Top Priority for Digital Marketers in 2013 is Content Marketing
It is no secret that many “Madison Avenue” types agree that website “content marketing“ is the wave of the future. The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as a technique by which “marketers can create and distribute relevant and valuable content that will animate members of a target audience to take action.”
In 2012 only 29 percent of digital marketers cited content marketing as a top priority, ranking below social media engagement, content optimization, conversion rate optimization, and brand building/viral marketing. In contrast, at the very recent Online Marketing Summit in San Diego, five sessions were devoted to some aspect of content marketing.
According to a recent Econsultancy and Adobe report (a), content marketing is the top priority for digital marketers in 2013. In the survey, 39 percent of respondents said content marketing was their number one focus this year. The report also revealed:
- Over 90% of respondents believe that content marketing will become extremely important over the next 12 months
- Nearly three quarters (73%) of digital marketers agree that “˜brands are becoming publishers’
- Less than half of companies have dedicated budgets (34%) or individuals dedicated (46%) to content marketing
- Increased engagement is the most commonly cited objective for content marketers, with 52% of in-house marketers and 58% of agency marketers listing this as one of their top three business objectives
The following are some thought provokers regarding content marketing that should be useful when creating your content marketing strategies. With regard to your tactics, are you:
1. Carefully defining the typical characteristics and motivations of the members your target market?
2. Using relevant keywords after conducting sufficient keyword research? Then, after sufficient research concerning keyword usage, are you properly employing those keywords in your site’s content in order to attract targeted traffic from search engines?
3. Setting up the right social media profile accounts set up to increased site visits?
4. Developing content that will please your existing audience and attract additional site visitors?
5. Using effective toosl to help you to learn more about the types of information visitors are seeking?
6. Making your site’s content easy to share? If site visitors draw others to your site, they are unpaid salespeople.
7. Making your site “sticky” by injecting content that will motivate site visitors to return regularly?
An old marketing maxim: “Free advertising is the best advertising.” The more that people share your content over social networks, the greater become the odds of generating new customers. If you have not done so already, might not be a bad idea to add Facebook Like buttons next to your website content, as well as icons for sharing on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Stumble Upon and other social sites.
Finally, use Google Analytics, Facebook engagement data and other information to see how your content performs.
Providing Better Digital Content Marketing Strategies to Manufacturing, Wholesale Distribution and Online Retail Businesses
Why do so many small and midsize companies rely on Cornerstone’s expertise for business process automation and integration, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, technical support and content marketing? Simply stated, we know how to help businesses grow. We’re definitely Not the “new kids on the information technology (IT) block”. Cornerstone’s brilliant team of content marketing specialists, consultants, CPAs, (U.S.-based and English speaking) programmers and web developers have been providing high-performance business software, as well as unparalleled technical support, to small and midsize manufacturing and wholesale distribution enterprises for more than thirty years.
Cornerstone Consulting’s areas of expertise include, but are not limited to:
- SAP Business One
- E-commerce / M-commerce
- Mobility
- Business Intelligence
- Business Analytics
- Internet
- Databases
- Cloud Computing
- Custom Programming
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Website Design , Development and Hosting
- Content Marketing Strategies
