The State of Content Marketing 2014 and Beyond

If you do research on Google Trends you will notice something intriguing: The term “social media marketing” grew big time from 2009 to 2011 but is now leveling off. In the meantime, the term “content marketing” has really picked up in 2013 and is on a noteworthy upwards trajectory. You will realize that these simple graphs tell a larger story about today’s marketing landscape.

Where It All Started

About five years ago, social media hit an inflection point. Facebook introduced the “Like” button and a few months later surpassed MySpace to become the number one social network in the United States. Ashton Kutcher battled with CNN to reach 1 million Twitter followers and Oprah sent out her first tweet in all caps.

Forward-thinking brands saw the potential to reach their audiences with more engaging and responsive messages. New technologies, services, and job descriptions emerged to handle this new trend. And thus social media marketing took off. It took a while, but eventually even the most skeptical and stodgy brands got on board.

Where We Stand Now

Now, as we dive well into 2014, we live in a world saturated with social media.

This year’s Academy Awards is a great example: some 11.1 million Facebook users contributed to more than 25.4 million interactions (updates, comments, likes) and of course, Ellen’s record breaking Oscar selfie which has been retweeted a stunning 3.4 million times, beating the “Four more years” photo posted on Barack Obama’s Twitter account (no social media slouch himself) which had previously held the record with 781k retweets.

Brands have entire teams devoted to “Social” and a suite of software products to help them manage dozens of accounts on various platforms. 77% of the Fortune 500 have Twitter accounts, another 70% are on Facebook and the numbers continue to grow.

But this flurry of activity has given way to new challenges. The easy work of monitoring and publishing have become solved problems. Simply “being on” various social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr and more is not enough. Simple slogans like “joining the conversation” become meaningless unless you have something of value to contribute.

The question on every marketer’s mind is now: “What do we say?”

Where We Go from here

Creating great content at scale is the new challenge of every marketing team, ours included. Just as social media marketing sparked a series of tools, processes, and job titles, the new age of content marketing requires new forms of marketing infrastructure. Ultimately, it boils down to one fundamental task: creating compelling narratives around your brand.

What stories will you tell?

What's the Value of a Facebook Fan

Does Your Company Embrace Social Media?

It seems like everybody has an opinion about the value of social media, but very few companies tuse it to its full potential. Think about how you employ social media in your personal life — to ask for recommendations or advice from friends, to share photos and moments from your life, and to stay in touch. Very few people act Social Media Robots. So why do companies?

In the following video from Virgin, leading minds of the Digital world talk about their experiences

Social Customer Service [Infographic]

The New Challenge

In the past, brands tackled customer service issues by way of a primary channel -- the god old  'call center.' But now, companies must also monitor, respond, and engage in a variety of social channels.

If a brand is unskilled in social media customer engagement, adapting customer service programs to new channels can be challenging: brands might default to reactivity -- essentially, playing 'defense' -- when faced with disgruntled customers online.

However, making reactivity the foundation of your social customer service strategy causes brands to view customer relationships as things to 'manage,' rather than opportunities to proactively add value to the customer experience.

Have a look at the Infographic below (thanks to my friends @ Bluewolf)

Effective E-Mail Marketing Step-by-Step

E-Mail Marketing is still an integral part of most successful marketing campaigns. It is an important communication tool, builds customer relationships and can help increase your ROI. But as in many other marketing fields if used incorrectly it annoys your target audience and can seriously backfire.

There are some very important points to consider while building your e-mail marketing campaign. The following 10 tips are designed to help you get your campaign on track.

1. Use your campaign to start a dialog

Start communicating with your prospects. Do not send out pure marketing pitches but aim to enhance your message with relevant information and ask your (future) customers to participate in discussions. Social media integration does not hurt either as you can divert the conversation to platforms like Facebook, Twitter or Google+. 

2. Don’t just concentrate on the Opening Rate

Of course statistics like the opening rate of your e-mails are important. But focus the overall evaluation of your e-mail campaign not just on this aspect. Look instead into where your website hits originate, the number and frequency of visits, content shared on social networks and so on.

3. Fragmentation

Try and take into account the behavior of your target audience. Who is opening your mails, who shares content, who is buying your product or service? Use this data to segment your audience even more and utilize it to specifically target certain parts of your data base in future campaigns.

4. Concentrate on your Message

Always remember that you want to convey a message with your campaign. Don’t forget to customize this message to the profile and interests of your customers.  I also advise you to tailor different messages for different segments of your audience.

5.  Automate wherever possible

By largely automating your campaigns you will save time, which can be invested in your strategy and quality content. Try to link parts of your campaign to certain triggers (for example reactions of costumers, comments and so on)

6. It’s all in the Mix

Try out different styles and techniques. Send out your mails on different days to different customers and include surveys where appropriate. Like this you can gauge the reaction in real-time and adjust your e-mail campaign accordingly where necessary

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7. Make sure that your mails are deliverable

The best campaign is useless if your message doesn’t reach the customer. Just check you junk folder and you will know how many mails do not reach you. This is why you have to test your mails before you initiate your e-mail campaign. Avoid Spam-Trigger words such as “free”, “click here”, “unique opportunity and so on. Have a look at this list: Spam-Trigger-Words-List (Thanks Karen!)

8. Testing is the Alpha and the Omega

In order to achieve optimal results with your campaign, it is essential to check it thoroughly: are all elements displayed correctly? Do all the links work? Does the automatic segmentation work properly? Also check if the mail reaches its destination - ideally, you have a ready test group from which you get immediate feedback.

9. Analyze the Results

For this you don’t necessarily need complicated charts and graphics. Use whenever possible the analysis capabilities of your Software and choose a easily readable and concise format that facilitates the analysis. Incorporate your findings into your campaign to achieve even better results in the future.

10. Integrate Social Media

By adding social share buttons to your mail, you give your customers the opportunity to transport the communicated content like text, pictures, videos, events etc to other platforms and let them spread the word for you.

Did I forget anything? Please share it in the comment section below. Thanks!

The Hectic Life of a Social Media Manager

A big THANKS to my friends at dailyinfographic

How to Build Your Wordpress Site: A Step-by-Step Guide

Thanks Pamela Wilson (www.copyblogger.com)!