Amplified marketing will once again bring together connection, creativity and results
The opinions expressed by entrepreneurs contributors are their own.
Three words are at the heart of what's wrong with content marketing. Those same words hold the key to fixing marketing: connection and results.
Content marketers today often feel compelled to sacrifice the first two (connection and creativity) for any hope of demonstrating the third: measurable results. Driven by impossible demands to constantly create new content, marketers feel they lack the time to be creative and to achieve their business goals. Unfortunately, marketers often feel like they have to separate creativity from creation, which all too often results in high volumes of content that doesn't only add to the noise and fail to truly connect with the audience.
Related: 9 Tips to Reignite Your Marketing Team's Creativity
Too many marketers have succumbed to the lie that when it comes to content, quantity is king and only algorithms really matter. They double down on SEO and jonesing for higher SERP rankings, and it comes at the cost of rich, relevant, and creative work. And the results of these efforts show:
Content neglected, confused and uninspired by unique content.
Bold ideas abandoned during development in favor of a finished product, no matter how good.
Decrease in engagement and leads as audience gave up and moved on.
In a perfect world, audience connection, marketing team creativity, and effort results should all work together. So how can businesses prioritize connection, make room for creativity, and still show revenue results from their efforts? By taking an amplified marketing approach, creating high-quality, audience-driven content and atomizing, remixing and refreshing it into multiple pieces of content across all marketing channels.
What marketers wantCasted spoke to marketers in their "State of the Content Marketer" report. Respondents said they needed a better way to connect their creative marketing efforts to business goals. They want:
Better understand the needs, wants and preferences of the audience.
Deploy high-quality content more often and across multiple platforms.
Get better visibility into the impact of their work on revenue.
Measure the performance of multiple multi-channel campaigns simultaneously.
The answer? An amplified marketing approach. The strategy allows marketers to follow their creative ideas and meet bold big expectations to compete with the wonders and Pixars of the world. How? Breaking free from quantity shackles, marketers can seek out authentic, engaging, and profitable content and then deliver it across multiple channels. By amplifying reach, they amplify value and amplify results.
Related: Stop talking clichés: 4 tips for more creative and original marketing
Identify audiences, experts and assetsAmplified marketing starts with understanding the audience. Who is your audience? Who gets involved? What interests them the most? Identify top performing keywords and topics for more insight.
Then, rather than researching to write "like" an expert, talk to a real expert instead. Find the most qualified people to answer your audience's questions and inspire them. You can find an in-house expert with a talent and energy to tell stories, a client who can talk about your niche, or an industry expert to provide you with strategic insights.
After identifying the characteristics of your audience and potential experts, search your archives for treasures. Use past segments - a clip or video, a blog quote that gained traction on social media, whatever sparked...
The opinions expressed by entrepreneurs contributors are their own.
Three words are at the heart of what's wrong with content marketing. Those same words hold the key to fixing marketing: connection and results.
Content marketers today often feel compelled to sacrifice the first two (connection and creativity) for any hope of demonstrating the third: measurable results. Driven by impossible demands to constantly create new content, marketers feel they lack the time to be creative and to achieve their business goals. Unfortunately, marketers often feel like they have to separate creativity from creation, which all too often results in high volumes of content that doesn't only add to the noise and fail to truly connect with the audience.
Related: 9 Tips to Reignite Your Marketing Team's Creativity
Too many marketers have succumbed to the lie that when it comes to content, quantity is king and only algorithms really matter. They double down on SEO and jonesing for higher SERP rankings, and it comes at the cost of rich, relevant, and creative work. And the results of these efforts show:
Content neglected, confused and uninspired by unique content.
Bold ideas abandoned during development in favor of a finished product, no matter how good.
Decrease in engagement and leads as audience gave up and moved on.
In a perfect world, audience connection, marketing team creativity, and effort results should all work together. So how can businesses prioritize connection, make room for creativity, and still show revenue results from their efforts? By taking an amplified marketing approach, creating high-quality, audience-driven content and atomizing, remixing and refreshing it into multiple pieces of content across all marketing channels.
What marketers wantCasted spoke to marketers in their "State of the Content Marketer" report. Respondents said they needed a better way to connect their creative marketing efforts to business goals. They want:
Better understand the needs, wants and preferences of the audience.
Deploy high-quality content more often and across multiple platforms.
Get better visibility into the impact of their work on revenue.
Measure the performance of multiple multi-channel campaigns simultaneously.
The answer? An amplified marketing approach. The strategy allows marketers to follow their creative ideas and meet bold big expectations to compete with the wonders and Pixars of the world. How? Breaking free from quantity shackles, marketers can seek out authentic, engaging, and profitable content and then deliver it across multiple channels. By amplifying reach, they amplify value and amplify results.
Related: Stop talking clichés: 4 tips for more creative and original marketing
Identify audiences, experts and assetsAmplified marketing starts with understanding the audience. Who is your audience? Who gets involved? What interests them the most? Identify top performing keywords and topics for more insight.
Then, rather than researching to write "like" an expert, talk to a real expert instead. Find the most qualified people to answer your audience's questions and inspire them. You can find an in-house expert with a talent and energy to tell stories, a client who can talk about your niche, or an industry expert to provide you with strategic insights.
After identifying the characteristics of your audience and potential experts, search your archives for treasures. Use past segments - a clip or video, a blog quote that gained traction on social media, whatever sparked...
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