iMarketing

Creating original content is not easy. It requires brands to put forth extra time and effort just to make sure the message will get across to their target audience. However, what if brands can curate user-generated content instead? What better way to develop content than to use user-generated content?

Why Is User-Generated Content Important?

In this day and age, everyone on social media is a content creator. We have the opportunity to share our thoughts, creativity and ideas through the means of text, photos, or videos. It’s where we devote our lives for social currency. Undoubtedly, social currency turns into word-of-mouth which ultimately leads to sales conversion. Brands know that user-generated content is important because it can make an impact on their sales and reputation. According to CMI report, 78% of B2C companies are starting to use more user-generated content (UGC) in their marketing strategies (2015).  Why? Because consumers trust user-generated content more than any type of media form. It is like trusting your friend’s advice. You’re more convinced to buy something if you know your friend had a positive firsthand experience. Then you’re more likely to trust the brand.

So, how can brands leverage user-generated content? According to Corey Walnwright, here are some ways brands can get started.

1. Make reviews easy on brand’s website.

Reviews are user-generated. This is where users write their own content about what they like or don’t like about the brand, product, or service. As previously noted, consumers care about customers opinions. However, the problem is many brands do not foster this. Businesses should format reviews as conveniently as possible. It should be accessible and easy by a click of button including comment functions, star rating system, photo uploads, group forms, etc. This permits consumers to gain more insight and create discussions. Having a mix of positive and negative reviews is normal because everyone has different tastes or experiences. Though, it would be immoral and deceitful for brands to delete negative reviews and keep positive reviews only. The purpose of user-generated content is to show brands’ authenticity and credibility. 

2. Take control over your online reputation.

Whether if a business has positive or negative reviews, other people will write content about the brand on their blog, social media channel, or online review site. Although brands do not have control over these sites, what they could do is actively participate in positive conversation. Of course, no one wants bad reviews because it can harm their reputation but positive reviews are always welcomed. It will help boost SEO rankings and increase backlinks.

3. Ask reviews from your best customers.

Not everyone is going to take the time to write a review. Brands need to reach out to customers and ask them if they can take the moment to fill out one. This is how user-generated content will be created. Preferably, brands want satisfied customers to write a review. Commonly, brands use email marketing message to request customers to write a review.

4. Create case studies.

Aside from reviews, another type of user-generated content is case studies. The difference is that businesses have more control over how the information is presented. Case studies are meant to highlight positive customer’s opinions or successful examples. Although brands are the ones who publish the content, it is based on user-generated content. Case studies can be presented in multiple formats such as video, PDF, slideshow, and blog posts. More importantly, make sure it is shareable.

5. Encourage social discussion.

Last but not least, user-generated content is highly influential on social media platforms. Consumers will often visit a brand’s social media network to evaluate their likeability and trustworthiness. As a result, they will decide if they want to make a purchase from the brand. This is why brands should use their social media presence to encourage discussion from their fans and followers. This will not only build more content but it will increase social posts discoverability in search results.

Conclusion

Chipotle was once a beloved restaurant that everyone were obsessed with and talked about. However, since the outbreak of e.coli controversy, Chipotle Mexican Grill has been struggling to convince its customer that is safe to eat at the restaurant again. To win consumers’ heart again, Chipotle is doing a lot of more marketing via traditional and online. A few days ago, I received two hardcopy coupons from Chipotle in the mail which included one free burrito, burrito bowl or salad and free chips with purchase. My first thought was ‘sweet! Who doesn’t like a free meal?’ From a content marketing stand point, Chipotle knows I am a loyal customer (based on all the free meals I ever received by providing my name, email, and home address). I used to be obsessed with Chipotle and would eat it almost every two weeks. It was a word-of-mouth topic that my friends and I would casually talk about. One thing that we could all relate is the extra charge for guac.  

For some reason, every Californian is obsessed with avocado and guac. Guilty. I am too. Chipotle understood this. What better way to win’s people heart than with guac. In May 2015, Chipotle release their guacamole recipe online for no extra charge. It was a smart content marketing strategy that got them a lot of buzz and online sharing. Why? Because they were open and honest to their loyal customers. According to Quinn Whissen, there are three take away that we can learn from Chipotle. 

1. Transparency

When it comes to content marketing, being transparent is a good thing. However, it is hard for many businesses to adopt this because they are worried about sharing their intellectual property and processes to the public. But in doing so, it will give consumers the information they are looking for. As a result, they will have some amount of trust.

