By Michael Brenner, Published November 3, 2014
This is a quote from Seth Godin after hearing the definition of content marketing back in 2008:
Content Marketing is all the marketing left!
At the AWeber Ascend Digital Marketing Summit, I shared my view on how the future of marketing is all about content marketing.
I talked about how content marketing, storytelling and brand publishing are more than just buzzwords. Here is a transcript of the talk and a link to the slides and videos I shared.
Stories have helped us connect with our fellow human beings since the dawn of time. But as we have evolved, each new communication platform creates opportunities and challenges, especially for brands.
Brands have learned that promoting themselves doesn’t work. Ultimately it’s the stories that allow brands to connect with their audience. The future of marketing is extreme customer-centricity.
Brands have to stop promoting themselves and create content that people actually want to consume. The future of marketing will see more brands acting like publishers. This is more than a cliche. It means brands will start delivering content people want. And driving engagement and conversions.
As content consumers, we react more quickly and with deeper connection to headlines that engage us with curiosity and wit. The future of marketing uses the words we use when searching online and drives action with engaging headlines.
The world is overflowing with more information than any of us could ever dream of consuming. But “a picture is worth a thousand words.” The future of marketing is more visual as brands follow traditional media publishers into visual content production. Brands will hire photographers, designers, reporters and videographers in addition to journalists.
The term “real-time marketing” is a myth. It is an over-simplification of the complexity of the modern world and how brands need to act in order to stay relevant. We are always-on and always-connected. The “campaign brain” no longer fits the world we live in. Campaigns that provide short-term bumps of engagement do not provide the return that marketing investment requires.
Brands cannot determine when and where lightning will strike. And so the future of marketing will see marketing leaders creating a culture of continuous content – always-on content production.
Social media is not a strategy. It is one of the channels we use to consume content and connect with people. It is the evolution of what started with the dawn of the internet and the move to digital, mobile and cloud-based systems of communications. These are just the pipes. Content is the fuel.
In order to be effective in the future, brands must create branded content hubs to attract their own audiences. The future of marketing is owned media and branded content hubs, driving social engagement that fuels paid distribution.
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
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