Whether you’re a B2B or B2C marketer, content marketing is tomorrow’s SEO but with an added value of driving Brand Engagement simultaneously. While a number of businesses are getting uber-comfortable that they’ve mastered the world of SEO (and SEM), the world of the consumer using traditional search methods and channels for research is passing them by.
Even as the search engine algorithms get more and more sophisticated and more able to minimize the value of those who systematically generate pages of “content” used only for those search bots, consumers are finding ways to get relevant information or useful content to make decisions around.
As a consumer, you can now research, gather input, see a demo and yes even buy a number of items without touching the search box of your favorite search engine – particularly if you have Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and maybe even Twitter bookmarked. Not to mention the plethora of other sites to give you recommendations and nearby alternatives should you be interested in those as well. The point being, if you as a business want to be where your customers will be – you’ll want to start thinking beyond SEO (and SEM).
At this point you may ask: So maybe search and search optimization have been a bit marginalized, but won’t my social media person put me in front of those “bleeding-edge” search-savvy consumers who are circumventing Google’s business model and going directly to alternate channels to spend their time and (more often lately) their money? I’d answer that with the typical marketing genius answer: Maybe…
The situations your talented social media guru will likely capture are those visits or searches or buys when those prospects are the most willing to be influenced (most likely at the end of the funnel or buying cycle). Not a bad place to find them if you’re willing to put the kind of marketing spend to gain the weight of coverage you’d need throughout those social media channels to be everywhere your prospects will be. Factoring in the number of times a human needs to see something before they’re prepared to take action, the appropriate weight needed at this point in the funnel to influence them is likely pretty substantial.
Where content marketing comes in, is in providing those prospects with valuable relevant information further up the funnel or buying cycle through a variety of channels and in the shape of information that is deemed by your prospect to be credible.
You provide valuable content – closely or directly linked to your brand and watch that content spread through the brand advocates that you’ve garnered through other experiences with you – that’s exponential brand awareness and relevant brand engagement.
SEO has really become about manipulating information to put your website in front of searchers – and don’t get me wrong, just like traditional channels of marketing such as OOD, TV, Direct Mail, Email, etc, there’s an important place in your marketing mix that they all likely play. But for those who are in a race for the consumer (B2B or B2C), SEO and SEM are becoming traditional. Providing relevant and personal content throughout the buying cycle in channels that are more relevant to those customers from sources that are credible to them is what’s becoming expected. Those that figure out how to meet or exceed those new expectations will gain them and/or keep them as customers.
I’ll use a quote from Coca Cola’s “2020 Marketing Vision”: the future is considered “content as the matter and substance of brand engagement.” One of their new marketing strategies is to strive to provide “content excellence” in place of the previous objective of “creative excellence.” One of their ultimate goals is to create what they call “liquid content.”
They and others are realizing that content marketing moves your brand past the manipulation techniques of SEO and highlights your brand sincerity with your markets.