When it comes to food, consumers’ are careful about what they eat. They want to know where the food is coming from and is it safe. With Chipotle, they always been transparent about their ingredients. From the very moment you walk inside the restaurant and wait in that long line, you’ll see their message across their menu board Food With Integrity. And even after the outbreak of e.coli, Chipotle, Chipotle is still transparent. Chipotle wants to be honest and straightforward with their customers. They want to emphasize that they are still committed to providing food that is fresh, safe, and tasteful. For more information, consumers can access to their website: https://www.chipotle.com/food-with-integrity.

2. Trust

If companies are going to be transparent with their customers, then it is important to make sure they can be trusted. Trust is important to have when developing a relationship. No one wants to be deceived or lied to. When consumers are looking for information, they expect it to be true and reliable. In this case, Chipotle has always been upfront with their customers by visibly displaying their ingredients out in the open and letting people choose what they want in their food. Lets not forget that you can see the front kitchen as well. You can witness Chipotle’s employees cooking the chicken, pork, or beef. This made Chipotle stand out and different from other competitors like McDonalds. Indeed, it worked until e.coli happened. It affected consumer’s overall perception and questioned about Chipotle’s safety. No one wanted to eat Chipotle because they didn’t want to risk getting e.coli. Not only did they lose consumers’ trust but even stockholders. Although Chipotle have taken measures to prevent this nightmare from happening again, their biggest challenge is to convince consumers and stockholders that they can be trusted again.

3. Loyalty

Lastly, businesses can gain loyal customers when they are transparent and trustable. Take Chipotle’s guacamole recipe for example. Although we can save a few bucks and make the same guac as Chipotle, many of us don’t have time. That’s one of Chipotle’s advantage. I’d pay $2 extra because it is convenient and I love guac. That’s one of reason that made me a loyal customer in the first place. I wouldn’t say I lost all trust in Chipotle during the e.coli outbreak, but because my phase for Chipotle craze reached its maturity. Though, I still eat Chipotle at least once a month, also for the free meals. 

Conclusion

Brands can create content for their email marketing purposes. Email outreach is a great approach for brands to inform new users or potential customers about their products/services and maintain relationship with existing customers. However, brands must convince users why it’s worth subscribing to their email list. Many brands make the mistake of sounding dull and vague by asking users to “enter your email for updates”. Instead, brands need to excite them.

Remember, users don’t care about the brand. They care about what’s in it for them. Brands should pitch the benefits users will receive if they subscribe to their list. A few questions brands should pinpoint are:

What value will users receive by subscribing?

What type of content will be sent out?

Will users receive promotional offers?

How often will you email?

These questions can help brands determine what their objectives or goals are. It should be specific and measureable. The next step is to build a contact list.

Building a contact list.

Sending emails out to a list of people is not as simple as it sounds. Brands should target the specific group they want to reach out. If brands want to increase their outreach list by X amount of number or percentage, then they can track people who are already reading their content on social network. With existing followers that are loyal and interested to the brand, it is a great way to advertise email newsletter.

Differentiate your targets.

Once brands have created an appropriate contact list, they need to separate them into different target groups by persona. The reason why is everyone is different; we all have different needs and wants. When it comes to email marketing, brands must carefully construct content that is fits the user’s persona, including demographics, lifestyle, user story, and user needs. In addition, brands need to factor in what type of language will support their content and communication. What tone will the brand use? Do they want to sound more casual or professional? These factors can help brands target their audience specifically and gain measureable result.

What can you offer?

After brands differentiated their target groups, the next step is to create valuable content. This is where brands convince users that they can offer something that is mutually beneficial. For example, some users subscribe to brands because they want to receive upcoming promotions or deals. They are likely to shop if they know there is a special offer going on and the click-through-rate will go up. Thus, the content in the e-mail would be significant for the users and the brand as well. However, some groups may not care for promotional information. They may want to receive a relevant blog post or webinar. Whether it may be, it is important for brands to know their target group and keep track of the different types of email that are sent out. If the open rate for promotional offers is low, then brands should try sending out out another email that offers better content.

