Content Marketing Strategy: Why You Should Increase Your Digital Budget

Businesses are more fluent than ever when it comes to understanding content marketing strategy, according to a new report from Conversant. The survey found that two out of every five senior-level marketers devote at least half of their total marketing budget to digital spending.

Meanwhile, 19 percent of marketers are putting at least three-quarters of their budget toward digital campaigns. This financial commitment to digital strategy is only expected to keep growing.

The report identifies encouraging trends among senior marketers in the retail industry. But the survey, which solicited responses from both e-retail and traditional retail executives, found that a good chunk of the broader population still eschews digital marketing for their businesses, with 40 percent saying they put less than 25 percent of their marketing budget toward digital campaigns. Even so, retailers’ moves are often a sign of what’s to come for other industries.

“Retail is often the ‘first mover’ in digital when it comes to programs with a strong likelihood of ROI impact,” according to the report. “Thus, these findings are very relevant to marketers outside of the retail/e-tail sector.”

The Conversant report follows an Econsultancy report from earlier this year that said more than 70 percent of businesses planned on increasing their digital marketing budgets in 2014. That investment stood in stark contrast to the 20 percent minority saying they would increase traditional marketing spending over the same period.

While some sections of the retail industry continue to drag their heels, the report suggests that marketers are gradually gaining a better understanding of how content marketing strategy should be applied. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they consider digital channels to be most effective in building brands long-term, as opposed to driving short-term sales.

Those respondents also consider digital marketing to be a strong outlet for direct responses, which contribute to the personalization digital content can offer over other marketing platforms. And those senior marketers see the value in those digital assets: a whopping 86 percent agreed that personalized messages can be more effective than mass messaging.

Meanwhile, 26 percent “strongly agree” that personalized communications are the future of the marketing industry. However, 59 percent are unsure of how to handle omnichannel behaviors, saying that this consumer behavior complicates efforts at personalization.

The Conversant report also identified struggles among marketers to find the right vendor solutions for their content marketing needs. While 65 percent currently work with more than five marketing vendors—and 31 percent work with more than 10—nearly half report difficulties in finding the right vendors to meet their needs. And when marketers work with multiple vendors, further complications ensue: 56 percent of respondents say they struggle to effectively integrate these vendors and their services.

Integration is a key issue that could affect those companies and their digital strategy, and their current struggles underscore the need for comprehensive content marketing solutions that offer a variety of services under one roof.

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Digital Jungle, a specialist digital marketing Agency that works with Western Companies in targeting Chinese consumers and Circul8 a full service creative digital agency in Australia have announced an exclusive strategic partnership.

Under the terms of the agreement, Digital Jungle and Circul8 will work together in Australia to provide English and Chinese language digital marketing programs.

Both Agency’s have deep knowledge in hospitality, travel and tourism marketing and through this new partnership will allow for highly creative campaigns across English and Chinese languages.

Dr. Mathew McDougall, founder and CEO of Digital Jungle said, “I am pleased to be announcing this partnership today with Circul8. They have recently been named the winner of IAB Australia's Creative Showcase and have been nominated for a Webby Award. Their strength in creative and our specialist Chinese digital marketing services will allow for some fantastic new campaign ideas for companies wanting to market to Chinese living in Australia or back in China.

Alana Stocks, managing director at Circul8 said, "Many of our existing clients are asking about China and how to start campaigns for a Chinese audience. We knew that this required specialist skills and Digital Jungle was the right fit. They don’t just have an Australian office but can leverage their significant team based in Beijing and Shanghai to support our clients.”

Digital Jungle will be offering a full range of digital marketing solutions aimed at a Chinese audience; consumer insights, website development, search marketing (Baidu SEM/SEO), social media (WeChat/Weibo) and Chinese language content marketing programs.

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The State of Content Marketing in 2014 More brands join the party By Shane Snow

Revolution. That’s the term Brian Alvey, the man who built the software underlying three generations of digital publishers, uses to describe the current buzz around brand publishing. Advertisers don’t want just to make ads that run alongside other people’s content anymore. A growing number of them want to be publishers themselves.

