Content marketing, otherwise called branded content, native or stealth advertising, is gaining in popularity due to the cost of producing content decreasing as the internet matures. Easy-to-use publishing platforms, more widely available creative tools, and a larger pool of content producers have all helped to remove cost as a barrier to entry for basic content marketing campaigns.

Some of the above names for the practice are a bit misleading because, at its heart, content marketing is a shift away from telling consumers what to think and toward marketing with the goal of creating value for the audience, and therefore affinity towards your brand. It could be called the next stage in the evolution of advertising or an intersection where traditional advertising meets public relations. Where traditional advertising is about telling consumers all about your product and how they should feel about it, content marketing adds a dimension of PR subtlety with messaging, experience, brand storytelling, and community engagement.

Here are five steps to create your own content marketing initiatives:

1. Find an interesting angle on your product/service
What problem does your product/service solve? What opportunity does it provide? When do people use it and when do they regret not having it? These are all questions that should help get to the product “truth”. This is an essential step as with a content marketing campaign the final output may not necessarily relate directly to your brand, but rather a broader topic that interests your audience and provides them with something of value, be it entertainment, useful information, good curation or some other useful tool or idea. This subtle way of selling without selling is how mass engagement and customer loyalty is achieved.

2. Find your topic
Content marketing is about injecting your brand into conversations your audience is already having, be they related to pop culture, a specific industry, or some other pertinent topic. The next stage of the content marketing journey will be to identify what conversations your core audience is having, and where there are natural places for you to jump in and add value. After determining a topic relevant to your audience, to you can start to figure out ways to naturally fit your brand into the conversation.

3. Creativity rules
Now it’s time to get creative! Armed with the essence of your product/service and a conversation your target audience is having, you can now start the brainstorming session. Brainstorm "what if" scenarios, mashing up your product/brand with the topic. For example, if you were an athletic sock company, and you know your audience likes football, come up with something along the lines of a “History of Socks in Sports” infographic, or major football stars reimagined as sock puppets.

4. Sell It
Now is time to figure out the format of your piece. Would it work best as a video, poster series, mini game, article, or something else? Remember that whatever format the content is in, it must be engaging and aimed at your target audience. You will need an irresistible headline to sum it all up. Imagine this as a Tweet, meaning that it must grab the reader’s attention and make them immediately click through. Would you click on it? Would your friends? Would your customers? 

5. Execute it
Once you have created your concept, it’s important to make sure it’s well executed. Hiring the right people is key — you want someone who you know “gets” what you’re going for. The format of the content will also rightly depend on the budget available. Content creation is now cheaper than ever before and, particularly for a small business, image-based content can be more cost-effective than a video or animation, but nowadays, even the costs of video production have dropped to be within reach of small and medium-sized marketing outfits.

Examples of great content marketing

British Airways #lookup

A recent example of an engaging content marketing campaign integrating offline and online is BA’s #lookup campaign which featured plane detecting billboards. The billboard tracked planes as they flew above London, including at Piccadilly Circus, with a child pointing to the sky encouraging you to look up at the flight number and destination of the plane above. What was effectively an offline campaign generated a huge level of interest online, helped significantly by the #lookup hashtag being a vital component.

The campaign tapped into people’s childlike fascination with aeroplanes and the wonder of what exotic destinations the passengers were visiting. BA understood its audience and devised a campaign and technology that engaged consumers, while the #lookup hashtag ingrained in the campaign generated conversation on social channels.

Whilst the costs involved in creating the technology behind BA’s #lookup campaign would be prohibitive to all but the largest global corporations, it’s not just the international businesses that can benefit from content marketing.

 

By Dan Reiss, Branded Content Producer at Shutterstock. 

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