Planning your Content

Planning email content is very similar to planning content strategy. Topics must be brainstormed, approved, and scheduled. Email content should be original and not appear elsewhere but it may be to linked to blog content or etc. By including a call to action, users are likely to interact to brand’s email. To keep track of emails, brands can combine their schedule with their existing editorial calendar. Below is an example:

Newsletter

Brands should create a weekly, biweekly, or monthly scheduled based on how much content they develop on their site. To get insight on the best time to send out emails, brands should use email marketing service providers such as MailChimp.

Implement

After brands have planned their email strategy, the next step is to implement it. Before sending out the newsletter, brands must take consideration of the content in the email’s subject line. Obviously it is important because it is the first thing users read before they open the email. It should be relevant for users to open. Here are some do and don’ts:

Do: Keep it short

Don’t: Cut message off “…”

Don’t use RE: or FW:

Do: Use cap for emphasis

Don’t: Capitalize the entire subject line

Do: Include relevant numbers such as % and $

Don’t: Include more than one number per subject line

Do: Use exclamation point ! to create excitement

Don’t: Limit to one per subject line 

Don’t: Include excessive symbols

Do: Create sense of urgency

Don’t: Create a false urgency

For example, there are 2 day left of a sale. Brands can enter subject line as “Click Here now!”

Format

Creating a tagline, adding multimedia, and changing font and style can be simple with the use of email marketing service providers like MailChimp, Constant Contact, and AWeber. Why is it important? Because it will grab the reader’s attention. However, brand should not overdo it with excessive images, colors, fonts, etc. It is better to keep the format neat and concise. 

Tracking

Building a brand on Snapchat

Just like any brands, celebrities have to create a brand for themselves. With social media, it is now easier for celebrities to market their brand and connect with their fans, especially on Snapchat. It is a great platform to capture and feed audience’s attention by creating image and video driven content. The value of Snapchat gives brands the opportunity to tell a story and engage with their audience in an intimate way as if they were there. In return, brands or celebrities will profit a loyal fan base.

When it comes to Snapchat, no one does it better than Dj Khaled. He has dominated Snapchat with his realism views on life but in a fun, hilarious and aspiring way. Watch the video above to see what I’m talking about. 

Dj Khaled on Snapchat

If you have never heard of Dj Khaled, well he is a DJ (obviously), big record producer and executive. And if you occasionally listen to the radio and hip-hop, chances are you might have heard of his famous mantras ‘we the best’ or ‘another one’ in his produced songs. Thanks to the power of social media, Dj Khaled’s catchphrases have virally blown up and has become the new adage for millennial. Dj Khaled has taken the advantage of this sensation by building his brand and creating content around his life values and tips, widely known as the ‘major key to success.’ If you follow him on Snapchat, then you will see how Dj Khaled is committed to his persona by taking his audience through ‘the journey of more success’ each day. Whether you hate him or love him, there is no doubt that he has created a new phenomena.

Inspiration Quotes from Dj Khaled

Dj Khaled’s messages are emphasized on motivation and positivity. His catchphrases are so relevant and relatable, it’s no wonder why so many young adults look up to him. 

“The key is to make it.”

“Another one”

“Bless up.”

“We the best.”

“Key to more success is clean heart and clean face.”

“The key to more success is coco butter.”

“Smh they get mad when u have joy.”

“You smart! You loyal! You’re a genius!”

“I changed… a lot”

“Congratulations, you played yourself.”

“You want my advice? Don’t play yourself.”

“I can deal with everything. I got the answer for anything. This DJ Khaled.”

“God has blessed me because I think. No I know that I’ve been put on this Earth to make people happy, to inspire people and to uplift people. That’s a beautiful thing. But the only downfall about it is that I really don’t have anybody to do that for me. But it makes me super strong because I do know that if I’m having a bad day, I can come up here and make Ebro and ya’ll laugh and smile.”

Aside from his motivational quotes, here are 4 tips we can take from Dj Khaled. 

1. Consistency

When brands use Snapchat, it is important to create content that aligns with the brand.  It must be consistent so that audiences are familiar, yet excited to see fresh new content.  Snapchat differs from other social media platform because new content always turn into old and then it disappears. Followers on Snapchat expect to see something new each day. Dj Khaled is a great example. He is consistent with his Snapchat stories by posting his daily routine and motivational quotes.  

