By Mark Kersteen - August 25th, 2014
Last week, we were lucky enough to have Susan Rafizadeh, Director - Global Marketing Life Sciences for SAP, Bayard Saunders, Director, Internet Sales & Marketing for The General Insurance, and Ann Marie Gothard, Director - Communications Strategy for EmblemHealth come and speak on the Incite webinar “The Future of Content”. You’ll find more in-depth discussions like this on the topics that matter to you at Incite Summit: East.
Any marketer (myself included) will tell you the same thing about content: it’s tricky. Content marketing isn’t new—there’s been content marketing before anyone came up with the notions of "content" or "marketing"—yet I can’t think of anyone who is one-hundred percent confident with creating, sharing, and measuring it.
Our research has shown that marketers everywhere are eager to hear more about content. To meet that need, we got three fantastic content marketers together to talk about what they do and how they do it on an Incite webinar entitled: “The Future of Content”. They shared how they make content that their audiences want and need, how to put it where that audience wants to find it, and how (and what) they track to make it even more successful for the future. Here are the top eight takeaways from their conversation:
8. Your customers know what kind of content they want. Listen to them:
For Susan Rafizadeh at SAP, her customers have the answers she needs. Finding them is a matter of wide-ranging, tenacious research:
“For me, research is the basis of every piece of content I create. I really try to talk to as many different people as I can, not just those I already know well. And not only customers, but prospective customers. I want to hear what excites them, what makes them upset, the feelings they have, what kind of language they use.”
Other forms of customer insight—data and analytics, for example—are extremely valuable, but are ultimately just part of the conversation:
“All the numbers add to that, but I really rely on what our customers say most of all.”
7. You can get customer’s attention with more than cat videos:
Bayard Saunders from The General delivered some clear-eyed advice to marketers trying to get their content to stand out:
“Whatever your customer can find genuinely, and not patronizingly, useful is extremely valuable. While many of us in content try to shoot for virality, finding a consistent way to speak directly to a loyal customer-base has been the only thing that’s worked so far. Besides that, it’s kittens.”
6. Four steps to unmissable content:
Ann Marie Gothard from EmblemHealth looked at her content from her customer’s perspective, and defined the four questions you need to ask if you aren't sure your content is going to get noticed:
“1: Who is providing the content? What does your name and your brand mean in your industry, or for a specific topic?
2. Is it relevant to the trends you’re seeing in your industry?
3. What is the format, and how does it add to the existing conversation?
4. How is it presented? Is it visual, and is there a way you can make it more visual?”
5. Noise versus value:
Ann Marie also had plenty of useful comments to add on the age-old marketing question: Is being heard more important than what you say?
“There’s a fine line between standing out in the industry and remaining relevant, and we have to provide content our consumers can use and find value. We focus on being a leader in terms of interactions with our content and its staying power. There are already so many sources for finding content, but are those sources reaching the right people at the right time? That’s where we have to find the balance between being a leader at the forefront—creating that noise—and delivering that value.”
4. Be an entertainer:
Susan described the kind of content you need to hold your audience’s attention, while also educating them about your products:
“Visual content, no matter the platform, is very effective. Our video content, whether it’s testimonials or animated videos, work really well. The same applies to infographics and two-pagers, which need a lot of pictures but can be consumed quickly and easily.”
“One example that has worked well for me personally, which doesn’t contain any visuals but is still very entertaining and easy to consume, is the SAP radio show. It’s done by a very good, very funny moderator who puts together some experts, and then they casually talk you through some very visionary topics.”
3. Take the journey:
Figuring out where your customers consume your content isn’t always easy, but if you follow their journey from first touch to final purchase, it’s a lot easier. Bayard describes:
“I think it’s really important to follow the customer journey. Following that customer is going to show you where the most effective dissemination is going to occur. There are always exciting things to try in this space, but the customer journey piece is sometimes ignored, or could be looked at more holistically.”
2. Content carries long-lasting value:
With such a push to measure the hard numbers of content, it’s easy to forget its more unique and intangible value, as Ann Marie recounts below:
“Content is definitely more lasting and more permanent. Once something is published, whatever channel you decide to use, it’s out there. People can always find it. How do we put a value on that? I think that’s something as industry we’re still debating and trying to find the best practice for. In terms of the value of content, one of the points I share with our leadership team is definitely its staying power. Depending on the message or what the action might be, there are benefits for months.”
1. Be brave:
Our final takeaway is from Susan. It’s one of the most inspiring and universal pieces of advice from the discussion. It’s relevant to all content-marketers, and to all marketers in general:
“You really need to know your customer and listen to the channels. Read a lot, and just by analyzing and listening you can learn what you need. Then be brave. Fail, and if you fail find out why you failed, and if you succeed do the same again. Just be brave.”
Stay tuned, we’ll be running webinars every month, and in September we're going to be discussing multichannel marketing. For more insight like this from top marketing professionals, check out Incite: Summit East.
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