional growth along the way.

This report entails the following key aspects:

1. Learning objectives
2. Professional products and professional justification
3. Reflection on competencies required and the development
4. Reflection on personal and professional growth
5. Future career outlook

Learning Objectives

At the beginning of the internship, I set a few objectives for myself based on the LOCO competencies which cover my tasks at Octagon Professionals. It is imperative for me to achieve the competencies as much as possible to show that I have successfully reinforced the lessons learned in the university into the professional settings.

I have stated my learning objectives in the first placement report. However, there are some adjustments to the objectives due to my in-depth understanding of my role at the internship overtime.

LOCO-competency 1: Analysing and researching

The tasks related to the LOCO-competency 1 are identifying trends and developments in the internal and external developments of the organization. The focus for Octagon is the presence of the company on digital channels. It is first fundamental to carry out a competitor analysis for Octagon Professionals to observe how the competitors are doing on their own channels. By weighing the pros and cons of the competitor’s digital channels, Octagon can thereby learn how to improve its own channels.

As in 2019, the proposition of sales and marketing at Octagon Professionals has changed. They have a more defined target segment after a thorough customer analysis, in which their potential customers are international organizations who have already decided to expand their business to the Netherlands. In 2020, they decided to execute the planning for marketing activities directed towards this target segment. They chose to invest in Content Marketing to reach and spread the message about their services to this target audience. This was where my role came in as a Content Marketing Intern and I worked closely alongside another intern/employee who was the Content Marketing Specialist.

Subsequent to defining the new market segment, it is critical for Octagon Professionals to have a research-based profile that illustrates their target customer. That is why they need to develop buyer personas to ensure that the marketing activities are tailored to customer needs. By understanding the needs of the target audience, marketing activities can do a better job of creating relevant content to address those needs as well as acquire new clients.

As this target segment is a new discovery for Octagon, it is crucial to conduct a competitor analysis to get inspiration and insights. The objective would be to observe their marketing activities and figure out what works for them and see if there is a way to apply their strategy to Octagon Professionals’ marketing strategy. Moreover, it would help Octagon to create a unique brand by figuring out how Octagon can differentiate from others.

My objectives would ,therefore, help analyse the buyer persona and competitor analysis. The competitor analysis would also support my research report and the communication advice report for my final paper.

LOCO-competency 2: Developing communication policies and advising on them

To contribute to the best possible realization of organization targets, a communication plan for Octagon Professionals will be developed. Taking into consideration the views and interests of the target audience, the relevant content for digital marketing would be tailored accordingly. Additionally, the financial consequences and brand identity as well as social and ethical context will be taken into account.

One of the objectives of Octagon Professionals’ content marketing is to raise brand awareness. During my research, I found out that video marketing is one of the useful tactics which help increase brand awareness and generate leads, especially for business-to-business companies. According to Sielaff (2020), 92% of marketers voted video as an important part of their marketing strategy, with 88% claiming that video gives them a positive Return on Investment. I am also confident in my scripting and video making skills which is a valuable asset in the content marketing strategy. That is why my objective would be to develop a video content marketing plan to leverage the brand awareness of Octagon Professionals. Through video marketing, Octagon Professionals can demonstrate their expertise and become a thought leader in the industry.

LOCO-competency 3: Planning and organizing

It is crucial to implement a concrete plan to execute all the ideas for content marketing at Octagon Professionals. The student organizes and plans the communication policy of the organization and the means of communication to be used, taking into account the organization’s policy cycle.

For digital marketing at Octagon Professionals, the means of communication for all the content has to be taken into account. As Octagon has different stakeholders and different channels which communicate different messages, the student would need to develop a plan to utilize digital marketing channels. When it comes to content marketing, a plan for holiday content on social media is relevant.

Moreover, nowadays, different communication channels such as Facebook or Instagram have a feature called “Stories”. The feature allows users to upload content and display their visual for 24 hours. This is a nice way to engage with different target audiences on different platforms. Therefore, my objective is to help create a communication plan for the stories feature across Octagon Professionals’ different platforms.

LOCO-competency 4: Creating and producing

The vital part of content marketing is creating and producing content to elevate the presence of the brand on digital channels. In order to achieve communication goals and reach various target groups, various communication means need to be implemented. I am responsible for creating copyright and audio/visual content for different digital channels of Octagon Professionals.

The professional products in this task would involve writing articles providing information and advice for different target groups. Another professional task related to content producing would be designing infographics and featured images for content. The student is also in charge of updating the activities and events of the company for stakeholders on social media.

As mentioned in the LOCO-competency 2, with the video content marketing plan in mind, my objective is also to create and make the video content possible during my internship.

Professional Products and Professional Justification

My position at the Marketing department at Octagon Professionals is Content Marketing Intern. I help design and prepare visuals for promotional presentations. I assist in research, development and creation of content to share on different communication channels of Octagon and other day-to-day responsibilities.

To guarantee the quality of the placement, it is important that my tasks align with the LOCO competencies. Thereby, in this chapter, I would present my professional products which identify with the LOCO competencies set by the International Communication Management programme. In addition, I would also give an explanation for the objectives of the products and justification of the result. The evidence for the products would be included in the Appendices.

LOCO-competency 1: Analysing and researching

Product: Competitor Analysis Content Marketing (Sufficient)

Since Octagon Professionals offers a wide ranges of services to suit every human capital needs of their clients, there are many competitors who compete against Octagon not only in the industry but also every single services. To get an overview of the strong players on the market, competitor analysis is useful to get some insights to improve the current strategy of Octagon. Especially, content marketing is relatively new in the Marketing strategy of Octagon, so it’s worth to identify their content marketing strategies and find out what they are doing right to create Octagon’s own strategy which can improve upon the competitors. By performing a competitor analysis, Octagon can uncover the content marketing trends as well as market and sell more effective.