2. Community and Interaction

Social media networks, such as Snapchat, are a community for brands to connect and interact with their audience. It is important for brands to create and share content so that their audience have something to talk about and feel included. For example, Dj Khaled often shows love and appreciation for his fans by including them in his Snapchat stories. To connect with his fans in a meaningful way, he has created a sense of loyalty by referring his fans and him as ‘us vs. they.”

“They don’t want you to win. They don’t want you to have the No.1 record in the country. They don’t want you get healthy. They don’t want you to exercise. And they don’t want you to have that view.”

3. Branding and Merchandising

Dj Khaled probably has a endless of motivational quotes and life lesson we could watch on his Snapchat but need not to worry, he has a clothing line for that: wethebeststore.com. If you want to wake up each morning feeling motivated and blessed like Dj Khaled, then purchase his branded slippers or tees. There’s not a day where Dj Khaled does not record his slippers while lounging around his house. However, he makes it seem casual without overdoing it. Snapchat is a great way to promote merchandise here and there but don’t bombard audience with too many. 

4. Creating Value

Brands must give audience a reason to follow their Snapchat by creating value. For Dj Khaled, he creates entertaining stories that motivates his fans to be successful. Because of this value, Dj Khaled’s Snapchat stories does not feel too branded. For example, when Dj Khaled jet skied to P. Diddy’s dock, he provided Diddy’s Twitter handle and asked his fans to tweet him. Within a few hours, Diddy showed up with a case of Apple Ciroc. This made Dj Khaled’s viewers feel connected and involved that they helped make it happen. 

Conclusion

Leo Widrich, co-founder of Buffer, shares a few tips on Social Media and Content Marketing. There are great guidelines to increase engagement on social media and improve content marketing strategy.

1. Share Images on Twitter: Increase Retweets by 150%

While Twitter is the most popular platform for brands to get their message across to their audience in less than 140 words, it is important to include images because audiences are more inclined to engage with a tweet with an image than without. Based on Buffer’s analytics, there is a significant difference in click-through rate when brands share original content with images than those without by at least 18%. More so, Tweet with images receives 89% favorites and 150% more retweets.

2. Share Content More Than Once

There are a few benefits when brands share their content more than once, including:

More Traffic. Reposting the same content can help brands boost their traffic and increase engagement. Retweeting a post can increase the number of visitors each time and also average number of favorites and retweet continue to grow.  

Multiple Time Zones. Brands can reach out to more followers by reposting their content in different time zones. Repeated tweets maximize traffic and advertising sales. According to Guy Kawasaki, “…each tweet gets approximately the same amount of click-throughs. Why get 600 page views when you can get 2,400”?

Reach Out To New Followers. Brands can take the advantage of sharing old content that are still relevant by publishing on their social media networks. This will attract new followers who would be seeing it for the first time.

3. A/B Test On Social Networks

Test out what headline works best for blog post.

Choose two headlines for an article that you think will perform well.

Tweet both headlines separately, an hour apart.  The post popular times are in the mornings or afternoons.

Compare the result for each Tweet and analyze which headline performed the best based on clicks, favorites, retweets. Go back to the original post and change the title to the new headline.

4. Reframe Content To Suit Your Audience

Although brands are encouraged to repeat tweets, Buffer suggests reframing content to avoid boring repeats. To do so, brands can highlight different elements of the content each time they repost and replace it with a new image or change the wording slightly different.

5. Find Great Content with Mention & Buffer

Mention is a great tool for brands to monitor keywords that mention their brand name, and keep track of industry and competitors keywords. Brands can easily find content that are relevant to their needs, which makes it much simpler to narrow down their results and save time. Mention is also a convenient tool for brands to connect and publish all of its social profiles and pages in one. They can share and post content instantaneously.

7. Use Follwerwonk To Tweet at Optimal Times

Posting is important but not just any time. Followerwonk is a great tool to analyze when is the best time to tweet or when followers are most active on Tweeter. Creating a schedule based on Follwerwonk report can help maximize engagement opportunity.

8. Google Authorship

Have you heard of Google Authorship? It is “a way to link content you create with Google+ Profile.” The intent is to help Google identify quality, human-created content. When brands use Google Authorship, they are more likely to be visible on search engine result page and get noticed from users, which then hopefully convert into visitors and increase web traffic. The image above is an example of Google Authorship. A few benefits of Google Authorship includes:

Getting Noticed

Based on the heatmap generated eye-tracking studies, users are more inclined to notice pages with Google Authorship.·  

Entries with rich snippets have higher click-through rates

According to a search-marketing firm, Catalyst found that clicks improved 150% with Google authorship.

