Content marketing – what does it involve?

The main assumption of content marketing is to attract as many recipients as possible with content. And not just any content – ​​this content must be as attractive, unique and useful to a specific group of readers as possible. In other words, this type of marketing assumes that the key to acquiring a customer is to present them with only factual and valuable information. However, it is not based only on dry content, as some might think.

Why is it worth it?

More and more studies show that society is infected with something called “banner blindness”. We are flooded with advertising messages from everywhere, which is why they are increasingly irritating. So people started looking for a way to conduct marketing campaigns that will carry value in themselves. That is why more and more companies began to emphasize content marketing, which is growing stronger year by year.

Publishing good quality content not only affects the positive perception of the company by others, but also affects the high positioning of the brand in the Google search engine.

Content marketing is a method for building lasting relationships with the recipient and a way to diversify the dialogue, which affects their engagement. Therefore, you should not focus only on dry text, because there are many interesting forms of content marketing: from social media activities, articles, vlogs through newsletters, video guides, e-books, storytelling, infographics or virtual conferences.

Of course, before you start a content-based campaign, you should consider the target group – because content should be presented differently for younger and slightly older target groups.

The forms that content marketing can take are various. Here are a few of them:

Tutorials on YouTube – video materials are the most popular form of presenting content on the Internet. By creating guides and tutorials, the recipient will receive something more than just a product or service. By explaining various industry issues to them, you can interest them and make them more willing to return to the services of a given company.
This form of content marketing can take the form of training videos related to a specific industry, or a recording that presents advice on how to use a given service or application.

Additionally, by publishing a video, we give the recipients of our message the opportunity to interact – in this case, to leave a comment, which can be an indication of how the company is perceived by customers.

Importantly, preparing a video guide does not require large financial outlays. What matters more is the idea of ​​what and how to convey to interest the recipient.

Storytelling – or telling stories. Stories change the way we think and act. They inspire and ignite the imagination, which cannot be said about dry facts. They also affect the rate of memorization of information.

A good narrative leaves no one indifferent – it allows you to gain the customer’s trust, interest them in the product, and, importantly, persuade them to buy it and share information about the product with others.

An example of a person who mastered storytelling to perfection was Steve Jobs. He was able to build his brand through an interesting, engaging narrative that left no one indifferent.

Infographics – a simple way to present content that will attract attention. Even if the subject of the article seems uninteresting, it can be saved in this way. Studies have shown that presenting content using infographics can increase the reader’s interest by up to 30 times and have an impact on remembering the presented information.

Statistical data, charts, or various types of lists are most often simply boring. Thanks to infographics, they will not be off-putting and can become more “edible”.

Content worthy of distinction

Dumb ways to die

In one Australian city, accidents at the metro station were almost a common occurrence. So it was decided to create a campaign to draw attention to this issue. The promotion was handled by the international advertising agency McCann, which approached the problem in an unconventional way – they created animations showing “idiotic ways to die”. You will not find an image filled with suffering or depression there.

The campaign took the form of a cartoon – so it is also interesting from the point of view of the youngest. The song that we hear in the campaign is sung in a pleasant voice and is memorable.

The effect of the 2012 campaign is over 110 million (!) views on YouTube. Later, further series of similar animations were created, which did not differ in level from the original.

Nike

The video “Nike Football: Winner Stays” was released just before the World Cup and has made a huge splash around the world. The plot is simple: two football teams meet on a local pitch. The following dialogue takes place between two players from opposing teams just before the game begins:

-guess I’m Cristiano Ronaldo
-yeah? Well I’m Neymar

In the following minutes of the video, we see how “ordinary” players transform into football stars known around the world – Christiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimović, David Luiz, and Neymar da Silva Santos. The main idea of ​​the campaign was to show that anyone can play football, regardless of where they live or their financial status.

Spotify and #thatsongwhen

One of the company’s newer campaigns, which refers to songs that we have sentiment for, or that we associate with specific feelings and memories.

In addition to the short spot, a platform was created where users can exchange song titles that awaken memories in them. The combination of emotions, music and maybe a bit of nostalgia makes this idea sell brilliantly. So we can say that Spotify has found a simple and effective method to engage its audience and build bonds with them.