This week, despite the fact that certain excitable individuals seem to have begun their countdown to Christmas already, we have noticed a lot of wise content marketing gurus speaking about the importance of creating content that helps rather than content that sells. It seems that while most companies have now embraced content marketing, they are still using it to sell directly to their customers rather than to generate interest in their brand. We’ve naturally covered this issue in this week’s edition of The Content, along with marketing tips from none other than Ron Burgundy, news of Domino’s SEO discovery and what it takes to be a modern marketer…
Youtility and content marketing
By now you’re probably already sold on the idea of content marketing and understand why it works, but now you need to become skilled at the practice. One of the mistakes many companies continue to make is that they believe simply adding general content to their sites will do the trick and help them to sell their services. These are the companies whose websites might look packed with useful information, but actually have nothing of interest to offer. Their content isn’t liked or shared or of any particular use because they have concentrated solely on selling themselves and not thought about youtility – the difference between helping and selling. Every brand wants to sell but your customers are growing tired of being sold to, so it’s time to focus on other ways of leading to a sale – such as creating helpful content.
What we can learn from Ron Burgundy
‘What can’t we learn from Ron Burgundy?’ might be a more apt question, because while he can certainly teach us a thing or two about moustachioed style and mastery of the jazz flute, he also seems to understand a great deal about content marketing. With Anchorman 2 set for UK release on 20th December, Ron has been appearing on both our television and computer screens for months promoting his film with fantastic aplomb. While there is of course a trailer for the new film, Ron has also been reaching out to fans on a number of social media platforms, resulting in a constant stream of user-generated content all over the internet. Ron’s efforts highlight the importance of creating entertaining and engaging content without becoming overbearing or obvious.
Domino’s embraces SEO
They might be one of the last in line to clock on to the importance of SEO and content marketing, but it’s better late than never. Domino’s have launched an online hub in which they will post all branded content including downloads, competitions, infographics, videos and pictures, and will also permit fans to post comments and share their own content via the company’s live Instagram and Twitter feeds. Domino’s hope that the platform, which is hosted on a subdomain so it does not interfere with the ecommerce site, will increase the number of search terms dominos.co.uk will be found under and that their focus on SEO will increase the number of people engaging with the brand. Domino’s have realised the importance of moving away from simply selling their brand and towards getting to know their loyal customers via content marketing.
The modern marketer (infographic)
It’s hardly surprising that marketing doesn’t look much like it used to. As Brittany Berger said in her article for Business2Community: ‘we’ve gone from the days of Mad Men to the days of content creators and youtility business.’ You now need to be a fantastic writer, technologically savvy, possibly a little arty and quite a ‘people person’ to succeed in marketing – never mind simply being a good businessperson. The modern marketer needs to be able to keep up with the online world, create relevant, exciting content and know exactly how to ensure it is seen and shared, including keywords and posting it in all the right places. Business2Community’s infographic highlights just how necessary it is to have a supportive marketing team to help in all aspects of the modern marketing process. Take a look and see which type of marketer you are…
Appealing to the emotional Christmas shopper
Content marketers who are good at their jobs will know that creating content that is in keeping with the season will increase its chances of being shared – besides, it’s always easier to think of topics surrounding the various events that take place each season. This month, content marketers are going mad for Christmas, with the big brands having revealed their Christmas adverts in October and bloggers already posting articles on what to eat during the festive period and what presents you absolutely must buy for your mum. In an article for Marketing Magazine, Rob Sellers speaks of the importance of appealing to the emotional Christmas shopper in your marketing strategies and brings our attention to four things he believes we should know about such people. His points ought to help you better target your content and increase your chances of conversion this Christmas!
How to destroy your customer experience
We create content in order to engage with customers and drive them to our websites, so it is important that we are always monitoring how well the content we create is being received. If you do not pay attention to your customer feedback it is likely that you will end up steering your content in the wrong direction. We all know just how relevant big data is, but the little things cannot go ignored. That means that you must take into consideration the negative comments you receive as well as any complaints, otherwise you could be destroying another customer’s experience one post at a time. Jeannie Walters published a post on Business2Community that points out five mistakes marketers make that can cause customers never to return. Take a look and ensure you avoid making them when creating your content in future.
That’s just about it for your weekly round-up of the best marketing articles on the web, but be sure to check in now and then for more insightful articles and of course to catch next week’s edition of The Content.