Heavy Lifting: The Weight of Content
One of the most important – and possibly most time consuming – components of a solid marketing strategy is content. Essentially the heart of any marketing and advertising plan, content gives a brand character and tells its story with the goal of differentiating it from the competition.
Content curation and implementation should be part of your long-term content marketing strategy, simply because it takes time to develop quality content. Additionally, there are so many types of content and ways it can be distributed. Consistency is key in making sure all of your messaging is cohesive and tells the brand story. Think of each content piece as a part of your brand’s story. All of it comes together, building a pitch that will make a lasting impression on your audience.
“Story telling is critical to every business. That’s why your content plan should be central to your marketing strategy. Every piece of content you share, from social media posts to e-newsletters, tells customers a piece of your company’s story. A solid marketing plan is grounded in great content that builds a connection with you audience, helps them develop trust in your brand and teaches them something new.” – Rachel Cook, Agency Content Editor
Additionally, news flash: not all content needs to be written wordage. Content isn’t the same as it used to be, and is constantly changing. Visual vs. text is a constant content battle, and these days it seems like visual is coming out on top. It takes the brain .25 seconds to process visual content, which is about 60,000 times faster than text. We’re not working with just your classic old fashioned content anymore.
Check out the top content styles that don’t fall under the standard written format:
Video: Video represents 74% of all internet traffic driving business to company websites. Video content is crucial. Did we mention YouTube is the second most used search engine?
Infographics: This style of content has grown to be extremely popular, and is liked and/or shared on social media 3 times more than any other content.
Memes and Gifs: Marketers are beginning to turn to funny and unique memes to make an impression on their customers.
Audio: There are quite a few ways to advertise via audio methods. Take Spotify for example, 140 million people use this platform MONTHLY. The audience growth Spotify is experiencing allows them to expand the ad business at 50%, according to their VP.
One thing that you have to keep at the top of your mind – if you’re consistently shelling out content, make sure it’s good. While it’s important to feed the marketing machine with your business’ content, if it’s just there to be there, you’re not going to see any results. A common mistake is for businesses to post unlimited amounts of updates on social media, blogs, etc. and the quality is pretty much (sorry not sorry) – bad. We’re huge advocates of quality over quantity – all the way.