The tricky part of doing competitor analysis is to retrieve data and make my own interpretation on the information I got. From then, I can outline the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors in comparison with Octagon Professionals content-wise. Eventually, I need to make a conclusion on the opportunities and threats for the content marketing strategy at Octagon.

At first, my competitor analysis did not live up to the professional standard which can be useful for the company as it was just a quick perusal of their social media presence. However, after the critical feedback of my supervisor, I strived to do better and got into a more in-depth analysis. I can see that I was able to give advice on the overall content marketing strategy.

LOCO-competency 2: Developing communication policies and advising on them

Product: Video Content Marketing Strategy (Sufficient)

Video content marketing is about producing content but in the format of a video. Video marketing is central to the outreach for new audiences, increasing engagement and educating them with valuable information. According to HubSpot (2018), more than 50% of the consumers voted for videos to be the most preferred content tactic. Therefore, video marketing is undoubtedly necessary for Octagon Professionals if they want to see an upward trend in effectiveness in driving awareness, leads and enhancing credibility.

With my strength in video-making, I would like to contribute more video contents to the overall content marketing strategy at Octagon. I went over many thought leaders and advertising videos from different brands to seek inspiration on how Octagon can use video content to promote the brand.

I have proposed the ideas for video content marketing. However, the COVID-19 situation has posed many challenges in getting employees to become involved in the video marketing project. Even though the strategy is put on hold for the time being, I believe it will come in handy in the future.

LOCO-competency 3: Planning and organizing

Product: Video Marketing Plan for “Remote Coaching for Business” (Advanced)

Due to the Coronavirus, many enterprises were following the measures of the government and encouraging their employees to work at home. The pandemic has renewed emphasis on remote work globally. New challenges have been introduced, as the majority of Dutch traditional companies are accustomed to the office setting but not to supporting the remote workforce. As a result, the productivity of the employees in the home office setting has been a major concern of business leaders, which also includes the existing clients of Octagon Professionals. As an employment agency, Octagon realized the needs for a Remote Coaching Program for Businesses to help their clients and their teams to thrive during unprecedented times. This is also an opportunity for Octagon Professionals to raise brand awareness by utilizing video content marketing to introduce this service. The target group for this campaign is employers in the Netherlands who are trying to engage their employees in the remote work settings and boost the productivity of the remote team.

Introduction

Content marketing is a relatively new form of marketing that has been constantly evolving over approximately the last decade. It involves the use of shared media online, including videos, articles, photos and social media posts. Content marketing is constantly changing and growing with the expansion of the Internet and social media. As marketers, it is important to stay up to date on trends and practices in content marketing in order to stay relevant and achieve the best results. Although content marketing covers a broad range of topics, this report will focus mainly on video content, with some reference to other streams such as email, and social media posting.

Trend – Video Content Marketing for the New Decade

One of the number one content marketing trends for 2020 is the importance of video, including both social media posts and live streaming, the latter of which has and will become increasingly important. Cisco forecasts that Internet video will account for 79% of global Internet traffic by 2020–up from 63% in 2015.[footnoteRef:1] That is a significant amount of traffic, and undoubtedly solidifies the notion that video is becoming one of the biggest sources of information for individuals who access the Internet. Research suggests that marketers are finding value in the use of video to increase engagement and drive website traffic.[footnoteRef:2] A quick Google search in regards to video content marketing and the statistics behind user behaviour makes it clear that video content marketing is here to stay, and will only become more important as traditional cable television is shied away from. It is expected that by 2025 50% of viewers under the age of 32 will not subscribe to a pay-TV service, meaning their main sources for video will be through streaming services and video platforms.[footnoteRef:3] Information and statistics clearly show that brands should be increasing budgets for video content marketing, as it is clear that this is where consumers are looking for information, whether they know it or not. The number of hours viewers are spending watching videos online is also increasing, and advertising expenses for online video content is expected to increase signifigantly over the next few years (See Figure 1.) [1: 37 Mind Blowing YouTube Statistics For B2B Marketers In 2019. (2020, January 6).] [2: Pophal L. ] [3: 37 Mind Blowing YouTube Statistics For B2B Marketers In 2019. (2020, January 6).]

When it comes to the content of videos, and how they are produced, consumers are looking for more interaction with influencers and brands, and personalized messaging will be key to reaching new customers. More interaction could include live streaming, as well as interaction through chat systems implemented within platforms. Consumers are now looking to video platforms for news, research, entertainment and even online learning. Videos with just such content perform well on almost all platforms and brands can easily align their products and services to match with these categories, depending on what they are looking to promote. Marketers feel more positive about the return on investment offered by video than ever, as it continues to strongly influence traffic, leads, sales, and audience understanding.[footnoteRef:4] It is therefore imperative that any companies or brands that are hoping to remain or gain success in the new decade focus at least some of their effort on content marketing, specifically in relation to video. [4: Hayes, A. (2019, December 23)]

Background

The Evolution of Video

Before discussing the current trends, it is important to understand how video content marketing has evolved since the early 2000’s. The evolution of videos on the Internet and its relationship to content marketing cannot be overlooked. The world was first introduced to YouTube in 2005, and it is undoubtedly one of the most famous and successful video platforms still to this day. For many years YouTube was generally the only platform for video content marketing until it was later introduced to platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and even content specific platforms such as Twitch, which focuses on video game streaming. YouTube still remains a top platform and is now the world’s second largest search engine with over 5 billion videos viewed each day.[footnoteRef:5] However, with competition among video platforms and creators stronger than ever before, differentiation from competition is key. Platforms, influencers, brands and marketers now all need to come up with various tactics to separate themselves and stand out in a world where content is mass-produced everyday. With video being a top trend for 2020, there are a multitude of tactics to employ to ensure successful content marketing. [5: 37 Mind Blowing YouTube Statistics For B2B Marketers In 2019. (2020, January 6).]