Google Authorship is an advantage to the little guy

There are big opportunities with little competition right now. Google Authorship can give brands a competitive advantage. A recent study found that only “3.5% of Fortune 500 companies are actively using authorship.” It wouldn’t hurt brands to take on Google Authorship.

Authorship may be the future of search.

It is challenging to develop a content marketing strategy. However, here are some helpful tips and guidelines you can use to develop your content marketing strategy.

Step 1. Start With An Outline

An outline is the blueprint of your content strategy that will help you stay on track and structure your ideas and research.

1. Why are we making content in the first place?

Your purpose may be to create content that will support your marketing goals.

2. What content do you need?

Dig up some research on your competitors and observe your audience. This is where you define your target audience and what their needs are. Where do they go for content? What content do you produce? You ultimate goal is to create content for your customers and have them come to you for answers.

3. How do you get that content to accomplish your goals?

Evaluate what content works and don’t work. What are your content goals? Does it support your marketing goals? Create an editorial calendar. This will keep your team focused and improve workflow.

Step 2: Write down what you’re trying to accomplish

Define your content marketing goals. What are the overall marketing goals, and how can content marketing support them? Your content should be SMART goals or in other words, “Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.” For example:

To measure whether or not your content is aligned with your objective goals, outline your content by using KPI (key performance indicators).

Step 3: Who’s going to consume your content?

Conduct a persona research. What is persona? It is a written representation of your businesses’ intended users or audience. Why is it important? According to Krux, “With personas, business can be more strategic in gathering to each audience, internalize the customer that they are trying to attract, and relate to them as human beings. A marketing persona profile should include: 

Step 4: Map your persona’s needs to your product or service

A persona profile can help you map your “persona’s pain points, goals, and desires to the solutions you want to sell.” The goal is to help your audience, with the intention to use your product or service to cater their needs.

Step 5: Look to the competition’s content marketing efforts for inspiration

Distinguish who are your direct and indirect competitors. Observe what content your competitors are offering to the same personas as yours. It is important to note that you and your competitors are competing for audience’s attention, not customer dollars. Create content that makes you stand out from the rest. SEM Rush is great tool to find out who your competitors are. It shows you, which websites are ranking for the same keywords in search engine and also organic/paid search keywords.

Step 6: Take inventory of your content

Make a list of all your content marketing assets, including onsite and offsite channels (where all your content might be). Onsite content includes informational pages, landing pages, and types of blogs. On the other hand, offsite content comes from social media accounts, guest pots, and email lists.

Step 7: Evaluate your existing content

Is your content asset highly or poorly aligned with your marketing objectives? Evaluate what content works, need to be fix, and add to the mix. Create a matrix to map out the most important to least. Below are some tools that can help evaluate content performance:

Google Analytics. Measures traffic and conversions.

Buzzsumo. Measures content spread via major social media networks.

Moz. Tell you which content is pulling from backlinks.

Google Webmasters Tools and SEMRush. Tell you which pages are ranking for search terms.

Step 8: List the types of content you’ll be dealing with.

Develop a plan for producing new content or optimizing current content. Establish what types of content you will craft including blog posts, interviews, eBooks, infographics, email courses, explainer videos, and many more.

Step 9: Estimate your content capacity

Estimate how much content can be created in a specific time frame. This will allow you to stay on schedule and produce content high quality content or make any adjustments early in advance. It should be realistic, achievably, and timely.

Step 10: Publish your content.

Map out your editorial calendar by scheduling when you will publish your content by month, quarter, or semester. Use Google calendar or Trello (example below) to create an editorial calendar and share it with your content team. 

How To Improve Online Content Marketing 

Define Your Target Audience with Buyer Personas

Brands who want to develop personalized content to connect with their customers must understand what are their buyer personas first.  A buyer personal is “a profile that summarizes observation about a specific type of individual.” More specifically, buyer persona is the brand’s ideal customer that represents their overall target audience. This helps guide content marketers to develop the right message, enabling them to attract the “most valuable visitors, leads, and customer to their business.” The take away of this is companies must understand who their audience are before developing content that personally targets their buyer’s wants and needs.

