For the past four years, the concept of digital marketing has had more than a significant makeover. There have been multiple Google algorithm updates, buying links is no longer deemed best practice and brands are now competing with the best content across the web to drive traffic and customers to their site. Ultimately, the SEO and digital marketing scene has predictably evolved but if this is true, why are brands still under the illusion that content, and more importantly good content, should have a one-size-fits-all approach?

Let’s say you have a window blind company that is solely an online business. You have a blog and a dedicated team that upload two posts a week, but how do you decide what to write about each week? Do you choose a product-related topic, perhaps how to freshen up a room with roller blinds, or do you create a round up of the best interior trends for autumn?

The simple answer is both, but the underlying answer is that you should be evaluating your USP as both a brand and a customer. What makes your content different from your competitors and influential interior online publications? How can you leverage your brand’s USP to create exciting and engaging content?

From a brand perspective, you know that this is what makes your business unique and why customers buy from your brand. But as a customer, what do you care about when you buy from brands?

A great example would be the Blendtec and their campaign ‘Will it blend?’. The key is to identify experts within your brand that can help you generate interest from customers. Looking at the Blendtec example, the scientist behind every video is Tom Dickson, the founder. The videos are part of a viral campaign because Dickson and his colleagues worked together to leverage their USP and identify the expert within the business.

No one knows your business better than the people who work within its walls and customers want to see that authority in the content you create.

If you are a finance institution, create a data visualisation around relevant topics such as the average spend of a British family over the last ten years or how much the average Brit spends on holiday in time for the summer season.

You know these topics impact your customers and by creating visual assets, you are not only joining this conversation but also adding value to your offering. Don’t just make it about the product but highlight how your product can play an important role in a customer’s lifestyle. Additionally, pinpoint who within your business has a strong social following or presence on platforms such as LinkedIn. Then map out how you can leverage these experts to comment on industry updates and product launches. Influential online publications are constantly looking for these experts so why not be ahead of the competition and plan ahead?

Your brand isn’t just in competition with other brands. You are in competition with the thousands of online publications that report on your industry from a local and global perspective. If you work in the tech industry, your customers will most likely be interested in reviews, video commentary and cool new features. Looking granularly, a potential customer will visit sites such as CNET and Tech Radar for this content. But as a tech brand, you should also be in partnership with these publications and engaging with them online and through social media platforms.

All the major tech conferences occur at the same time every year and mobile releases are predictably released around major shopping opportunities like Christmas; this information is in the public domain. But if you can offer further insight into these topics, why not approach these influential publications and offer exclusive content, commentary or data? These publications want to drive traffic to their articles so if they can do this through a collaboration or partnership, they will.

It is 2015 and brands should not only have a dedicated ‘hub’ for on-site content – although some still don’t, much to my dismay – but a multi-tiered approach for content creation. Gone are the days where you can just write a blog post and hope for the best and brands need to think beyond this if they want to increase traffic numbers and generate online sales.

 

By Nicole Barbosa, Earned Media PR Manager at iProspect UK. 

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