Top Video Platforms for 2020

Besides YouTube, there are a number of platforms ramping up for an increase in video usage for the new decade. Instagram is emphasizing the importance of video by increasing the permitted length of videos, as well as pushing the new IGTV (Instagram television) feature. On their website, Instagram emphasizes the importance of video in the new decade and states, “longer vertical video on Instagram makes it even easier to get closer to your audience and be discovered by new people.”[footnoteRef:6] Video traditionally has been done in a horizontal view, which worked when individuals were mainly watching from computers, but now with more consumers watching and filming from their phones, vertical video is becoming more prevalent on platforms. [6: Introducing IGTV. Retrieved from https://business.instagram.com/a/igtv]

Another video platform that has had a large impact on the content marketing industry is Snapchat, which will be celebrating a decade of existence in 2021. Snapchat paved the way for consumer interaction and communication, before eventually making a move to more branded video content. A unique feature that was developed by Snapchat was the introduction of filters and VR “masks.” These filters have evolved since their first introduction and are often utilized by brands to promote products or services. Facebook and Instagram, who clearly saw the potential of filters for their own consumers, have also adopted them on their platforms.

TikTok is one of the newest video platforms, favoured by Gen-Z consumers, and allows for a maximum of 15-second videos. Unlike some other platforms, TikTok Content is presented in a full-screen format that means there are no other distractions and there are no “partial” impressions.[footnoteRef:7] This is extremely valuable in a time when grabbing attention on the Internet is becoming increasingly difficult. Large brands are starting to take advantage of TikTok, but it is still not being utilized as widely as platforms such as Facebook or Instagram. It is estimated that over 500 million people use TikTok, meaning the network is larger than Twitter and Pinterest.[footnoteRef:8] However, most companies still shy away from TikTok, meaning there is a significant gap in the market which could be utilized much more effectively. [7: Anderson, B. E. (2020, January 27)] [8: TikTok Marketing 101: What Is TikTok and How Can You Market on It? (2019, March 12).]

Facebook has not traditionally been known as a video sharing platform in the past, however with the consumer demand for video constantly increasing, Facebook has integrated more video sharing features. Live streaming, posts, stories and more are all features on Facebook that continue to grow in popularity. Many brand pages on Facebook now utilize video content, as viewers find it more engaging and often will share videos on their own pages, resulting in more earned media.

Beyond the more commonly known video platforms, new companies have emerged to compete in the market based on the clear trend of individuals seeking out video posts and streaming. Some other platforms include Vimeo, Streamshark, Rumble and more. With most brands focusing on the bigger platforms, there is a big opportunity for companies to get in with these newer platforms, which will likely reach new consumers and open up new opportunities. The untapped potential with some of the smaller video sharing sites is significant.

Insights

After researching content marketing, with an emphasis on video marketing trends, it is clear that brands and companies looking to improve sales, engagement and overall brand awareness should undoubtedly be looking to video. The statistics speak for themselves as we are seeing a rising number of individuals using Internet video as their main source of video streaming, as opposed to traditional media such as cable or even movie theatres. YouTube and Facebook have, and will likely remain for a significant time, the top destinations for video content marketing, and with a wider influence over both young and old generations. One of the major benefits of video, and content marketing in general, is it’s ability to expand paid, or owned media to earned media. For example, a brand may purchase a video ad, or own video content, but then with social media platforms, if it is shared or talked about enough it creates earned media, which in many cases can be much more valuable. Anyone can buy or create and ad, but creating a buzz or going viral (a form of earned media) is much easier said than done. With so much content on the Internet, there is a significant difference between content and valuable content, wherein the latter educates, helps or inspires the audience and they appreciate the value.[footnoteRef:9] Content marketing should engage individuals and prompt them to share content through social media. [9: Jefferson, S. & Tanton, S. ]

Influences on Growth

It is apparent that video marketing is growing and will likely continue to grow for some time, but what exactly is causing this growth? When Youtube was first introduced in 2005, it took many years for it to become a profitable platform for content, and even at the turn of the decade in 2010 video did not have the same impact as it does today. The introduction of streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon prime have brought new users into the world of online streaming, including older and newer generations of users. The addition of video to social media such as Instagram and Facebook has also influenced the number of individuals who interact with online video content. Individuals who had previously not interacted with video content were then exposed to this content through liked and shared posts by friend, and then sometimes even re-shared to their networks. The increase in online social media and platform users overall has increased the number of individuals who now look to Youtube and similar platforms as their main source for news, entertainment, research and beyond. The fact that most of online video platforms are free to use has resulted in consumers trading out their paid cable subscriptions, excluding online subscription based services. These factors have all lead to a significant growth in online video viewers and overall platform usage.

Successful Brands using Video Content Marketing

Almost all companies and brands now utilize some form of content marketing, whether it is in a video format or not, and if they are not using it, they should be. Large corporations such as Canadian Tire, Chrysler, Marriot and more have honed in on content marketing and are realizing the value it provides in regards to brand awareness, engagement and increasing sales. A company that has consistently created online video content is Dove. Their “Choose Beautiful” campaign from 2015, is still one that sticks in my mind. The content itself did not revolve around a product, but rather a group of individuals that would fall under Dove’s target market. Women were faced with the option of entering two doorways, one of which said “beautiful” and the other said, “average.” There was no advertisement, but rather women reflecting on their own decisions as to which door they chose. The video ends with the hashtag “ChooseBeautiful.” When creating any form of content, hashtags can greatly increase the success and reach of a post, and help connect brands with their intended audience.