Create an Editorial Calendar

After determining whom their target audience are, brands must produce relevant content information that consumers need and want. However, the challenging part is to produce consistent content. Since it is not traditional for companies to have a content marketing team, brands can benefit from creating an editorial calendar. It is a monthly publishing schedule that focuses on the information brands need to produce content during each period, including content topics, resource links, publish dates and writer assignments. Below are a number of benefits to establishing an editorial calendar:

1) Structured content production. Establishing an editorial calendar will keep content marketing team organized and work towards the brands goals.

2) Consistency. Having a structured content production will support consistency, especially when the team is accountable for its execution.

3) Increased Traffic, Leads, and Sales. Publishing quality content on a consistent basis will help brands build trust with their target audience and entice them to return to their page and social platform. Thus, this will increase web traffic and visitors that will likely convert into leads.

New Online Content Marketing Approaches

There are many types of content for brands to experiment with but the most popular form are snackable content, live video streaming and audiocasts. In this day and age, brands understand the best way to retain customer attention is through mobile communication, primarily video and audio marketing. According to recent studies, 83% of consumers prefer videos that are five minutes or less. With snackable content, brands are share information that are bite-sized, quickly consumed, understood and shared. In other words, content are short and sweet. For examples, video blogs and infographics are perfect snackable content medium. In addition, another great content marketing is live video streaming. Many brands are investing time into this new type of content, which allows them to broadcast live in real-time over social media networks. Twitter and Facebook’s live function has made it easier than ever for businesses to leverage off video streaming. Lastly, brands should take advantage of podcast. Many users listen to audiocast while they’re doing something so what better way to captive audience’s attention then implementing audio into the brand’s online content marketing.

Share More

While it is important for brands to produce personalized and relevant content, the main focus should be quality over quantity. Content should be used for social sharing and engaging with target audience. Brands need to understand what their audience needs and wants are by closely observing customers feedback on social media, social analytics, and content performance (landing page conversions, email open and content offer download rates, etc.). In return, the value of content sharing will convert into sale leads.

Optimize Mobile Devices and Responsive Web Design

Aside from producing content, brands need to take response web design into consideration. According to a research firm Clutch, findings show that only 56% of small businesses applied responsive design to their websites (2015). What is RWD exactly? RWD is a mobile-approach that assures web-based content are properly scaled on devices of varying sizes. Why is it important? Because it provide a sense of consistency in both content and brand message across multiple platforms. The takeaway is optimizing mobile devices and RWD can essentially help brands get their message across in the correct format.

Increase Reach with Paid Search and Social

Organic content is great for sharing and building word-of-mouth but promoting online content can help increase targeted audience segments even further. Investing in paid search can be affordable and flexible with tools such as Google AdWords Ad Extensions, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Sponsored Updates, and Twitter Cards. Brands must define their target audience, shape their message content, execute campaign, and measure results, and refine campaign.

Employ Inbound Marketing Techniques

This video of Coca Cola’s Content 2020 is an excellence lesson of the company’s success in content creation. Undoubtedly, Coco Cola’s is the most recognized brand in the world that symbolize happiness. Much of its successful is due to the fact Coco Cola is heading the direction from creative excellence to content excellence through the goals of story telling and obtaining a share of popular culture. The company is committed to make a world a better place and play a significance in people’s lives. Coco Cola have developed their own conversation model that focus on developing brand stories through liquid and linked ideas. Liquid is to “create ideas so contagious, they cannot be controlled”. These liquid ideas provoke conversation and are linked to business objectives, brands, and consumer interests.

The evolution of story telling have moved form one way story to dynamic story telling, which includes:

Serial story telling

Multi-faceted story telling

Spreadable story telling

Immersion and Discovery story telling

Engagement story telling

Increase Traffic and Engagement With Content Marketing

Below are just a few types of many content marketing that can bring value to businesses and their customers. 

1. Blogging

A great way to develop content marketing is blogging. A blog will essentially help build brand authority, customer relationship, and increase SEO. Write content that is interesting for audience to read and share. In addition, guest posts on influential bloggers’ websites. 

2. Video

You can find a lot of valuable content in a video. Take the video above as an example. In less than two minutes, it visually explains what is content marketing and why it is important. A explainer video would be best suited for businesses. 

3. Infographics

Study have shown that people are more likely to retain visual information than written or spoken information. Creating infographics should be fun yet informative, including statistics and facts. Infographics are frequently shared than any other type of content. 

