It wasn’t that long ago when the content marketing party first came to town that producing any kind of content was the name of the game. This then evolved into a focus on producing quality - professionally written and researched content. Today, it’s easy to argue that the game has been stepped up even further with the emphasis now on content your audience can readily engage with. It’s worthwhile exploring how and why this marketing phenomenon has occurred.
Evolution of content marketing
Content has always been important, if not critical to marketing. It’s the way marketers have developed and crafted stories to convey their messages to their target audience. Modern content marketing only took this original concept to the next level when algorithms within Google Search began to reward websites for the creation of fresh, professionally-written content.
The explosion in content marketing took on many forms, with many of those not being in the written form. Indeed, video and podcasts became another powerful and important way for brands to convey their messages to the masses, especially those who were constantly on the go with little to no time to set aside time to read a blog or website article.
How engagement changes everything
Content marketing was barely a toddler before another bump in the road forced marketers to move to higher ground in order to capture the interests and attention of their customers. It took off so quickly and with such vigour that there was literally a plethora of content available on online - well beyond what the average user could consume.
Today, not only do we need to create quality content but we need to create content that our audience can easily engage with. Why? Engagement has become a critical tool in getting eyeballs on content, where a users’ likes, comments and shares with their audience helps to endorse and validate the content while also spreading the word.
Content has thus tied itself to the burgeoning influencer and advocate marketing world, with brands clamouring to garner positive feedback and comments on their products and services as consumers continue to be skeptical of the ads and information they receive from brands.
Designing content that engages your audience
So what does it take to create content that engages your customers and gets them to take action and ideally advocate on your brand’s behalf? There are literally a multitude of options available. Some of the most obvious would include the following:
- - Given the positive impact of video and podcasts, generating regular content via either or both of these media would be an excellent to drive engagement from user likes, comments and shares.
- · - Quick quizzes, polls and questionnaires are great ways to get your audience to speak up and engage with you.
- · - Customer ratings have become an almost sure-fired content engagement piece for most brands and for good reason – many customers love to share their opinions online today! Tap into this.
- · - Encourage users to contribute their own content to your brand and its platforms. Whether its customer reviews, photos, videos or even testimonials, provide a medium that facilitates this.
- · - Create content that’s real and authentic that your audience can truly relate to. And keep the production clean and simple (especially for video). This will only enhance its authenticity.
- · - Ensure your content marketing is a two-way street with your customers. When encouraging them to engage and communicate with you, make sure you do the same by responding to them!
There are many more tactics marketers can employ in driving customer engagement in their brand. Hopefully these ideas and tips provide a starting point for your business and spur you to develop additional ways to get your customers to engage with you and advocate on your behalf.