Other Trends in Content Marketing

It should be noted that although video is one of the top trends going into 2020, the importance of email marketing, blog posts and social media posts should not be overlooked. In many cases, email marketing can be used to help push and promote content to consumers, keep customers engaged and even improve brand awareness. A key aspect of email content marketing is the data that it can provide for the companies sending the emails. The data gained from an email sent out can help companies determine which type of content is performing best, or being looked at the most, as well as how to better drive sales through email campaigns. One of the greatest advantages that email has is its ability to target consumers directly, and deliver personalized content based on previous data. One of the biggest trends right now in content marketing is personalized content. In fact, 54 percent of shoppers now anticipate a personalized discount within a day of sharing their information with a retailer.[footnoteRef:10] Personalized content is now morphing into what is known as dynamic content, which is content that changes based on various factors known about the consumer. Location, time, weather, gender and more are now all being used to adjust current content specifically for each viewer. [10: Balkhi, S. (2020, January 2)]

Conclusion

It is evident that content marketing, in all its formats, is a growing trend, however with so much noise on the internet, the most successful content will be original, imaginative, engaging and inspirational for its intended audience. Any company looking to advance into the next decade successfully should invest in proper content marketing, as it can also have a negative effect if not implemented and executed correctly. The future of content marketing is one of great possibility for both consumers and companies, where both can benefit from valuable, creative content.

Bibliography

1. 37 Mind Blowing YouTube Statistics For B2B Marketers In 2019. (2020, January 6). Retrieved from https://foundationinc.co/lab/youtube-statistics-b2b-marketers/
2. Anderson, B. E. (2020, January 27). 5 Reasons Businesses Need to Get on TikTok. Retrieved from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-businesses-need-to-be-on-tiktok/342805/#close
3. Balkhi, S. (2020, January 2). 5 Content Marketing Trends You Need to Know for 2020. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/343230
4. Gamble, S. (2016). Visual content marketing : leveraging infographics, video, and interactive media to attract and engage customers. Wiley. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.libproxy.slc.me/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=cat00997a&AN=stlaw.659465
5. Hayes, A. (2019, December 23). The State of Video Marketing in 2020 [New Data]. Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/state-of-video-marketing-new-data
6. Introducing IGTV. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://business.instagram.com/a/igtv
7. Jefferson, S., & Tanton, S. (2015). Valuable Content Marketing : How to Make Quality Content Your Key to Success (Vol. 2nd edition). London, UK: Kogan Page. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.libproxy.slc.me/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=nlebk&AN=1021486
8. Pophal, L. (2019). The State of Online Video. EContent, 42(1), 31–33. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.libproxy.slc.me/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=fth&AN=134787747
9. TikTok Marketing 101: What Is TikTok and How Can You Market on It? (2019, March 12). Retrieved from https://www.socialreport.com/insights/article/360024325551-Tiktok-Marketing-101-What-Is-Tiktok-How-Can-You-Market-on-It-

The role of content marketing in today’s business world is increasingly growing because it has become one of the best ways to increase consumer engagement, generate quality leads, boost sales, and stimulate business growth.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnpr3pkFlk&t=908s

More than 2.8 billion people are active internet and social media users and this number is growing. That is why content marketing is a well-suited instrument for both start-ups and well-established business entities. However, the effectiveness of content marketing can be a challenge even for the most experienced marketers. Competition for consumer attention and favour is fierce and now companies, both large and small, have to follow new methods to get benefits of content marketing. They must learn how to inspire their audiences, how to use technology and social media, and how to integrate all these instruments to rise above the noise. Unfortunately, many organisations fail miserably because they overlook the most basic rules of content marketing. In this article, we have summarised the top 5 rules of content marketing for doing it right in 2019.

1. Have a content marketing plan

If you consider using content marketing as a full-fledged marketing strategy, then having a plan is a must. Sit down, think about what type of content you are going to use, document your strategy, and execute it. Yes, we know that working out a marketing strategy on paper may be quite boring and tedious. But no paid – no gain, right? Besides, marketers must not only wrap their head around the product or service they advertise and promote, but also to have a full understanding of all the details and nuances of the industry to succeed. So, without having a plan you will not be able to optimise your content marketing and achieve some real results.

Remember that a content marketing plan is something more than just creating content, it is about distributing valuable and relevant content in a way that allows you to reach you target audience with the right information, in the right place, and at the right time. The effective content marketing plan is also about how frequently you publish your content. It is your road-map, your calendar. Another reason why having this type of plan is a good idea is because it allows you to keep everyone involved in the creation and distribution of your content on the same page. Finally, you can always share this plan with others to buy into the role, which content plays in the marketing of your goods or services.

2. Focus on your content

Perhaps, the second-most important tip that we can give you is to focus of the quality of your content and its overall readability. This does not just mean using a particular type of photos, music, video, or paragraphs. What is really important here is to make sure your content evokes the right emotions. Your content should establish a deeper brand-consumer relationship by using such elements as storytelling, user experience, and brand visuals. Make sure to use all these elements and you will see how your content is becoming more appealing and engaging. It is also a good idea to use these elements to diversify your content so your audiences don’t get tired of the same type of content offered to them.

Creating engaging, compelling, and informative content is crucial for your ability as a marketer to generate more organic traffic and conversion, which is always good. However, remember that you need to weave your brand’s identity into the content to make it unique. It is not enough just to use a set of visuals to attract consumer attention. Today, consumers want to be connected to their preferred brands and feel this connection. That is why you must make sure all types of your content have a distinct tone and a unique set of visuals. The content should also have a clear set of compelling values, which closely relates to your audience’s values and helps distinguish your goods and services from those of competitors.

3. Provide detail, breadth, and depth

It is quite apparent that both audiences and search engines prefer content that is informative, detailed, and digs deep into the heart of the matter to solve all topic-related problems. That is why developing a successful content marketing strategy requires investing your time and effort in producing high-quality, informative content. A useful rule of thumb is that the more time you spend creating this type of content, the better the chances that your website will rank higher in search engine results pages. In turn, the higher your website is ranked, the more traction among online audiences it can gain. Of course, creating high-quality content can be very expensive and time-consuming, but we believe that the rewards will be worth the effort.

