Content marketing think like a publisher chapter 2 why is content important now

According to eMarketer, the time consumers are spending with media is seriously out of whack with the types of media advertisers are buying to reach them.. Time spent share Ad spending s

2

Why Is Content

“Content is the bait It’s what captures eyeballs, ears, attention, and engagement.”

Content is king.

Anyone who’s ever worked in publishing or broadcast

media has heard this familiar mantra ad infinitum In

media, content is the bait It’s what captures eyeballs,

ears, attention, and engagement It’s part of a

time-honored contract with consumers: We’ll give you content,

you give us attention—but you’ll have to agree to get ads

or commercials as part of the bargain The traditional

media model is interruptive marketing.

That model still holds true, of course, and will continue to

do so But these days, traditional media is on a continual

decline Newspapers, television, radio, and magazines,

although hardly on the verge of extinction, are

neverthe-less experiencing catastrophic disruption Circulation and

tune-in are sinking Journalists are losing their jobs in

record numbers.

Consider Figure 2.1 According to eMarketer, the time consumers are spending

with media is seriously out of whack with the types of media advertisers are buying

to reach them

Time spent share

Ad spending share

3.3%

4.9%

Share of Average Time Spent per Day with Select

Media by US Adults vs US Ad Spending Share, 2010

% of total

Note: numbers may not add up to 100% due to rounding

Source: eMarketer, March 2011

TV Internet Radio Mobile Newspapers Magazines

0.5%

Figure 2.1 Share of average time spent per day with select media by U.S adults

ver-sus U.S ad spending share, 2010 1

Meanwhile, the rise of the Internet and other forms of digital media has created

meaningful shifts and changes not only in the way media are consumed, but also in

the way various channels are created, found, and disseminated What powers that

fundamental shift is, simply, content and technology platforms that make creating

and disseminating content within everyone’s grasp

You may not be able to afford to buy a television network, but nothing’s stopping

you from creating your own YouTube channel The cost of launching a newspaper

or magazine is prohibitive—and risky Want to set up a blog? Go for it A basic blog

can be up and running in minutes, and will cost nothing but your time

Certainly consumers are jumping on these digital trends (see Figure 2.2) Consider

the astronomical growth of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or other content platforms

that didn’t exist a decade ago (or in some cases, even five years ago) It took

televi-sion and even the VCR decades to reach these content platforms’ levels of use

One primary change came with search Some 90% or more (depending on your

sources) of buying decisions begin with a web search And on the Internet,

practi-cally no one’s searching for an ad Depending on where they are in the purchase

cycle, they’re searching for information, recommendations, research, reviews,

authority, and credibility And when they find the information they seek, they’re

sharing it with others involved in the purchase decision: A friend, a spouse, a

col-league, or their boss, or perhaps they’re throwing out that information to a trusted

network to vet it or to validate their position in the decision-making process

Figure 2.2 The content boom.

As Figure 2.3 illustrates, search marketing professionals are working overtime to

keep up with this trend For the first time in 2011, search engine optimization

efforts were more directed toward optimizing social media programs than toward

more basic activities such as increasing website visibility with links and keywords

Automating SEO processes

to lower execution costs 9.7%

Mobile site

optimization

10.3%

Integration of SEO and social media programs 43.5%

Developing geotargeted

SEO content

11.6%

Most Important SEO Activity in 2011 According to

US Search Marketing Professionals

% of respondents

Note: numbers may not add up to 100% due to rounding

Source: Covario webinar, provided to eMarketer, Dec 22, 2010

Link building 24.6%

Figure 2.3 Search engine optimization activity in 2011 2

That’s not something you do with an ad, either Online, ads are hardly searchable,

much less shareable

2 Source: eMarketer

Content can also create a virtuous circle in

tan-dem with search engine optimization (SEO)

efforts More content helps a brand, product,

service, or company rank higher in search

engine results—provided that content is useful,

helpful, relevant, or engaging People talking

about that content in social media channels

cre-ates links to the content, which in turn further

elevates it, search-wise It’s a win-win situation

that will be discussed in detail in Chapter 10,

“Overview of Content Channels.”

Content marketing is also coming to the fore as

marketers realize the importance of focusing not

only on the buying cycle, but also equally on the

sales cycle Marketers are then flipping the funnel

over entirely as they quickly learn that customer

service, reputation management, branding, positioning, and public relations (PR) are

occurring in digital channels as well as positioning, lead generation, and nurturing

Businesses of all kinds are adapting, and they’re learning how to create great

con-tent A 2010 study conducted by the Business Marketing Association and American

Business Media, in conjunction with MarketingProfs and Junta42, surveyed 1,100

marketers in North America and found nine out of ten businesses—across all

industries and companies large and small—are incorporating content into the

mar-keting mix On average, they’re spending a quarter of their marmar-keting budgets on

content, and over half said they plan to increase that investment in the coming year

These marketers know content can provide the solutions prospective buyers are

seeking when they use search They know prospects need to be educated before

making buying decisions They know that when credible, trustworthy information

is found, it can easily be shared with others involved in the buying process

They know they can become publishers Rather than invest time, money, and

resources buying or influencing media with advertising or public relations

cam-paigns, savvy marketers can redirect the flow of that money to become the media

Marketers worldwide have caught on to these strategies Although, as Figure 2.4

illustrates, most still rely on print to distribute at least some of their content,

virtu-ally all marketers have made digital the centerpiece of any content distribution

strategy

Case in point: For many years, I was editor-in-chief of the top online publication

covering the digital marketing industry Our bread and butter was selling ads to

marketing technology companies and publishing those ads in our email newsletters

“Nine out of ten businesses—

across all industries and companies large and small—are incorporating content into the marketing mix.”

Figure 2.4 Content distribution modelss used according to media executives

world-wide, Nov 2010 3

HubSpot is a marketing technology company—one that would have been a hot

prospect to my former employer’s ad sales team But no longer A serious,

long-term commitment to content marketing means the company features more than

50 digital marketing case studies on its website—all with videos The site attracts

roughly one million unique visitors per month It sends email newsletters to more

than 700,000 subscribers who have opted in to receive them More than 100,000

people follow the company on Twitter, while another 50,000 track the company’s

LinkedIn updates As a result, the company is spending little on other sales and

marketing efforts

And I promise you, these numbers seriously compete with the subscriber, following,

and website traffic statistics of the major editorial property I led just a few short

years ago

Consumers have come to expect content from brands and the companies they do

business with More and more, marketing is structured to supply content and to

enable customers to use it, interact with it, and share it

To sell, engage, educate, and inform in a highly competitive online environment,

the time for marketers to embrace content marketing is now

Content Distribution Models Used According to

Media* Executives Worldwide, Nov 2010

% of respondents

24%

Web, print, mobile and tablet

23%

Web, and print

21%

Web, print and mobile

16%

Web only

10%

Web, mobile and tablet

6%

Web and mobile

Note: *traditional and digital

Source: AdMedia Partners, Inc “Merger and Acquisition Prospects for

Media, Marketing Services and Marketing Technology Firms,” Dec 29, 2010

3 Source: eMarketer

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