"The revolution occurred," Alvey says, "[because] the audience is now in charge."

Check out the full report: 'State of Content Marketing 2014'

In fact, brands have been publishers for almost as long as publishers have been publishers. Tractor maker John Deere—not the first name that comes to mind when you think of the brand publishing revolution—has put out a corporate magazine called The Furrow since 1895.

It was in the late aughts when companies such as Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble embraced the Internet-age refrain that "we're all publishers now." Before long, these companies had transformed their websites into venues for original narrative storytelling, photography and video series. Almost overnight the press release and 30-second TV spot became passé.

Today the chorus is more frenzied than ever. Thanks to social media’s massive influence, "publish or perish" is no longer just the dreaded axiom of untenured academics. Brands and their agencies believe deeply that content is the future, and anyone who doesn't get onboard will be left behind.

If that sounds dramatic, let the numbers speak for themselves: Red Bull’s magazine reaches two million people a month; American Express attracts millions of small business owners to its stories on OpenForum.com; Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches” video garnered more than 114 million views in its first first month and eventually became the most viewed “ad” of all-time.

In response, creative and PR agencies are adding “content marketing” to their lists of offerings and hiring the magazine world’s best editors to run publications for their clients. Brands building in-house newsrooms are doing the same.

In Contently’s new report, “State of Content Marketing 2014,” we examine which companies, vendors and voices are driving the brand storytelling movement, and we analyze the four key trends that will decide the future of advertising.

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Healthcare Technology Marketing Practice Launched

Modern Marketing Partners, a leading full-service, business-to-business marketing agency based in the Chicago region, has launched a healthcare technology marketing practice to serve clients in such categories as healthcare software, healthcare information technology, electronic and capital equipment, medical devices, and more.

Modern Marketing Partners (MMP) has extensive experience managing national and global healthcare technology brands including Nobel Biocare, Concentra Preferred Systems, Panoramic Imaging, AfterMath Claim Science, Amcor Flexibles (pharma division), Eaglesoft (clinical software), Healthpoint Capital, and more.

Recently, MMP implemented a comprehensive digital marketing program for Evolution1, the leading employee healthcare benefits software provider. The program includes blogging and content marketing, publicity, events, search engine optimization, social media marketing, and more. For Evolution1, MMP developed and launched the Healthcare Trends Institute, an educational platform for healthcare benefits stakeholders to access the most up-to-date, and accurate industry news. View the Evolution1 case study here: http://www.modernmarketingpartners.com/Marketing-Case-Studies.cfm

"Healthcare technology is changing rapidly, and requires very specialized marketing to maximize success," explains Neil M. Brown, Chief Marketing Officer of Modern Marketing Partners. "Modern Marketing Partners is committed to the category, and seeks to further develop our practice with forward-thinking brands."

Modern Marketing Partners offers a no-obligation marketing consultation to qualified clients. For more information, contact Neil Brown at 630-868-5061.

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About Modern Marketing Partners
Modern Marketing Partners is a full-service, business-to-business marketing and communications agency specializing in the integration of traditional marketing, Internet and social media. For more information, visit our website http://www.ModernMarketingPartners.com, or follow us: MMP Blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn. Question?

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The uncomfortable truth about content marketing

If there’s one thing that the marketing industry can agree on, it’s the growing importance of content marketing.

Nearly 75 per cent of UK companies are planning to increase their spend on content marketing in 2014, according to eConsultancy/Responsys. And the (not entirely unbiased) Content Marketing Institute claims that 63 per cent of British marketers plan to increase or significantly increase their content marketing spend in the next 12 months.

The print-based customer publishing industry has been talking about content marketing for years, but the increase in investment is being driven by digital. Facebook pages, YouTube channels, Twitter streams, Pinterest boards... brand managers quickly find that ‘owned’ channels have an insatiable appetite for content.

And it’s not just those new-fangled social platforms. Launching a new website? You’re going to need lots of new content. Got your eye on a shiny new eCRM programme? You’ll need plenty of content to fill all those emails. SEO audit? Turns out your content needs updating…

This is great news for those of us in the content marketing business. But behind all the positive headlines, there’s an uncomfortable truth. Something that we need to admit, to our clients, and to ourselves. You see, the thing is… the internet doesn’t need any more content.

