Our clients and prospective clients are asking for Content Marketing services a lot lately. For the most part, they are already doing some form of Content Marketing, but what they are looking for is a truly comprehensive Content Marketing strategy. This comprehensive strategy is a trifecta of paid, earned, and owned media.
Many organizations and agencies like NewsCred, reference this Venn diagram, but I’ve adapted it for these Content Marketing conversations at Blue Moon Digital. So let’s break it down.
Where “the magic happens” (so-to-speak) is when the three merge in the middle. Most often, when a client comes to us for help, it’s because they are only doing (or are strong in) one or two areas and leaving opportunities unturned.
Having great content on your site doesn’t mean anything if no one ever reads or engages with it. Simply, optimizing your on-site content for search engines is not enough. Digital shoppers are savvy, and they know that if you have to say you’re the authority on something, you’re probably not. That’s where influencers can help.
Influencers provide credibility that brands need to be successful in Content Marketing. Influencers are individuals who have the power to affect perceptions of others because of their (real or perceived) authority, knowledge, position or relationship. For most of our clients in the fashion-apparel vertical, this translates into bloggers, vloggers, and other individuals with a large social following. As Forrester infamously reported, “32% of online consumers trust a stranger’s opinion on public forums or blogs more than they trust branded advertisements and marketing collateral.”
Now that you have both on-site optimized content and off-site content by way of influencers, you need to curate and amplify it to maximize its reach for Content Marketing success. At the very least, use your owned channels to distribute the content. To take it to the next level, invest in tools and vendors to help reach a greater audience. A lot of times, this gets overlooked but is an important piece of a comprehensive plan. Without marketing dollars to support Content Marketing, your strategy will fall flat.