4. Social Media

Social media is the perfect way for businesses to engage with their audience, which is why it is important to develop a strategic plan for each platform. Content is different on each social media platform but it should be relevant and cohesive. Social media is a great way to create brand awareness and connect with users in a more personal level.

5. E-mail Marketing

Develop content to send to users when they sign-up or register for email subscription. Businesses can offer users a wide range of content by sending them exclusive updates, special events, or promotions, etc. This is also a great opportunity to increase brand awareness and create customer loyalty. 

6. Lists

According to Journal of Consumer Research, “people largely exhibited a so-called top 10 effect.” This type of content is always popular and read, including top 10 lists, tips, strategies. The information should be useful to the reader and skimmable to look through quickly.

7. Slideshare Presentations

SlideShare is the world’s largest content marketing platform where you can create presentations but also upload and share infographics, documents, webinars, and videos. This is a great to gain exposure and create valuable opportunities.

8. Webinars

Create a discussion with industry experts, clients or potential customers by hosting a webinar. This gives users a opportunity to gain valuable insight by asking Q&A but also share it on other social channels and blogs. 

9. Testimonials 

Instagram is giving advertises more tools by adding features such as Shop Now, Install Now, Sign up buttons, interest and demographic targeting, and API to manage campaigns. The API will allow ad agencies to target based their users’s following list and what they like on Facebook. With these new features, Instagram wants to prove to industries that they can drive sales. Instagram have made it easier for users to connect with brands by using a mini-browser to direct them to the site without having to leave the the platform. They have changed their format to “action-oriented” buttons that appears below an image. This gives users the option to buy a product, install an app or sign up for a service by one simple click on a button. 

Snapchat Launches Story Explorer

Heard of 360 degree video? It is the newest technology that is taking noticed by Facebook, YouTube, and Google+. Content is designed to be viewed on 2D display that is shot by “a special circular camera arrays that record the entire panoramic view from a particular fixed point in space.” It is a new way for viewers to interact and experience the video by simply dragging the mouse or touchscreen around to alter the view. The 360 degree video can be watch on any connected device but smartphone is arguably the best way because it is compatible on Android and iOS phones. On the other hand, the 360 degree video does not have strong web support. For example, Chrome and Opera are compatible to the 360 degree video but Safari and Firefox are not. 

Google

Google is one of the leading developers of 360 degree video content that has team up with some of the sector’s biggest companies to create their own camera solution called Jump. According to Google, Jump enables any “creator to capture the world in VR video- video that you can step inside of- and make it available to everyone.” Below is a picture of Jump, including sixteen camera modules arranged in a circular array.

In March 2015, Google enabled the 360 degree video on YouTube so that users have the best resources to connect with their viewers. To further enhance user’s experience with VR, Google implemented Cardboard SDKs for Android and Unity. It allows everyone to enjoy VR while enabling users to create VR apps or adapt existing application for VR. Users can build their own DIY cardboard or buy one from a manufacturer as low as $23.95. 

Facebook

In September 2015, Facebook teamed up with Oculus VR team and added 360 degree video to their social network. The new features works the same as YouTube, where users can virtually explore the video. The app is supported by Android and iOS while the desktop is limited by some web browser but is supported by Chrome. Facebook also wants to do something similar to Google Cardboard but with Samsung’s Gear VR that is priced for $99.99. 

Facebook’s video engineering director Maher Saba stated that, Facebook wants video creators and storytellers to create content that will allow users to “...be able to look around and experience it as if they were there. Along with updates from their friend and family, they will also be able to discover amazing new content on Facebook from media companies, organizations, and individuals creators.” Facebook has already partnered with big companies such as Star Wars, Discovery, GoPro, Saturday Night Light and Video. Users can find all 360 degree content on Facebook’s page or search #360video. 

360 Degree Video Ads

Facebook is taking 360 degree video on a whole other level by promoting 360 degree video ads. It easy for anyone to post a 360 degree video and edit the camera angle or vertical field of view. To shoot these videos, users can purchase 360 camera such as Bubblecam that cost around $800. However, we’re more likely to see bigger brands and publishers sharing 360 degree videos for now. Facebook wants to target creators, publishers, and brands and encourage them to learn more about 360 degree videos on 360video.fb.com. This is a huge opportunity for companies who wants to reach out to their existing and potential customers by incorporating 360 degree video with their marketing campaign. It is a perfect strategy to raise awareness, create loyalty, increase desire or even encourage trial and facilitate purchase. Many Industries can benefit from 360 degree video content such as video-games, travel/tourism, film, fashion, etc.

