The future of marketing is all about inbound marketing: Content strategy
If you can see a trend you have missed it!
In a world of continual change seeing
what is happening is often difficult to understand until the paradigm shift has
occurred. Many companies are struggling to stay ahead or even in the game of
online marketing. Many companies are moving towards online marketing content
strategy or as marketing people call it inbound marketing. This major shift in
culture and one needs to be fully understood.
I have just had an old-fashioned marketing communication from a
well-known brand, asking me to make an immediate purchase offering me a FREE upgrade
for a new phone, my automatic response is not to be interested, at all because
they have not demonstrated that they understand my specific needs. That made me
thinks and write this article to explain why in today’s online world that old
marketing technique is now as un-effective as a double glazing salesman
offering me 50% off!
It’s a complete shift not just an add-on
In a world where everyone is
online all the time, the amount of information is drowning people, from Linkedin
to Facebook and Twitter the rise of smart phone connectivity has promised much
change to marketing but until recently only early adopters, high value and niche
players could see what it meant to the marketing process.
Like many changes, it is not
until the change becomes tangible does its impact become visual to many
marketing departments that enables them to successfully influence a company’s marketing
policy. This is considerably harder to convey when there is no tangible
evidence of marketing results attributable to hard to track invisible marketing
shift. Unlike the shift to direct marketing where direct connectivity between
outcome and result can be seen through a transparent return on investment, online
inbound marketing is struggling to demonstrate its effectiveness.
Pace is outstripping understanding
Currently content marketing relies
heavily upon invisible and poorly understood online activities. Simply put, the
rate of change is outstripping the knowledge base of the marketing industry, creating
a gap between the understandings of marketing by decision makers. The routes
causes of this is that not only are customers sourcing information in newer
ways but the platform they are using, the Internet indexing is also changing
ever faster, Goggle will make over 600 changes to way it scores content.
Rapidly changing customer preferences, coupled with changing technologies and an
ever changing platform results in the lack of certainty of what is working and
why. By the time you’ve worked out what works it has already changed.
That speed is creating problems for social media to be able to convert this rate of change to make money. This continual change, both step and continual upgrading, makes it difficult for the industry to understand how to build sustainable pipelines of business.
That speed is creating problems for social media to be able to convert this rate of change to make money. This continual change, both step and continual upgrading, makes it difficult for the industry to understand how to build sustainable pipelines of business.
Content Strategy also creates confusion.
Content strategy marketing process,
one that now focuses on creating online and open platform engagement, online
PULL; rather than internally controlled PUSH marketing methods, traditional marketers
often struggle to understand the process let alone feel uncomfortable with the
concept. This is not unreasonable, given the history of marketing in the last
50 years has always focused on the traditional pipeline of generating and then controlling
customer decision-making, content marketing turns that on its head. People
investing in inbound marketing are asked to spend money on losing control of
the potential customer by letting them make an open decision about how and when
they engage with your brand.
In the mid 1990’s I remember designing a website to support a
brand. No one was interested until it was live and people could see something
online. A director then said, “That’s great let’s print it off and send it to
all our customers”
Dialogue NOT monologue
The inbound marketing process is about
generating an open dialogue, rather than a structured marketing process. It
lets potentials, prospects and suspects move in and out of your control while
they select you, rather than being controlled by you.
The Content Strategy Process
- Listening – Online is now the first port of call for 78% of web users.
- Creating – Great content that answers need and demonstrates expertise.
- Engaging – Is about being talked about and developing a dialogue with audiences
- Transforming – Is about continual engagement, moving them from suspects to purchasers
- Growing – Requires creating perpetual momentum developing new and developing loyalty
Source: www.tomorrow-people.com
Traditional marketing models of
developing engagement such as AIDA are still highly valid but instead of just
focusing on a immediate winning proposition through a grabbing hook, attach a liner
and sink them in a simple linear model for winning customers. Content strategy marketing
demands multiple engagement tools which
include cross referencing other parties creating competitive collaborative
working to generate awareness, giving away FREE content in white papers coupled
with fast and slow acquisition tools in decision making.
The strategy needs to be explained better
Moving to a content strategy is
about moving from PUSH to PULL, not
about the Internet platform, it is about understanding the importance of open unrestricted
dialogue rather than material generation and in reality it is not just about
the Internet although this is where its impact is being seen today, but equally
will encompass every marketing platform and process. The growth of mobile
technology will further the pace and realisation of content strategy.
Like to learn more? Then see article What is Content Marketing or contact us at Cowden Consulting or see our website or social media channels for more about Cowden Consulting:-
Richard Gourlay services: business planning, strategic planning, business development, strategic marketing, Return on Investment, director development, director mentoring.
Cowden is an independent consultancy based in Dumfries and Galloway and works with businesses throughout the UK.
