Content marketing is a major driving force in the digital-focused marketing landscape. Everyone’s been trying to make sense of the best approach – and for good reason. Successful digital marketing hinges upon interesting, attention-grabbing content that’s hosted and amplified across various platforms.
The beauty of content marketing lies in pulling customers to a brand through useful insights and narratives that drive leads and build brand followers, rather than pushing brand products and messages by paying.
Unfortunately that’s easier said than done, and the industry is slowly becoming overrun by people who wrongly assume they can write, story tell and market with flair.
Copywriters and journalists come to mind as skilled content creators who can drive successful campaigns, but the best content marketers we’ve seen often have traits going beyond fluent writing.
1) Versatile Storytellers
The best content marketers in New Zealand don’t just write well – they’re versatile and have the ability to tell great stories.
Successful content campaigns involve the perfect blend of long-form (op-eds, blogs, case studies), short-form (social media updates, memes, tip sheets and more) and interactive material (videos, gifs, podcasts). Some live in print while others are hosted online.
The best storytellers can adopt brand-appropriate tones and style suitable for the right platforms and audiences. It could be a blog post discussing renewable energy or a case study on the newest tech start-up. One minute they have to write with a female audience in mind, and the next with a male. They need to be able to research and consume information quickly, and then present complex ideas into easily digestible articles.
2) Collaborative Marketers
We don’t often think of writers as outstanding team players, but content marketers need to be. They can only produce the best work by collaborating with different stakeholders.
The best content folk address numerous topics, challenges and issues across a wide range of audience groups. To ensure they provide quality, relevant insights, they need to speak with different departments, company executives, and work with other marketers and external vendors to piece together their thoughts.
To discuss a niche topic at length, content marketers have to speak and work with the right people, and go through several rounds of reviews and approvals.
These marketers aren’t expected to create everything on their own, but they are responsible for the narrative, and working with others to bring the point across in different formats. This means working with graphic designers, video experts, social media strategists and more!
3) Consumer Behaviour Knowledge
Leads are generally converted into customers after engaging in several brand touch points, which might be a combination of blog posts, Facebook updates, and marketing brochures, for example. People usually only start trusting brands and making purchases after reading and viewing lots of relevant, good content.
In order for this to work, content marketers need to understand the audiences they’re selling to and how they behave. There are different levels in a sales funnel before a potential lead becomes a customer, and content marketers are responsible for crafting appealing content to make that happen.
They need to know what makes their customers tick, when they’re most likely to make purchases and then reach them on the right platforms. This could mean working with sales teams for follow-ups or developing calls-to-action that drive sales. Understanding consumers remains at the core of content campaigns.
Great content builds brand awareness, but the most valuable content campaigns will improve the bottom line through actual sales.
Marketers with these winning traits are bound to steer the content ship in the right direction.
If you’re interested in getting your content right, check out the upcoming Content Marketing course and Copywriting Fundamentals course run by the Marketing Association starting soon.