However, one can argue that content quality is a vague term and every company or marketer has their own criteria of quality. Although this statement is partly true, there are still some objective measures of quality that can help you create unique, engaging, and informative content. One of these criteria is the ability of content to achieve marketing objectives. One simple measure of the quality of content is how much value it brings, not how much time or money you put into it. If you spend hours and hours just to create a visual, which does not achieve a certain marketing goal – it’s worthless. These goals can include, but are not limited to traffic generation, higher levels of engagement, conversion, and rankings.

4. Integrate SEO into your content

The role of search engine optimisation or SEO in the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy is hard to overestimate. This significance is explained by the fact that SEO is responsible for increasing the quality of traffic, as well as attracting maximum visitors to your website or social media pages. In turn, content marketing is aimed at using relevant and valuable content in order to drive profitable customer action. SEO is of strategic importance to the effectiveness of content marketing because every website requires articles, words, substance, imagery, and keywords to be ranked high in search engine results pages. That is why both SEO and content marketing must go hand in hand to be successful and effective. Specific attention should be given to the implementation of the right keywords into the body of the text on your website.

Remember that you should use keywords in a strategic manner to ensure they really work. For example, stuffing a page with keywords is probably a bad idea since it makes your SEO less focused and confuses search engines. For effective SEO, you should use the most competitive keywords, which are closely associated with your business, market segment, and industry. It could be beneficial to use keyword analysis instruments, such as Google’s Keyword Planner, to analyse the most popular keyword volume. It is also imperative to integrate keywords specific to your city, country, or geographic area to boost the ranking of your content and make sure it is consumed by the right audience.

5. Measure your success

How would you know that your content marketing strategy is successful or not? It is impossible without measuring your progress against a bunch of key performance indicators. So measuring the success or failure of your content marketing is a vital element of your marketing strategy. You can start with pretty basic stuff, such as page views, bounce rate web metrics, and time on page to get a picture of your content marketing effectiveness. At this point, it is important to make sure that every single link, which forms your content marketing strategy, can be tracked. If you want to get more sophisticated information and assess the effectiveness of your content marketing more thoroughly, you should drill as far down in the metrics as you can. For example, you could use such measures as the number of unique visitors, demographics, and geography to measure your efforts. By having access to this information, you can identify what aspects of your content marketing strategy are more effective and what elements should be refined or completely abandoned.

Social media also provides a valuable insight into the effectiveness of one’s content marketing efforts. As for measurement, you could keep an eye on the share count, follower growth rate, and the number of comments to assess the success or failure of your content marketing approach on social media. Finally, you could take into consideration the return on investment or ROI of your marketing efforts as another measure of success. To measure ROI, marketers usually use such metrics as marketing qualified leads, sales qualified leads, click-through rates, and email open rates.

So here you go – the top 5 rules of content marketing that will help you achieve real results. Of course, we could write a much longer list of these because content marketing is such a vast area of marketing. At the same time, to keep things simple, we stuck to the most basic yet extremely important rules for developing an effective content marketing strategy.

Trend Description

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach that helps in creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content that attracts and retains that particular audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. Content marketing is at the core of best advanced showcasing efforts. Behind each extraordinary brand is an abundance of profitable and pertinent substance that truly interfaces with the organization’s audience (Institution, 2019). Why is it important to marketers and consumers?

1. Improves brand image by building trust through content marketing.
2. Great content helps impact changes.
3. Optimized content enhances your SEO endeavors.
4. Creating extraordinary content is a financially savvy approach to get new leads.
5. Content empowers your image to show your topic.
6. Your leads and clients need extraordinary content!
7. Content marketing encourages you set yourself apart from contenders.
8. Content is vital in between each progression of the marketing funnel.
9. Content marketing is amazing tool that helps all the digital marketing strategy (Smith, 2018).

Background research

Brands have been recounting their stories to potential customers for many years. Narrating itself is one of the most seasoned types of communication. Content marketing rehearses by brands started to develop in the late nineteenth century, as mechanical advances in transportation and interchanges enabled organizations to fashion more associations with their clients. Brands at long last had the chance to connect and frame associations with purchasers that were about difficult to grow. Imaginative early advertisers grabbed this chance. Initially, there was Niche Marketing than advertising monopolies content marketing than multi-channel campaign, content marketing explodes on internet. There are three lessons from history of content marketing:

• Quality over quantity – one should focus on quality rather than quantity. Marketing on small scale but doing well is accepted but marketing on large scale doing nearly well is not accepted.
• Trend repeat – People listen to radio content before like radio content, the idea is same now consumer listen to brand produced podcasts.
• Target audience – Organization should recognize who are there target audience and which channel they use. One should identify the behavior of consumers (White, 2019).

Here are some of the predictions of content marketing:

The Trust Factor

From security outrages and protection worries to customers’ waning trust on the planet’s center organizations, trust is in emergency. Truth be told, the last two Edelman Trust Barometer studies have uncovered declining shopper trust toward business, media, and government, and NGOs to ‘make the wisest decision.’ This was the first run through a decrease was accounted for since the beginning of the report almost two decades prior.

Farewell “Consumable” Content; Hello Personalized Experiences

In 2018, discuss “content personalization” and “making content encounters” has been becoming more intense. Also, in 2019, it’ll likely hit a fever pitch. Consultancy and Adobe’s 2018 Digital Trends report uncovered that conveying customized encounters progressively is the most energizing open door for advanced and showcasing experts. Moreover, upgrading client encounters over various touch points is a best need throughout the following couple of years.

The Breakdown of Data Silos

Each advertiser has data – some may even say they need or need a greater amount of it. Nonetheless, access to so much information is still moderately new, and each advertiser wishes they had the capacity to draw more bits of knowledge that lead to activity. What’s more, having the capacity to draw that understanding is basic to progress.