Below are a few Facebook 360 degree video ad campaigns that have launched in 2015 (Sourced by Adage). We can predict more 360 degree video ads will appear on Google, YouTube, and Facebook in the future. 

Examples

Nestle

To promote its Nescafe brand among young people on Facebook in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia, Nestle and Publicis Conseil have filmed people sitting at their kitchen tables around the world performing Norwegian musical duo Madcon's "Don't Worry" with traditional instruments as well as cups and utensils.

Samsung

As the campaign's name states, Samsung wants people to "#BeFearless." So the brand and Cheil Worldwidehave produced a 360-degree video that puts people atop New Zealand's tallest man-made structure, the Sky Tower in Auckland.

AT&T

As part of its “#StrongCan” campaign, AT&T and BBDO shot a 360 degree video of race-car driver Ben Albano streaming his practice laps to his coach in another state using AT&T’s wireless network.

In the next few months, we’ll say goodbye 2015 and hello 2016. With a new year in store, we can anticipate changes. Whether it’d be good or bad, there are some projection on how digital marketing will change. Here are 6 Bold Predictions for Digital Marketing by Chad Pollitt.

1. Social media traffic to most websites will decline

Many mobile apps are removing UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters from links as a source. According to Koozai, UTM parameter is a tag that is added to the end of a URL and clicks are tracked by Google Analytics. This is a important aspect to any online strategy because it can help determine which links are effective. By removing UTM parameters, it will cause analytics programs to view traffic as direct as opposed to social or referral. Below is a example of a UTM parameter used on social media. 

Recently, Twitter updated their API platform that disables certain third party software and the ability to track tweet counts. This creates a huge problem for content marketers as they will see a decrease in their social share count. It is expected that more social media networks will follow Twitter’s footstep and turn down the visibility of content shared by brands organically. This will cause a decline in social media traffic as less visibility is equivalent to less clicks and traffic. 

2. Google will finally launch hits native advertising network

There has been some leaks that Google has a native network in private beta. It’ll connect brands directly with bloggers and premium publications for full sponsored content publishing. It is rumored to compete directly with networks like Revcontent, AdBlade, Outbrain, and Taboola.

3. LinkedIn will launch its version of “Instant Article”

LinkedIn wants to launch “Instant Article” like Facebook (video below). Essentially, it makes content more interactive and easy for users to view. The announcement will open up content syndication and monetization opportunities for brands. 

4. An influencer marketing platforms will be acquired by one of the stacks

What is digital marketing stack? According to Thundertech, it is defined as the collection of business applications, Web or otherwise, that marketers use as tools for organization, maintenance, data collection and execution. Why is it important? It is the only way content marketers can stand out. The evolution of marketing stack (Oracle, Adobe, Marketo, Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.) will include the integration of earned and paid content promotion channels to amplify top-funnel content. HubSpot has released its new ads plugin, which allows marketers to natively promote content on LinkedIn and run AdWords campaigns. However, more efforts are needed if businesses want top-funnel content. Pollitt suggests marketers to look for native paid execution and influencer marketing software to unite with the marketing stack next year. 

5. Ad blocking adoption will begin to level off

Many ad blockers are beginning to overreach their blocking on some content that users want to see. This will affect ad blocking adoption, as they will see a decrease in users. 

6. Content recommendation networks will get better at delivering relevant content

There will be less sketchy content recommendations and click-bail. Next year, we can expect to see more networks that will deliver relevant, timely, and quality content. 

Snapchat has become one of the most widely used social network that even brands are starting to partake in the trend. Snapchat can be a great way to build brand awareness if used correctly. However, it may not fit for every organization. What to know if Snapchat is right for your business? Read more on the article “When Not To Use Snapchat” by Brian Honigman. Below are a few tips to highlight:

Snapchat is not the best channel for sharing time-sensitive information.

Unlike other social media channels such as Facebook or Twitter, Snapchat is not a direct place to handle customer service.

Don’t abuse Snapchat for self-promotion.

Snapchat does not offer any targeting features so it’s not the best platform to aim at a specific demographic. Unless users add your username personally, you’ll have to look for individuals to send Snaps to specifically.