Move over ‘social media,’ there’s a new digital marketing buzzword, and marketers need to know it and figure out where it fits for them. The buzz is all about ‘content marketing,’ and this concept has real substance to it.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is “a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience — with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”
The critical phrase in that definition is “relevant and valuable content.” No offense, but boasting of four features of your great new product is not necessarily content marketing. A case study of how a grower used your new product to improve his yield? That’s content marketing.
The odds are good that you’re engaged in content marketing to a degree today. Do you have your own newsletter or enewsletter? That’s content marketing. Do you post educational content to your website? Yep, that’s content marketing, too.
Two factors have contributed to the enthusiasm many marketers have developed for content marketing and its likely growth:
- The proliferation of the web makes it possible for companies to talk directly to their customers, whereas only the media used to have access to such broad audiences. For example, John Deere has more than 1.5 million Facebook likes, which equals 1.5 million opportunities for direct conversations.
- The explosion of content has overwhelmed the average individual. Everyone receives too many emails, struggles to find time to watch as much TV and so forth. How then does a marketer get in front of the right people and keep their attention for long enough to deliver their message? Relevant and valuable content.
A client working with Meister Interactive on his content marketing (new web stories, repurposing proprietary research into video podcasts, and pushing it all via a monthly enewsletter) terms his program “the most effective format we’ve found for driving new traffic to our website.”
So, what does all of this mean for a marketer in an agricultural or specialty ag world? For starters, you need to understand this concept of content marketing and consider where it fits in your marketing efforts. Only a handful of firms in our industry are true content marketers today, so having done nothing thus far does not leave you too far behind. In addition, you need to take a hard look at the content on your website and / or social media sites and evaluate whether you’re truly working to inform the market rather than just sell to them.
If you want to go down this road, the content should not be hard to find. Writing up the research your company conducts, re-formatting educational presentations your technical experts have given, or summarizing answers to the questions your customer service personnel field most often are three examples of content that is likely already in your building.
I also strongly recommend you check out the Content Marketing Institute and look at the research and tools they offer — there’s good info there to help you navigate these waters.
For a more in-depth conversation of content marketing and how we can help you strengthen your marketing and include it, please contact your Meister Media sales rep or our Director of Interactive Sales, Bob West, at [email protected] or 440-602-9129.