At BlogStar we know full well that effective content marketing is something akin to genius, that is, 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Having a brilliant idea is just the beginning of a long process. The development and execution of superlative video marketing or blog activity, for example, largely comes down to hard graft. But let’s not undervalue inspiration, it is after all the brainchild of any killer content strategy. Here are 3 strategies that should get sparks flying:
1. Tap into audience emotions
Good content informs, tells a story and leaves the reader somehow better equipped than they were before seeing it. Great content, however, does all this while eliciting a strong emotional response from its desired audience. This is the stuff that gets remembered and is more likely to forge a connection between consumer and brand.
Who’s doing it well?
SAP is one brand using digital content to effectively tap into its target market’s emotions. And to great success. Its innovative Love Hate Data campaign, for example, invited its audience to identify as either data haters or data lovers. The effort included a microsite, infographics, blog posts and two Twitter accounts with the handles @datalovers and @datahaters.
Created to promote SAP’s entry-level business intelligence tool, Crystal Solutions, this campaign sparked more than 700 conversations online and generated 580,902 impressions.
2. Create multimedia content
The beauty of content marketing is the significant potential to tell a richer story and engage more meaningfully in a range of text-based, visual and audio formats. When combined, different formats can serve an audience’s information needs really attentively.
Who’s doing it well?
Naturally, educational institutions would be missing a trick if they didn’t use content to teach their audience something about their offer. Video is the perfect medium for bringing concepts and processes to life, therefore illuminating the teaching methods used.
Open University supports its video marketing on YouTube with extensive podcasting activity. OU was, in fact, the first British university to create a YouTube channel. Its performance is strong, with some 45,000 subscribers and over 12 million views to date on its main channel.
In a savvy move, OU also channels its efforts into podcasting to reach both existing and potential students in a format they could enjoy on the go. It also supports its content marketing strategy with social content optimisation, and now boasts a network of 96,000 fans on Facebook and well over 59,000 Twitter followers.
3. Bolster video with written and visual content
When a piece of video marketing content goes viral, the first thing to do is to celebrate. This should, however, be swiftly followed up with supporting content activity to encourage further social sharing and favourable brand exposure.
Who’s doing it well?
US-based glass and ceramics manufacturer Corning enjoyed huge viral success with its A Day Made of Glass video, which attracted more than 21 million views on YouTube.
The video was launched at the company’s annual Investor Day in New York on 4th February 2011. By late April 2011 it had racked up 12 million YouTube views. But rather than resting on their laurels, the marketers at Corning created a dedicated page on its corporate website about the video, with additional complementary written content.
Tapping perfectly into the popularity of social image sharing, Corning also developed a series of images that fans could easily share via social networks, and supported this approach with PR activity.
What’s more, Corning’s sequel, A Day Made of Glass 2, also went on to become a huge consumer success. Not bad for a video intended to create conversations with product design and R&D audiences.
