Research continues to highlight just how important the internet is becoming to business professionals and the business-to-business buying process. Indeed, the most recent Business.com Social Media survey showed how more people are going online to research, shortlist and select potential suppliers.
With information at the forefront of all business buying decisions, it’s of little surprise that the practices of PR and digital media have merged to create an entirely new discipline called content marketing.
Established in the US, but still embryonic in Europe, content marketing is the practice of creating and distributing material that presents you in the best possible light according to your knowledge and expertise, to drive inbound customer enquiries. Companies are seeing the benefits of content marketing for nurturing prospects and long term customer relationships and brand visibility on the internet as a valid and tangible route to sales, and of course for search engine optimisation.
Selecting the right tools can light up your content
Content creation, curation and communication
But it isn’t as straight forward as it first seems. The challenge of creating, shaping and sharing content that’s relevant to your target market for them to ultimately want to buy from you requires a particular mindset, an appreciation of the available and correct tools and the resource to put them to good use. Credible content marketing strategies might involve:
• creation (where you develop specific material from scratch)
• curation (where you collate and repackage existing material)
• communication (where you position yourself through being an industry enabler, sharing all the best content that is created by others within a sector through a hub or portal approach).
There’s no right or wrong way, but be sure to select a strategy that fits the culture of your business and the resources you have available.
Using the right tools for your audience
Opinion is varied over whether companies should adopt a hybrid social media optimisation strategy by placing material everywhere with little regard for target customer, spam or reputation. A Facebook page for businesses remains a case in point. Yes, Facebook has the largest single platform audience, but is targeting prospects with branded b2b communications in their downtime a credible marketing option? At BDB, we’re unconvinced but we’re watching the business page, advertising, recruitment, geolocation, event, and property developments with interest.
We recommend that content marketing strategies are built on solid PR, using the best existing content and repackaging it to reach wider audiences. The best content is available in many forms depending on the preference of the audience.
Next time I’ll take a look at content marketing in action.