The Evolution of Content Marketing Sophistication

Content showcasing is never again a glossy item — it’s a center methodology and strategy for most B2B advertisers. Content showcasing is essentially ‘advertising’ in the cutting-edge advanced period. Actually, in the current year’s B2B Content Marketing 2019: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America from Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and Marketing Profs, the level of advertisers taking part in substance promoting wasn’t called out in the opening slides. Rather, key bits of knowledge focused on progress drivers, strategic blends, etc.

Acing Dependably On Promotion Will Further Enable Content Marketing Success

Advertisers realize that advancement and intensification is the perfection of all their other promoting endeavors. Be that as it may, many haven’t balanced their systems to represent declining natural perceivability, the ascent of answer encloses look, the expanding interest for progressively visual, drawing in, and experiential substance, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

The Expansion of What’s Considered “Content”

Content. Pictures. Video. Sound. These are apparently the center substance ‘classifications’ most B2B advertisers are OK with. Be that as it may, on the off chance that they haven’t as of now, B2B advertisers should look past these structures in 2019 and think about the job of substance in rising innovations. In particular, content that is conveyed through IoT gadgets, for example, brilliant watches, vehicles, machines, bots, and keen speakers. (Caitlin Burgess, 2018)

Factors influencing growth

Here are four territories that can significantly influence the accomplishment of your content promoting technique:

Report Your Content Plan

Insights demonstrate that organizations aren’t archiving their methodologies (just 35 percent of advertisers are doing as such). Furthermore, in a few discussions I’ve had with showcasing pioneers, those measurements have tragically ended up being valid. Reporting methodologies doesn’t simply profit your advertising group. Content promoting can be utilized for selecting, PR, representative preparing, and different divisions.

Streamline Your Content Creation Efforts

I positively won’t deny that reliably making drawing in content is an interest in both time and spending plan. Yet, on the off chance that you can tackle your organization’s learning in one place, it can spare a ton of conceptualizing and composing time.

Target Publications Based on Audience, Not Ranking

Content advertising isn’t about the view of believability; it’s tied in with increasing genuine impact. As it were, it’s not just about getting into Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, or another real production. The way to effective content advertising is to look for specialty online distributions that achieve your intended interest group.

Make a Checklist to Leverage Content

Distributing inside and remotely will enable you to achieve the correct leads, however you can’t exclusively depend upon productions for commitment. And keeping in mind that sharing content via web-based networking media is important — and ought to be standard for every one of the articles your organization distributes — making it a stride further can truly augment its prosperity (John Hall, 2015).

Industry Participants

Content marketing plays very important role in the growth of companies’ digital marketing strategies. Approximately 53% of businesses in the world use content marketing and invest their time and money in it. Content marketing is used by very famous brands. Our yearly research demonstrates mostly advertisers are using content marketing. It is used by most promising brands, including P&G, Microsoft, Cisco Systems, TED and John Deere. It is created and executed by very small business and individually owned shops. They use it because it works really well for them. Here is just one example of content marketing in action by john Deere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=rbKvoKeu4vc

TED is a set of global conferences where authors, experts, and other leaders give talks about thought-provoking ideas. TED talks YouTube channel has over 12 million subscribers where they upload every single video of the show which gets viewed in millions. Basically, TED talk is show that is committed to create ideas that is worth spreading all over the world. People love to share or hear interesting stories on the show.

At last, TED isn’t making SEO or research their most likely need — they’re simply trying to discover and make world-class content that they think individuals would love. This is the reason they’ve turned out to be such a worldwide sensation, despite the fact that the majority of their content is included 15-minute videos of somebody talking on the stage. Promotion of the content is really important, but the thing that is more important is providing the audience with the world-class content based on the principles behind why people share.

References

1. https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/what-is-content-marketing/
2. https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/why-is-content-marketing-important/
3. https://themanifest.com/digital-marketing/how-businesses-use-content-marketing
4. https://www.singlegrain.com/content-marketing-strategy-2/16-companies-dominating-the-world-with-content-marketing/
5. https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhall/2015/08/02/5-factors-that-dictate-content-marketing-success/#49b189a20edd
6. https://www.toprankblog.com/2018/12/b2b-content-marketing-predictions-trends-2019/

Content marking is a type of marketing which fixates on producing, publicizing and disbursing content for a specific target market online (Pulizzi, Joe; Barrett, Newt (February 2010), intended to accomplish:

• appealing to the general public
• extending the target market
• setting up and increasing sales
• broadening people’s knowledge of the brand
• building customer loyalty and customer relationships online.

Content marketing is a somewhat contemporary type of marketing scheme. It’s used to allure probable consumers through significant content from the business, instead of using a typical method of direct marketing the product to the target consumer. Content marketing intrigues anyone interested and transforms these people into consumers by producing and distributing free content. Content marketing assists businesses to produce sustainable customer loyalty and relationships, to indulge significantly information to customers, and to establish compliance to buy products from the business. Additionally, this initiates and increases customer relationships (Le, 2013).

All people were raised listening to their parents, friends or even teachers telling stories. They would introduce different types of stories and read them aloud to us. The benefits of storytelling are how valuable they are, how audiences can relate to them, and how easily audiences seem to remember these them. Storytelling has become an essential and significant content marketing method. Because the story is the slight influence of the aggregation of thickness on the audience, the story is also considered a brand asset.

With the influence of social media and other similar technologies, traditional marketing has become less effective as time passes by. One important reason why businesses are turning to content marketing is that content marketing helps boost sales, cut down costs and build customer loyalty (Content Marketing Institute 2017, Metrick 2018).

