The great content marketing discussion

An imaginary conversation…

Firstly what do you mean by the term content marketing?

The term has been increasing in its usage for the last year and  especially over the last few months… but content marketing is usually known as the use of content (such as text and imagery) across an organisation’s owned channels (website, social networking page, etc.) to get users to a site and build engagement.

Isn’t this search engine optimisation?

No, SEO is about optimising a site (code, configuration, links AND content) to get a higher placement in search engines. Although content markers do need to consider SEO factors such as keywords, they aren’t really bothered about how sites are set up or algorithms for ranking.

So how do you get traffic via content?

You build up user traffic by being useful and relevant to the reader. This therefore makes your content more sticky (readable) and social (sharable).

So content marketing is a sub-set of SEO?

Well, not really. Content marketing also deals with topics such as internal linking to other content around a site to encourage the user to complete a specific goal. For example: to purchase a product or to sign-up for a service. 

So it’s about writing link bait then!

It’s all about producing quality content, not rubbish articles that pander to the lowest common denominator and get instant traffic based on sensationalistic headlines. The modern web user is very savvy and they tune out things they are not interested in any more, it’s an attention economy out there.

Then it’s about getting eyeballs to look at your page?

Yes, that’s right, you should write good and free content, which then allows it to be shared so it can work harder and reach a bigger audience for your brand.

But isn’t that syndication?

No, however the content that is written can be syndicated out, such as via an RSS feed.

So what Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) should a Content Marketing person measure?

Although usual website metrics, such as visitors, visits and subsequent conversions should obviously be measured, one important measurement of content marketing success is repeat visits from the same visitor. You should be able to find this information in your website analytics package and further segment it by the content areas on your site. As a rough guide, the more users come back, the more they’re engaged.

But doesn’t this affect conversion rate for an eCommerce site?
Yes, repeat visitors could affect your ‘look to book’ ratio, because just increasing the number of ‘looks’ to your site will make your site look like it is less effective. It is therefore just as important to look at how your content pushes users to convert (book).

So how will this area evolve?
Content Marketing Optimisation (CMO) is not a term currently well known, but a lot of people jumping on the content marketing bandwagon right now will quickly be asked to justify their investment of time, 3^rd party copywriting, etc.  So just as SEO took a while to emerge as a longer-term disciple that observes, learns and improves the bottom line; so content marketing optimisation by using insight gleaned from analytics packages will tell website owners what content is working and what is not.

Social CRM

Social CRM or Social Customer Relationship Management is a topic I've been aware for a while now, mainly in the content of those I follow on Twitter and their blogs. However its not something I have previosuly taken the time to dig into, until recently when I noticed more mentions of it by people such as http://twitter.com/jowyang and http://twitter.com/BrentLeary.
It therefore seemed to me that Social CRM is that hazy area where CRM meets the social web and it was therefore interesting to me to see what this means and how its helps companies.

Now 'traditional' CRM has its roots in the sales force automation and marketing automation (basically a bunch of rules about: when to contact a customer, what they have bought and what next to sell them) and wonderfully gives a 360 degree/holistic view of the customer (I've commented on this before back as far back as July 2008).

Whereas Social Media is a conversation with your customer - albeit this does follow a process - but one that can follow any number of outcome paths depending upon the situation, the customer and their sentiment towards the product and/or brand. So its kind of hard to see how this 'soft and touchy' approach combines with the rigorous processes of CRM.

To get to the bottom of this, there's a number of different definitions I found, including:

• Social customer relationship management is about joining the ongoing conversations in which your customers and prospects are already engaged.
  http://technology.inc.com/software/articles/200806/leary.html
  
• Social CRM, on the other hand, is your existing CRM that has the ability to leverage the social web and automate the conversation process
  http://www.socialmediamarketinguk.com/social-crm-the-next-big-thing

So, in my eventual view, I see Social CRM as the use of social media to listen and engage with customers and to link this feedback into a company CRM system to better understand customers general needs and identify & triggers specific opportunities for sale or reputation management.

Note: If you follow me on Twitter you will see that this definition led me to Tweet:

Realising that I've been talking about social crm #scrm for ages, but just never used that term....
http://twitter.com/haydens30/status/9770684766

Social Media definition

Its a busy time at Ideal Interface and we're currently working on several new business proposals.

Consequently I have been asked to write the 'opinion' piece for Social Media within the document and here is what I wrote.....

Social Media are online functionality that support the human need for social interaction. The Internet has transformed from a series of one-to-one monologues into numerous dialogues amongst crowds of individuals, that consequently enable greater and more concentrated communication and opinion.
The lesson for all brands is to appreciate is that they are already being talked about and that opinions are already circulating about their offers and service. The challenge is therefore to understand those conversations, be part of them and to influence them over time.

Opinions welcome.......

Its not all 'About Us'

This was the title of this blog, before changining to 'Communications in a digital world'. I changed it to be focused less around the needs of the corporate website and more focused toward the extended communication between company and its community.

By this, I mean:
1. A customer (this includes: potential customers, users of web-base resources - such as an application, etc.)
2. A researcher (press, academic, shareholder, investor, etc)
3. An influencer (a member of the extended community who has an opinion on the brand, service or product a company produces, and who submits that opinion into the digital world - e.g. via a blog, a comment, a review, etc.)

Its therefore not just centred on the 'About Us' part of the company website, but about the conversation (or monologue) any person has with a company, and how that company needs to understand, measure and act subsequently.