Think marathon rather than sprint when planning content marketing

Photo by Steven Lelham on Unsplash

Done right, content marketing will deliver an ROI measured in terms of the LTV of a customer. 

But it’s a marathon -- not a sprint.

What makes content marketing  distinct from other forms of marketing is that its primary goal is to engage your target audience’s interest rather than lead immediately to a call-to-action to buy.. The content can take many forms, and part of planning an effective strategy is selecting the medium that is most likely  to capture your audience’s attention. 

For example, a kitchenware seller may send out recipes or blogs that offer advice on healthy substitutions to make guilt-free desserts. But it can also use video content effectively to demonstrate techniques in cooking or offer a downloadable app that converts cooking  measurements from ounces to grams or milliliters.  

Even infographics can be tailored for such a seller. For example, it can show the shift in demand and supply chain issues to explain why you may find shortages of certain key ingredients and suggest possible substitutions for recipes.  

What all the approaches described above have in common is that they position the brand as a credible source of information within its own defined niche. Over time that leads to a deepened relationship with your audience. 

Content marketing goals

Some B2C marketers have trouble defining their content marketing goals, though it generally falls into one  of the top six for identified a  Content Marketing Institute survey: 

            Creating brand awareness (84%)

• Educating audiences (75%)

• Building credibility/trust (65%)

• Nurturing subscribers/audiences (49%)

• Generating sales/revenue (48%)

• Building a subscribed audience (38%)

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Seeing  you consistently address their  interests rather than just promoting yourself  makes them feel more connected to your brand. As a result, they will be more inclined to buy from you than from brands that have not invested in earring their trust. 

Seeing  you consistently address their  interests rather than just promoting yourself  makes them feel more connected to your brand. As a result, they will be more inclined to buy from you than from brands that have not invested in earring their trust. 

 Like SEO strategy, content marketing is a long-term strategy that can take six months or even longer to demonstrate significant lifts for your targets. However, truly solid content marketing that your audience really appreciates can sometimes even deliver more immediate ROI. 

The right way and wrong way to approach content marketing

So how do you know if you’re doing it right? You look at others who are putting out great content and those who can’t break out of the self-promotion mold even when they claim to want to do content marketing.

The point comes across clearly in my own experience in managing the content and advertising for a bridal magazine in which the hairstylist got it right and the photographer got it wrong. She gave readers tips that they could use, while he wrote about himself and his approach to photography. 

The results were clear. The photographer was disappointed that  the article didn’t generate sales instantly even though many people told him they saw it. The hairstylist was thrilled that the article brought her more customers than any advertising had ever done. 

Granted, women get their hair done more frequently than they hire photographers, but that is all the more reason for the photographer to recognize that he cannot expect immediate sales.  His real error was in squandering the opportunity to do content marketing right. 

The photographer failed to  offer the audience anything of value to them because he was so intent on self-promotion that he refused to put himself in the shoes of his audience and consider what they would want to learn. The hairstylist, on the other hand, instinctively understood what content would appeal to her audience and was rewarded for giving it to them. 

In the case of the hairstylists, the business leads came in right away, which is somewhat unusual. Typically, though, such a strong response only develops after a series of articles or videos build up a following.

Related:

7 Habits of Highly Effective Marketers

Make Your Content as Accessible as Possible

What Edison Can Teach Us About SEO

7 Ways to Grab Customer Attention in Subject Lines

CRO is Like Basketball

Do you think this level of content is beyond your budget? Think again. Poor quality content not only fails to deliver the ROI you get from high quality content; it can actually harm your brand by demoting the the site ranking you've invested so much in building up.

What you really can't afford is poor quality content. Hire a seasoned pro to craft the right message for your organization and your demographics. Learn more here and book a free consultation call.

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The essence of luxury marketing: exclusivity

When it comes to celebrating 50 years,  gray flannel just doesn’t cut it.

The Range Rover’s golden anniversary called for a celebration and a new suit. Accordingly, the brand collaborated with Henry Poole & Co,  located on on London’s Savile Row,  to create a unique fabric pattern that  incorporates the colors of the original 1970 Range Rover:  Tuscan Blue, Bahama Gold, and Davos White.  

The fabric itself would be woven out of lambswool in Somerset by cloth manufacturer Fox Brothers & Co Ltd,  The limited supply of 120 m. would be just enough to make  50  bespoke men’s and women’s jackets.

Luxury marketing and exclusivity in common 

It may seem odd to connect a car to a jacket, but the branding approach does make sense in the context of the target market. Referring to the sense of heritage and luxury that the car brand and tailors have in common,Land Rover’s Chief Creative Officer Prof Gerry McGovern OBE touches on the essence of luxury marketing:

  “Rarity does play a role, exclusivity in the appeal of the products from these brands. We’ve deliberately limited the amount that we will produce both on the jacket and on the vehicle itself, and I think that rarity is something that appeals to both our customers and Henry Poole’s.” 