Content marketing is mostly related to building customer relationships (i-SCOOP 2018, Ruffolo 2017) and providing them with important information (Ruffolo 2017). Using content marketing means to provide significant information to the consumers, which can be refined and put on the business’s social media, blog or website. The inflation of technology in the past few decades has grown remarkably. The number of individuals around the world with access to the internet is increasing expeditiously every day, particularly in the more developed places. However, this also means that the time spent online is also growing aggressively (The Foundations of Marketing by John Fahy & David Jobber, 5th edition).

Over half of the world’s population has access to the virtual world. The global digital landscape is continuing to grow exponentially. There are currently 4.1 billion users of the internet, which is around 52% of the population. The average daily internet usage has outweighed 6 hours. Although Asia is continuing to grow its prevailing share of internet users, Africa’s users grow at the fastest rate. It is predicted that soon, Africa’s users will take over South America and Europe to enduringly claim the second-place spot. (Global internet statistics for 2018, Mike Kujawski) The virtual world allows many preferences of communication between a business and its consumers. It can integrate B2C, B2B, C2B and C2C communication (The Foundations of Marketing by John Fahy & David Jobber, 5th edition).

John Deere – During the early 19th century, breakthroughs in transportation, technology and communication allowed businesses to build stronger customer relationships and boost customer loyalty. John Deere was a colonist, and in 1895, he saw the opportunity to create a news magazine called The Furrow – A Journal For The American Farmer. By 1912, his influence had grown past 4 million. Today, The Furrow is available in 14 languages in over 115 countries. It’s the most widely distributed farm magazine in the world.

John Deere circulated the magazine to his target market for free. His magazine was crammed with astute and critique content – including the latest farming fads – which helped farmers to succeed more easily. The Deere family perceived a very important factor in marketing and a method of boosting sales profits that still continues to reverberate in the modern world: educating your target market is the most essential way to help increase your market and cheque book. People in the 19th century didn’t wish to see why they should waste their money on a simple piece of iron. Instead, they wanted to know how to address farming difficulties.

André and Édouard Michelin did something that confused competitors. They published their own book: Le guide rouge de Michelin (The Michelin Guide) in the early 20th century. The book was filled with essential information for starving pioneers. It was crammed with advice on how to change tires and where you could refuel your car. Towards the end of the book were a list of places to eat and suggestions for hostels. The Michelin Guide is the most primitive example of content marketing. The business bonds the target market’s needs and wants with their own objectives to produce their own content and products. To recapitulate, the Michelin Guide has an evolution that is able to teach so many audiences very essential marketing morals.

Nowadays, it is difficult for companies to establish themselves as more and more businesses are emerging on the market. Especially the tourism industry and hospitality industry face constant changes and new trends (Fleischer, Peleg and Rivlin (Byk), 2011). Companies need to manage and invest in their marketing strategy. Moreover, consumers have a large selection of purchasing services and products. Customers are more interested in creating new products and services to meet their needs (Ind and Coates, 2013).

Nevertheless, because of the large number of companies promoting their services or products on social networks, it is becoming increasingly difficult to be exceptional, attract consumers and grab their attention. Technology has given businesses new marketing opportunities, and companies are increasingly using social media and loyalty programs to lure and retain customers (Pulizzi and Barett, 2009).

On the other hand, because of the technological progress, all news is spreading faster, and companies can be exposed to problems on their social media platforms where anyone can read negative things form customers about a particular company. Besides, the rumour and false information that can damage the company’s reputation can quickly spread.

This report aims to show what the benefits and pitfalls of using content marketing from an organizational position are today. Also, how co-creation and value creation is related to content marketing, the report will also focus on competitive advantage. All these theories are applied to examples from tourism, hospitality and event industry. The examples in this report were chosen from different perspectives. An example from tourism includes low-cost airline Jet2.com. The second example is from the hospitality industry and focuses on the luxury chain of Marriott Hotels. The last example is an event example that spotlights on a small festival held in Manchester, and it is a Latin Festival. As a result, the report can focus on comparing the use of content marketing by diverse companies.

Content Marketing

Traditional marketing has undergone significant changes in recent years. The emergence of digital marketing required a re-evaluation of the company’s marketing strategies if they wanted to remain competitive in the new digital era (Patrutiu Baltes, 2015). Rowley (2008) states that content marketing is an increasingly important part of the commercial landscape in business marketing. According to Content Marketing Institute (2019), content marketing is characterized as marketing process for creating and sharing appropriate and valuable content to attract, engage and acquire a clearly defined and understood target market, besides, to drive profitable customer action. Moreover, content marketing enables businesses to create and share content that is targeted at potential customers as well as current customers (Pulizzi and Barett, 2009).

The content marketing strategy can be distributed in many forms, such as print, in person, online, social, mobile, etc. Additionally, these forms can be used at any or all stages of the selling process, from attention-oriented strategies to loyalty strategies (Content Marketing Institute, 2019). According to Stephenson (2019), the main objective of content marketing is to create trust and confidence through every step of the purchasing process. The figure 1 shows how content marketing can influence the buying process in three different stages.

Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004) stated that consumers nowadays have many options in terms of purchasing services or products, so companies need to invest in greater product variety. During content creation, it is crucial to identify factors that influence consumers through the buying process, such as social, economic and psychological aspects. If consumers receive incomplete information, this may harm the purchasing decision. The dimension of negative impact is reduced based on the amount and relevance of the information transmitted through communication messages. The role of these messages is to encourage customers to purchase the respective goods and services. Also, designing effective content and selecting the most suitable communication tools are essential steps in creating and maintaining a product’s consumer preferences. The aim of content marketing strategy is to create both short term economic effects and long-term profitable customer relationships. Companies communicate with customers through a communicational message, and so customers respond by buying a product or service. Besides, companies influence consumers’ purchase decisions while consumers have an influence on companies through their buying decisions (Mihaela, 2015). Figure 2 below shows which aspects should be taken into considerations while creating content depending on the buying process and decision making of customers.