Take a category like food, for example. Client X wants to tell customers about its exciting new innovation in the yellow fats category. Our content strategy writes itself – forget about boring old ingredients, let’s produce some inspirational recipes!

Except a quick Google search with the keyword ‘recipes’ brings back 141,000,000 results. And our competitor set for recipe content isn’t other brands in the yellow fats category, or even other FMCG brands.

It includes the BBC, which helpfully publishes 13,000 recipes on the BBC Food website and a further 7,000 under the BBC Good Food brand. It includes Jamie Oliver, who has a YouTube channel with more than 700,000 subscribers.

It includes US giant Epicurious, which boasts a database of 100,000 recipes. It includes huge user-generated resources like AllRecipes, which hosts a community that generates more than 50m pieces of food content each year. And it includes more blogs, forums and messageboards than any content strategist could ever find. The conclusion is unavoidable – the internet simply doesn’t need any more recipes.

The same is true for pretty much any subject that you care to think of. Fashion tips, football news, financial advice or photography… there is no category where the audience is crying out for a brand to come and create more content.

Does that mean the end of content marketing? Absolutely not. But it does mean that we have to be smarter in the way we approach client briefs. Content marketing doesn’t have to mean creating new content.

Effective content marketing strategies need to start in a different place. What conversations are already taking place? On which platforms, and around what subjects? Who are the influential people in those conversations? And how can we find a legitimate role for our brand in those conversations?

The problem is that content people like producing new content. Content agencies generally make money by charging for content creation. And when your agency model looks like a hammer, every brief looks like a nail.

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Grammar Chic, Inc. Illuminates Content Marketing Client Process Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1861824#ixzz2zcgDDzwc

The content marketing team at Grammar Chic, Inc. gives business owners an indication of what it is like to work with a professional CM team.

As small business owners become increasingly aware of content marketing’s significance—of the need to build consumer trust and engagement across such channels as blogging and social media—more and more of them are recruiting professional content marketing firms. A professional marketing group can not only provide superlative results, but they can do so efficiently, freeing up the business owner’s time to focus on the core competencies of the actual business. For some, however, a question remains: What exactly is it like to become a client for a professional content marketing firm? The content marketing team at Grammar Chic, Inc. reveals the answer in a new statement to the press.

“Basically, we try to keep the entire process as hands-off as we can for our small business clients,” notes Josh Hurst, Grammar Chic’s Content Marketing Strategist. “Our role is to take the day-to-day concerns of content marketing off the hands of our clients, allowing them to focus on other things. At the same time, all of our content marketing campaigns are customized to meet the needs and objectives of the brands we’re working with, so we do need to take a little bit of time to get to know those brands.”

As such, the first stage in the process is a Strategy Call with Hurst and one of the Grammar Chic writers. “One of our writers will be assigned to work with your business, and we’ll spend just a few minutes on the phone gathering information about your company,” Hurst comments. “This is mostly a time for the business owner to tell us about the business, and to reveal his or her content marketing goals.”

Using the information gleaned during this phone call—as well as some additional research into the industry in question—the Grammar Chic team will then create content that reflects the brand’s identity and mission. “We’ll develop content that represents the voice of your company, and helps fulfill your content marketing goals,” affirms Hurst.

This content may then be offered to the client for review. “We are happy to allow you to review and to propose edits or revisions, but we are just as happy to make the process hands-off for you, simply posting content ourselves,” comments Hurst.

Crucially, content marketing is not a one-time action but an ongoing process. “We ensure that our clients are kept well-informed about what we are doing on their behalf,” Hurst says. “We provide regular data and reporting to show that we are getting results, and we are always happy to meet with clients to discuss the progress being made. Additionally, we tweak the process as needed, always striving to more accurately reflect the client’s brand and to truly engage online customers.”

The process all begins with a consultation, which the Grammar Chic, Inc. team offers for free. More information about the company and its services can be found at www.grammarchic.net.

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