Read more in The Man in the Range Rover Suit

To the sleeper the spoils

A good night’s sleep is not just desirable but essential for top performance. That’s the lesson of the IKEA ad that envisions a prequel to Aesop’s famous fable about the tortoise and the hare.

See “The Hare” commercial on YouTube Note the name of the place where the hare hangs out with friends before playing video games and posting pictures all night rather than getting the solid night’s sleep enjoyed by the tortoise.

Perhaps they can play off the whimsy in this adaption with creatives that offer backstories to other famous stories about sleep. I can just picture it working for Sleeping Beauty, or better yet,  The Princess and the Pea. 

Read more in IKEA Presents the Night Before the Fabled Race

Schoolcation post makes the LinkedIn List

One of the great things about writing for Optimove is that I get to review hundreds of interesting marketing stories to select the very best ones to be featured on the PostFunnel site. My most recent one just got this LinkedIn mark of distinction:
"Congratulations! Your post was featured by the LinkedIn News team in "Home-schooling...at Disney World?"

To read the post, click on Hotels Now Offer “Schoolcations”

From Shakespeare to Starbucks: Pumpkin spice marketing mystique

Popular wisdom used to say "It's the sizzle that sells the steak." Well, today it's the PSL buzz that sells the drink. But if you know your Shakespeare, you know that it's not a wholly new idea.



Retailers don't wait until October to push pumpkin in the form of special scents and flavors. Even those who don’t sell drinks or food have hopped on the pumpkin spice bandwagon with scented candles, body lotions, soaps, and even deodorant.

In fact, the most highly-anticipated pumpkin spice of all made its grand arrival in August. I refer, of course, to pumpkin spice latte (PSL) that fans look for every year at their favorite coffee shop.

The pumpkin spice mystique is not just about the flavor; it’s about building a connection with customers that heightens anticipation and engagement. Starbucks does it brilliantly.

During August, Starbucks rides the buzz on the return of the PSL. It lets it build up with much speculation about when the first one will be poured, as the date changes each year to maintain a feeling of mystery and maximize anticipation.

That's the essence of the PR strategy that Shakespeare's Prince Henry adopts, as he tells the audience  in Henry IV Part I:

I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The unyoked humour of your idleness:
Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work;
But when they seldom come, they wish'd for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
So, when this loose behavior I throw off
And pay the debt I never promised,
By how much better than my word I am,
By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;
And like bright metal on a sullen ground,
My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,
Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
I'll so offend, to make offence a skill;
Redeeming time when men think least I will.

What works for heroic kings in plays also works for brands that know that even pleasurable things lose their sparkle when they are around all the time, just as we take the sun for granted when it is never hidden by clouds. The perception of rarity grants the object in question a particular status that it would not have if it were always available.

For more marketing posts, see a collection of links to blogs posted on various publications here and
Marketing in Uncommon Times

For more references to Shakespeare, see The Marriage Plot: Expectations for Novel Ending Must Be Met, The Marriage of Opposites, and Happy (Early) Birthday, Shakespeare.

Have your shoe and eat it too

Anyone on TikTok or Twitter has likely seen at least one #EverythingIsCake meme. These very short videos make anything from what looks like a can of Coke, glass of water, roll of toilet paper, or even a human hand to be an actual cake that is revealed when it is cut. Yummy.

A Croc was one of the items, and perhaps that is what inspired the collaboration between Deliveroo and Adidas UK. Deliveroo delivered the news in a tweet featuring the edible version of the new  ZX 2K Boost Adidas sneaker (in England called trainer) design that would accompany the real thing for the winner of its promotional offer.

 

Does the shoe fit?

For a chance to win the twin pairs of shoes - one to wear and one to eat - those who live within a 1.5 mile of the Deliveroo Whitechapel Editions kitchen have to visit its app after noon on August 26. While cake is among the usual items Deliveroo delivers, the wearables would be a first.

So why should a food delivery service promote itself with sneakers? It’s all about capturing attention and publicity.

Read more in Have Your Cake and Eat It Too.

A nickel-and-dime trick for thousands of dollars of free publicity

One of the things that has been noticeably absent this summer due to COVID-19 is the usual run of summer blockbusters. It’s been a long road to safe reopening.

At the end of August, finally, there is good news for movie lovers. AMC Theatres announced it will open over 100 theaters as of August 20th, rolling out to open more than half of their locations by September 3.

To mark the reopening and 100 years of movies, AMC is offering 1920 prices at the theater for one day only.

Limited time bargain

This offer is only available to those fortunate enough to be in the vicinity of one of the theaters opening on the 20th. They get to snag the bargain of a lifetime: just 15 cents plus tax for any movie showing that Thursday.

This is a great opportunity to be able to echo your own grandparents in boasting “I remember when movie tickets cost just 15 cents!”

Read more in: A nickel-and-dime reopening offer from AMC

Why is offering 15 cent tickets such a win? In the first place, the people who do snag those tickets on Thursday will likely feel they saved enough to justify a splurge at the concession stand. In the second place, the offer brought AMC so much attention that just about every single news outlet in the country covered the story, giving it tens of thousands of dollars worth of free publicity.