The evolution of our world spurs forward the evolution of marketing. Understanding how marketing has changed and remaining up to date on modern marketing can make or break your business.
According to the Content Marketing article Must-Have Checklist to Creating Valuable Content, the most effective marketing strategies can be broken down into five key checkpoints: being findable, readable, understandable, actionable, and shareable. However, as times have changed, and more platforms are introduced, the needs of these five points have increased and expanded exponentially.
Gone are the days when print media was marketing. The digital terrains now include email, websites, video, retargeting, social media, and so much more. The factors of what makes ‘effective’ content have not only increased tenfold, but they are also fluid based on the platform the material exists on. One plan no longer covers everything — marketers need to adjust accordingly to meet the demands of each outlet.
To traverse the different marketing platforms, and create content that engages, requires an understanding of how each channel is unique. Content that checks all the boxes in terms of being findable, readable, understandable, actionable, and shareable on Facebook is different from the content that meets those same requirements on Twitter. To go another step further, the content that once checked those boxes in print marketing is substantially different from the materials and messages needed to market successfully in the digital setting.
Understanding how social media outlets differ in user behavior, the data provided, and content type is vital to the modern marketing world. With platforms that allow for different amounts of text and images per post, marketers have to adjust their messages to meet the needs of the various platforms. What may seem like small details such as considering the number of images or the amount of text to use, hold power to reach your audience and move them to take your intended action.
An understanding of the platforms that marketing exists on, and the type of content that is most efficient on them, is not enough to successfully navigate the world of marketing. Throughout history, as marketers have continually strived to make content that they feel is authentic to their brand and will connect with their target audience, they have always had more than the channel used to consider.
The Content Marketing article, 3 Strategies to Connect With Your Audience (Hint: Start With Mutual Truths), broke down the three sides in the discipline of content marketing. According to Liz High, Vice President of Customer Experience Insights and Delivery at Metia Group, to create content that connects, marketers need to consider what matters to brands, what matters to audiences, and the overlap of the two which she referred to as the truth.
In a time where content is spread with the push of a button, marketers are challenged with finding the “mutual resonance” needed to connect with consumers and be authentic to their brand.
Searching for the middle ground is crucial in marketing because often two people can see the same advertisement and then retain different information from it. No matter the brand’s internet with a message, there is always a possibility that it will invoke reactions contrary to its purpose. Without considering how their brand can prove to be necessary to their audience and creating content that falls in line with that mindset, marketers run the risk of partaking in ineffective communication.
While it is impossible to know the exact overlap between what matters to the brand and what the audience is looking for, High suggests that mutual resonance can be found by searching to understand your audience and brand from multiple sides.
“You can never know the real truth about any customer or any prospect that you’re working for,” Liz said in the article. “It’s your job as marketers to see that from many, many different sides to make sure that anything that you are producing, is truly engaging and relevant to them.”
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