9 Essential Truths about Content Marketing – the Message with the Medium
By Rosemary Beach
"Everybody experiences far more than he understands. Yet it is experience, rather than understanding that influences behaviour."
– Marshall McLuhan, author of "The Medium is the Massage"
1. Compelling Content is Vital
High-quality content and variety of information are what readers have an appetite for, and ultimately find value in. Authenticity, a new-order marketing term, is defined as expression in your own voice with input from various sources and perspectives. As an industry expert you are a catalyst for change or an authority expert on trends and insights. Reader curiosity happens when commentary on your processes used, the hiccups and how it was handled are essential components for true engagement. Offering examples in a personalized context of your own experiences ignites curiosity as it pertains to the relevance of a matter and what we want them to learn.
2. Raised Standards Expected from Discerning Knowledge-Seekers
88% of B2B Marketers today use content marketing as a component of business development planning. Content within the realm of marketing and business development for law firms and professional services is a growing trend – in 2016 and into 2017, 50% of all B2B (and B2C) companies will increase their content marketing spends. Expect more content and more competition that will come with higher standards. Also expect an average read time of 37 seconds amplifying the importance of quality versus quantity.
3. Fresh Insights for Fresh Content
Speaking to client needs and challenges through articles helps the decision-making process as they move along the discovery cycle to exploration and evaluation and, in due course, to selection. Fresh and new perspectives with white papers, webinars, Q&A pieces, articles, case studies are critical elements of content marketing. Be aware: just because you publish, doesn't always mean clients will follow. Quality content is digestible, not superfluous and should be less technical without over-simplification. Providing clarity over comprehensiveness is critical to continuous and active engagement.
4. Client Connectivity Grows with Fostering Trust
As the go-to source, what does your reader need to know – i.e., their pain points, what's keeping up them up at night? Engagement is earned when you understand and address their interests and needs and by providing value related to their company, their industry and its challenges. Intersect this with your practice or niche area, outside and inside peers and influencers. Remember, to have less of a product/service centric attitude.
5. Influencers are the Auto Go-To Source
Thought leaders within their own ranks back their brands by lending credibility to what they share and promote, hence the more popular on internal influencer groups, the more credible and visible a business becomes. Business leaders gravitate toward influencers – a potent component of a brand's content strategy. Know your audience and focus on what matters and what we want them to learn.
6. Content Strategy is about Timing
A moment or period of time with content such as insights on emerging legal and financial trends, a strategic point of view and advice, e.g. new legislation or case law, and then, combining it with selectively-timed placement using digital channels such as third-party-aggregators (Mondaq & Lexology) and social media is a strategic perfect storm. A content strategy must be an organized, documented strategy with more efficient use of valuable digital analytic resources. Almost half fail to document that strategy. Managing an annual content calendar for the long-term with quarterly updates contributes to heightened brand awareness and brand recall.
7. Pictures Speak a Thousand Words
Optimize content including images, video and text, even a cartoon. A 3 - 5 min. video with you as the spotlight enhances the narrative. Authenticity resonates further with a guided approach that's not scripted and very easy for clients/viewers to relate to your experiences as they relate to you.
8. Integrated Marketing Strategy is required to Reach all Client Touch Points
With heightened accessibility to your firm brand, a renewed capability exists to alter or shape how your clients think and behave. Alignment with a well-documented marketing plan and strategy inclusive of both corporate and marketing objectives, accelerates the rewards of your marketing investment. Defining the firm's brand and value proposition with its select target audiences involves regular website updates, social media, digital advertising, sponsored content, sponsorships, email programs, SEO, and referral business development programs. Creating specific sub-brand/niche websites speaking to a particular issue or cause will further enhance your overall firm marketing strategy and will ultimately engage clients with your firm brand for a positive feedback loop.
9. Content Marketing with Integrated Marketing is an Investment, not an Expense
Content marketing drives conversion rates that are nearly SIX times higher than their competitors and traditional marketing counterparts. Don't join the 51% of marketers who say their content marketing efforts are only "somewhat" effective leading to a incomplete and/or broken customer experience, lack of brand loyalty, and customer confidence.
*Curata, Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs