Brand Managers: 3 Ways To Deliver Content In The Digital World

Brand Manager are facing enormous challenges to differentiate, engage and meet the constantly changing purchase behaviors of their digitally empowered customers. As a brand passionate and graduate student within the Integrated Marketing Communications program at Medill, Northwestern University, I have found two interesting articles. What do brands need to focus on, in order to deliver the right content & engage with their customers in today’s interconnected world? Two articles that I am convinced, you will find interesting.


The article Trends Showing B2B Content Marketing Won’t Be Boring in 2017, published on business2community.com and written by Aashish Sharma underlines the importance of content marketing and describes trends brands have to focus on to engage with their customers. Due to the high content exposure,  Marketers need to use the right strategy to be recognized by their customers. According to Sharma, video content is going to be increasingly important as a form of marketing and 85% of content marketers already report a positive ROI when using videos. Influencer marketing is mentioned as a second big trend for 2017. Engaging influencers is becoming essential to be successful. They have the possibility to help brands gain trust and credibility. Furthermore they can build meaningful relationships. Therefore, it is important to identify the right influencer and understand how to use this opportunity most effectively. 

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/240099

Similar to Sharma, Lilach Bullock reports in her article 6 Predictions for Content Marketing in 2017, published on socialmediatoday.com, what content marketing is going to be like in the upcoming year. According to her content is a “great promotional tool for businesses” and video is driving more engagement then any other content. Whether it is on Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram or other social media platforms - video is king. Customers watching videos are 1.81x more likely to purchase that those who don’t. Bullock therefore advises to use video to deliver content in the digital world in order to make more conversions and sales. The second trend she is pointing out is that you should put emphasis on your mobile device optimization. We live in a world where consumers have their phones and tablets with them 24/7. Most content consumption is therefore on there mobile devices. Brands need to adjust and optimize all the information for mobile devices. If they do not, they run the risk that people will simply not engage with their content. Have a look at the two article to explorer additional trends that could be of interest for your brand!

After reading these two powerful articles and from my studies as a graduate student in the Northwestern Medill IMC program, I have identified three recommendations for you. Here is what you should do in order to deliver meaningful content to your most valuable audience:

• Engage through Video - Be ready to create video content, video content drives more engagement than any other content.

• Identify relevant Influencer - Through influencers, your brand will have the possibility to reach a much larger audience, because they can add to the importance of your messages.

• Think Mobile - Your Brand should create and optimize its social media content for mobile devices.

Anke von Hanstein

Creative Thinker. Brand Passionate. Insight-Driven.

Anke is a graduate student at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications (class of’17). She is currently pursuing her degree in Integrated Marketing Communications. Her strong interests in brand & content marketing within todays digital world motivates to become a marketing professional. Connect with her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Battle for the Social Screen: The Future of Facebook, YouTube, and You

As our culture moves quickly to video content over print, brands must face the reality that choosing the wrong video platform could make or break their future. Video content isn’t just a plus for a consumers; it has now become a requirement. Brands are expected to have hours of online video content from witty commercials to product demonstrations to “about us” films. From my experience studying Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University and my time at a digital agency, I have seen the incredible results video content can produce. However, these results can vary drastically if the right content is in the wrong place. Your need to determine where the best place for your content is or your brand could be left in the dust. 

Right now there are two key players in video content: YouTube and Facebook. YouTube is the historically dominant platform. It is the second largest search engine in the world and completely revolutionized video content. For most brands, this is where their content is being shown and uploaded. Advertising prices are cheaper and with YouTube’s immense user base, they are likely to be seen by more people. While YouTube may cheaper and bigger now, Facebook is on the rise. Facebook is growing its video capabilities and has three times more videos with over 1 million views. While it isn’t the go-to video platform (yet) and has fewer videos, more videos tend to go viral. This is partly because Facebook has more advanced targeting technology. This is partly why advertising comes at a premium cost six times that of YouTube.

The key difference between the two at the moment is the difference between YouTube’s skippable feature for advertisements and Facebook’s autoplay. Experts say while YouTube visitors are more likely to sit through an ad because they are there to watch videos, watching an ad on Facebook means they are signed into their account, which means you can learn a lot more about them. This means a view on Facebook gives far more information than one on YouTube. However, this information comes at a price. On Facebook you may end up paying for people who aren’t actively watching your ad, whereas on YouTube the skippable feature means you only pay for what people actually watch.

When it comes time to pick a platform you need to ask yourself these three questions:

• Which is more important to me, an accurate cost per view or accurate targeting?
•  What is the goal of this content? Just number of views or is there a call to action?
• Where is my audience now? Are they staying there or moving elsewhere?

If your organization is new to video and want to get the most bang for their buck, YouTube is the sensible choice. You can reach a big population of people and only have to pay for what they’re seeing. Because it is the more established video platform, more customers are more comfortable using it to interact with branded content. However, if your brand is has already conquered YouTube and is looking to create more dynamic content with greater results, Facebook is the way to go. With its elite targeting capabilities, its premium price will deliver premium results. The important thing is to keep experimenting. Not all campaigns will work for your go-to platform. Keep asking yourself those three questions and you will find the path to virality and video success.

           

I am film major turned advertising nerd who loves talking about life changing commercials and donuts. I am currently studying Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University and hope to pursue a career in advertising upon graduation. Follow me on Twitter @Emily_Ryles and see more of my work on my website.