You Have the Content. Where’s the Engagement?

You are a content marketer, and you want your content to attract the right consumers. You’ve defined your target audience, you’ve looked on Sureshot, you’ve been consistently putting out content… but you’re wondering what else you can do. You are likely pouring an exorbitant amount of budget, resources, and time into content creation. Which can include looking into how you can rent a soundstage or who you can hire to take part in your content. Maybe you are also planning on creating videos to appeal to a wider audience, this means that you’ll need to look at budget restrictions during this planning stage so you do not go over. You may want to take a look at resources like royalty-free music and videos as well as other content creation requirements so you can be all set in getting it off the ground. Always remember that you will need to spend something on your content creation, you are unable to do this all for free!

In fact, content marketers increased their annual market budget spend on content creation by an average of 56% over the past 12 months, according to a study by Content Marketing Institute in 2019.

Yet of the more than 85% of marketers publish branded content, only 36% feel they’re doing it effectively, according to a Forrester research report.

So why is it still not right? What’s the hold up? Too many opinions, undefined purpose, conflicting messaging… or simply not stating the obvious: Who is this content for and what do you want consumers to do with it? And how can you get it in front of the consumers that want to engage with it?

Creating content is the first step, but it’s not the final step. In fact, we might argue that it’s the least important step. If the right consumers don’t engage with your content, it doesn’t matter how great is.

Break Down the Content Silos

70% of marketers lack a consistent or integrated content strategy, according to Altimeter. 70%!

The first step is breaking down the walls between the content creation teams and the content distribution and advertising teams. Align your content creation stage with your distribution strategy for guaranteed engagement, results, and brand loyalty.

Bidtellect VP Terah Bocchi penned a terrific piece for NAI offering 5 steps to breaking down the content silos. The recap? Define your content, decide if its valuable to your target consumer, and create a measurement and distribution strategy that matches your ideal customer journey. Use post-click analytics to inform your creation and your content subject matter to inform placement. Again, keep your ideal customer journey in mind. Your strategy will inform your next wave of content.

Take Your Distribution to the Next Level with Native

Native Ads blend into the form and function of a publisher’s site, minimizing disruption to the browsing experience. Like publisher content, Native Ads provide content previews and provide value – they are designed to inform, educate, and entertain. Placed on the most relevant sites, they will attract the right readers more than Display Ads will. Native not only engages consumers, but pushes them to the next stage in the purchase path, bringing audiences closer to conversion

Further, publishers are developing their sites to accommodate more Native placements, including 75% of US publishers offering opportunities for placement already (NAI). By 2020 almost ⅔ of display spending will shift to Native, making Native Advertising a $53 billion business (eMarketer, March 2019).

Users are twice as likely to click on Native Ads since they’re in the feed of consumption in a contextually-relevant placement (SmartInsights)

Get your content in front of the right consumers with a programmatic content distribution strategy. Choose a partner with an expansive placement network and superior contextual targeting capabilities to ensure your content previews are being placed on relevant sites to reach the right consumers – safely and effectively. Using an influencer on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram is one way to accomplish this.
If you’re looking to recruit an influencer, make sure they have a large number of followers.
If they don’t, ask them to buy IG followers (or any other social media network) before considering doing business with them. Post-click analytics and Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) can track engagement and inform future content creation.

By breaking down the walls and having a bigger conversation around content, it’s possible to create advertising experiences that don’t feel like advertising but, rather, a relevant conversation between a brand and a consumer. When it’s relevant, a consumer engages.