With the emergence and ubiquity of digital channels, there has never been a better time for brands to tell their story to a mass audience through rich content. The growing diversity of new digital channels from which marketers can choose from isn’t slowing down either. Snapchat recently announced that it is launching “Discovery” – a news tool that allows media brands to post bite-sized content on the app. Moreover, Twitter has introduced its native video feature enabling users to edit and share videos up to 30 seconds long.
Undoubtedly, brands and marketers will use these new channels to push richer and more engaging content to tell their stories. However, with these new, visual and exciting digital platforms comes the danger that brands and marketers start to serve the channel instead of providing value to customers through their content. In order to avoid this pitfall, data should be at the heart of content marketing. When harnessed correctly, data has the power to fuel a brand’s storytelling with knowledge and it is this knowledge that will bring the consumer into the heart of the creative idea.
Taking advantage of this data is not limited to smart devices as consumers’ worlds do not stop once they have turned off their smart phones. Whether online or offline, data can be harnessed to help brands tell their story in more creative ways. Snapchat and Twitter may give brands a more visual platform in which to convey their story but it means little if the content isn’t relevant or offers little value. By utilising data, brands can gain an understanding of what matters to consumers, ensuring that creative ideas translate into a value exchange between the brand and the consumer.
It’s a principle that Waitrose have been applying to great success to help navigate how they tell their brand story to their customers and prospects in a multi-channel world. Using the data they have on their current customers to inform how they remain relevant to them, and attract new customers through the execution of compelling creative content.
Using big data analysis to tell your story is something that any brand can do, as long as they have a little creative spark and some sound knowledge and insight of how to interpret the results. By looking at how consumers think, feel and interact with their brand, marketers can tap into something and forge an emotive connection that will carry their brand to the front of mind in the consideration process, making their brand memorable for all the right reasons.
Indeed, the possibilities afforded by big data analysis and new digital channels such as Snapchat’s “Discovery” and Twitter’s video feature are limitless, with new approaches, techniques and platforms being developed all the time that are extremely exciting. Yet the smart creative marketers remain focused. Applying insights gleaned from effective big data analysis, guided by clear customer and business strategy and combining them with the practice of storytelling is a successful recipe for creating value-rich, entertaining content on digital channels like Twitter, Snapchat and Facebook. Entertaining customers through visually appealing content is no doubt important but the best content marketing is one that consumers not only find engaging but that they also value.
By Liz Barnsdale, Managing Director of ais London.
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