In general, there are three types of content; licensed content, original content and user-created content. Licensed content means advertising and promotional materials shared by those whose copyright is owned by the licensor. Original content focuses on custom content such as infographics, videos and daily blog posts. Whereas user-created content is any form of content posted by users on online platforms (Perry, 2019). Moreover, there are many other types of content marketing, such as social media content, case studies, blogs, e-newsletters, in-person events, website articles, videos, illustrations/photos, white papers, infographics, online presentations, webinars/webcasts, microsites, research reports, print magazines, print newsletters, digital magazines, mobile apps, branded content tools, books, podcasts, virtual conferences, e-books and also games/gamification (Content Marketing Institute, 2019).

With the considerable benefit of opportunities in terms of digital marketing, many companies have recently increased the use of content marketing tool in their marketing strategy (Patritiu Baltes, 2015). Pulizzi and Barett (2009) agree with Rowley (2008) that technology has moved the market forward and made it more accessible, which is why online marketing is rapidly improving. Also, Patritiu Baltes (2015) mentioned that nowadays, content marketing is not performed only by large organisations but also by medium-sized and small companies. At the same time, the organization has to make additional investments for content marketing to be done correctly and profitable for the organization (Patritiu Baltes, 2015).

In my lovely state of Texas, it is 100% legal to kill Bigfoot, if you ever find it (Snapple Real Fact #1339). I am willing to bet that you will share that fact with at least one other person. Why am I so confident? Because that piece of information is novel, surprising, and provides you with social currency. These things are very important to keep in mind as I explain why content marketing is the single most important form of digital marketing a company can invest in.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is vital to a business’ success and customer loyalty, but that’s not the whole of it. Businesses must be very intentional about said content. If customers don’t care about content, it will be useless white noise, which could even lead customers to unfollow brands due to being spammed with useless content. Therefore, it is critical that brands provide content that is valuable to the consumer. For this reason, it would behoove businesses to partner with psychologists in identifying content that is valuable to consumers and will make consumers more likely to share that brand’s content. One book that excellently outlines how one might do this is Contagious by Jonah Berger. What is particularly relevant in Contagious is the exploration of what makes Snapple so valuable: the social currency it gives and the subsequent viral nature of their product. The content that companies use must be novel or interesting, and it must provide the consumer with social currency. When employed properly, content marketing will utilize the single most effective form of advertisement: word of mouth. For this reason, content marketing is the most vital form of digital marketing.

Content Marketing Role

Content marketing is a form of digital marketing that consists of businesses producing content that is not directly trying to push sales. An example of this is Snapple putting surprising and real facts under every Snapple lid. The information is purposeful, and is used in the hopes of increasing sales, but the fact that elephants are afraid of bees (Real Fact #1226) is not directly urging people to buy more Snapple. Content marketing is effective for multiple reasons: it is a consistent presence in the people’s day-to day life, it provides multiple triggers that instantiate the product in consumers’ minds, and most importantly, it utilizes the customer’s propensity for sharing their opinions with others. I will be focusing on the last point, as it is the most relevant to the topic of social currency.

When it comes to advertising, nothing is more compelling to new customers than a recommendation from someone they know. While companies pay advertising agencies and celebrities to push their products, no one is paying your friend Joe to tell you how good the neighborhood pizza place is. Think about it, who’s recommendation are you more likely to trust: someone who you know is only recommending something because they’re paid to do so, or someone who is recommending something because they genuinely enjoy it? When products are recommended by friends, the recommendations have more weight than when they come from paid representatives. For this reason, companies have adapted to incorporate word-of-mouth advertisement. Buzz agencies drum up free-range recommenders by finding people who fit the demographic for new products and give them an opportunity to experience that product. This is so effective because those same people are likely to tell their friends about the products they actually enjoy–for free. Why? Social currency.

Social Currency

Social currency is anything someone knows or possesses that increases their social standing. That is, social currency makes someone look smarter, funnier, or more important than they would be otherwise. In practical terms, things provide social currency when they are novel or interesting. Novelty provides social currency by making someone appear more intelligent or more “in the know.” The great part for companies looking to utilize word-of-mouth? People love sharing their opinions and using social currency. People are naturally inclined to share their opinions; as explored in Originals, it is intrinsically rewarding. This is great news, as it means that people are intrinsically rewarded for spreading the word about their favorite products and brands. The only thing companies have to do to utilise this natural inclination is provide the consumer with something to talk about. On a basic level, this comes from consumers enjoying a product and talking about it. However, another way to amp up the buzz is by utilizing the other side of word-of-mouth: social currency. Companies can tap into this aspect by utilising content marketing, as long as it is the right content.

Content Utilization In Marketing

Companies who seek to utilize content marketing should aim for their content to hone in on what is novel and interesting about their brand. Companies should find ways of making their content socially valuable. For instance, Glossier creates novel content by using models that have acne scars and bushy eyebrows. This is practically unheard of and gets people talking. That is the goal. When people find something shocking, unbelievable, or novel, they reach out socially to discuss it, and by extension share that brand. Take The Blair Witch Project, for example. It was advertised as a found-footage movie and people were shocked. They just had to discuss it with their friends. What did they think? Was it real? Did witches actually exist or was it a hoax? This type of communication only served to feed into the popularity of the movie. Social currency is a powerful motivator for people to share a brand’s content.

Conclusion

In summary, when considering digital marketing, the most effective tool a brand has is content marketing. This is because it naturally gives customers content that they find novel and interesting and therefore worthy of sharing. Additionally, this type of word-of-mouth advertisement is effective at recruiting new customers, due to its genuine nature. But this type of word-of-mouth only happens when content is worthy of being shared or is socially valuable. Therefore, companies wishing to utilize content marketing must identify what is novel and interesting about their brand. A company’s digital presence is vital to its success and content marketing is a key piece in that.