Content Marketing: What’s the Big Deal?
As my colleagues and I entered an event room at the Italian Community Center in downtown Milwaukee for a PRSA Wisconsin event, we sat down at the front table without a second thought. Little did we know that in the chair directly next to us, the event’s speaker, Pam Didner, would sit down for lunch.
If I had to choose anyone to listen to for an hour, Pam Didner would definitely be in my top 5. Before she even introduced herself to those sitting at our table, she was cracking jokes and turning the usually awkward networking time into what felt like a casual chat with someone I’ve known for years. And just as she began lunch this way, her presentation, “Is Content Marketing So Yesterday?” was no different. But aside from her bubbly personality, I decided to share some take-aways from her presentation that I believe all marketers out there can benefit from.
What’s the Point of Content Marketing, Anyways?
Put simply, content marketing is used to help, challenge, entertain, or educate consumers, but also can be used to entice consumers to buy something. In order to successfully complete these five tasks, Didner introduced the four P’s of content marketing: plan, produce, promote, perfect…and repeat!
Don’t just create content, “create content that matters.” – Pam Didner.
I found this to be so important to share. In a constantly changing world, the topics to write about are also constantly changing, so keeping the world’s interest is that much more challenging. In order to keep people coming back for more, it is crucial to put in the time to make your content interesting and engaging.
PR is Just as Important as Content Marketing
Another tidbit from Didner is to use the media to your advantage. If what you’re promoting isn’t interesting enough to grab the attention of even a local media outlet, then something’s gotta give. According to Didner, Public Relations is about “newness and being news-worthy.” The content you show to the world should be a strategic combination of these two things. Personally, I would put an emphasis on “newness” since no one wants to hear about old news.
Use PR to hype your product.
PR doesn’t need to be minimized to a channel used solely to keep your company shown in a positive light. Use it as another tool to generate interest. A great way to do this is if you have something big and exciting to unveil, give your viewers a sneak peek as to what the real thing will be like; but just enough that leaves them wanting more.
Follower Numbers ≠ Relevancy
A final note from Didner left me in major speculation-mode over the power of social media. Companies have the false notion that the more followers they have on their Facebook page, the more engagement they will see, preferably leading to conversion. Walking back to our office after the event, my colleagues mentioned that this was a topic brought up by Didner that they both found fascinating, and I agree. Over the past 4 years, Facebook (along with more social media platforms, in recent years) has implemented an algorithm in users’ news feeds that filter and rank what is posted. In layman’s terms, if your content doesn’t match what Facebook thinks is important or trending, good luck reaching even half of your followers.
Content is king. We’ve all heard it, and we will all hear it more still. It’s what you create content about and how well you sell it that matters most. Moving forward, I’m excited to see how Pam Didner’s tips help not only my own content creation efforts, but yours as well!
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