The enemy within: why your content marketing is failing. Having been appointed as co-head judge for a set of awards to celebrate the best in cross-border content marketing, I pondered one key question: when we know how powerful content marketing can be, why isn’t it more dominant? The industry needs to get clever/creative in how they measure the value content adds. Sales tend to be the short term goal but what about other business impacts you want to create, such as providing data on how people use a product, or demonstrating environmental improvements caused by encouraging people to extend the life of a product? 99% right, 100% wrong Content can provide a perfect moment of intimacy with a consumer when it provides something wholly personal, relevant, helpful and valuable. Dad dancing isn’t cute For a branded content campaign to work you have to understand cultural proximities to ensure that your brand is relevant and adds values or it simply won’t work. The challenge is to find a cultural context where the brand can legitimately add value, rather than one which the client or agency falls in love with. Rising above culture Cross-border content campaigns are some of the hardest to pull off as you have to find a concept that will have resonance for anyone, irrespective of where they live, which can then be adapted according to local culture/nuances. However, finding that common human consideration that will work across markets can be one of the most rewarding moment for any marketer. HSBC has also cracked what it means to take a universal idea and translate it into the right local context.
Agencies and clients are grappling with their content marketing strategies and failing to exploit its potential. In this guest post, Carat Global’s Sanjay Nazerali explores the reasons why and points the finger at the enemy within.
Having been appointed as co-head judge for a set of awards to celebrate the best in cross-border content marketing, I pondered one key question: when we know how powerful content marketing can be, why isn’t it more dominant?
When we know it cuts through clutter, adds value to people’s lives, builds trust and relevance, why don’t we do more of it?
I can only conclude that “the enemy is within”, that we’re not making more of content marketing because of five internal obstacles.
Overcome them and we can restore marketing to what it was always meant to be: relevant, valuable, and compelling:
Kill the silo, hero the content
People are confused about who ‘owns’ content marketing – both agencies and clients still tend to work in silos and one content-driven campaign can span so many different channels that it can be difficult to manage.
Longform beauty in a short-term world
It is difficult to measure the effectiveness of a piece of content and this is leading to campaigns that create short term impact, when content is often better at creating long term value. The industry needs to get clever/creative in how they measure the value content adds.
This also means looking beyond ‘obvious’ metrics. Sales tend to be the short term goal but what about other business impacts you want to create, such as providing data on how people use a product, or demonstrating environmental improvements caused by encouraging people to extend the life of a product?
These can be just as, if not more, valid when it comes to measuring content’s ability to engage.
99%…
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