Content marketing has become one of the fastest growing media tactics used by brands today. In fact, it has been particularly huge across industries such as healthcare, education, and cause marketing, where tactics like display or a TV spot might not be enough to communicate a specific message. But despite it being a promising opportunity—one that can drive a deeper connection with consumers-many brands have struggled with getting it right, setting the appropriate KPIs, and ultimately measuring success.
In a session called “The Future of Content Marketing: Industry Trends & Predictions from Top Women in the Field,” panelists from Amtrak, Meredith Corp, Content Marketing Institute, and Twitter shared their thoughts on what’s needed to develop a strong content strategy.
- It should be obvious, but know your brand’s purpose and ensure that it carries through to the content that you produce. Consumers are looking for authenticity, so producing content that speaks to your brand and its beliefs in a real way while communicating your message is key. If you’re using talent or another brand to co-produce content, ensure that there are commonalities between the two brands and that the tone of the content feels authentic to both.
- Know who your audience is and create the content for them. For example, if you’re looking to reach a professional in the education or healthcare field, consider a whitepaper or more formal piece of content. Or if you’re going after a busy millennial mother, consider an interactive video or partnering with an influential blogger.
- Ensure that you have the right KPIs and measurement framework in place to evaluate success. There can be different goals for custom content and while there are still some tracking limitations for certain content types, it’s important to identify a clear measure of success right from the start that ties back to the brand’s objective.
Looking forward to 2020, the panelists also talked about upcoming trends for content marketing. For one, advancements in measurement, as Twitter’s Stacy Minero mentioned third parties such as VidMob and Picasso Labs which specialize in measuring the attributes or elements of a piece of content that resonates best with consumers. Another, which has already started to surface, is the shift to user generated content (UGC) and the use of real people instead of using talent or well-known influencers. One trend that I personally foresee is the increased use of data in content marketing and a shift to more personalized content based on unique audience attributes. As media continues to become more automated and dynamic, creating slightly nuanced content experiences for each of a brand’s key audience segments could be the next evolution to content marketing.
