People are exposed to multiple types of content daily, from articles, videos, and podcasts to cat videos!
The average daily time spent consuming content is six hours and 59 minutes, so content marketing is vital for big and small businesses.
Content creators are constantly finding ways to attract customers with relevant content that:
● Establishes Authority,
● Promotes The Brand,
● Gain New Customers,
● Increase Brand Awareness
● Improve Website Ranking, etc.
These are just a few of the perks that come with content marketing. So, let’s explore further and examine the pros and cons of content marketing.
1. Know your medium
Not all content mediums or formats will work for your company. Knowing what will be effective will help streamline your content curation efforts.
For example, a prominent furniture brand will benefit from a visual experience such as a video advert that shows a large family having dinner on the brand’s dining table set at Thanksgiving.
A video like this leaves a lasting impression and will be recalled when customers look to purchase furniture in the future.
2. Focusing On the Best Platform
Content marketing can be published on many platforms; however, once you’ve established the best format for your content, it’s time to focus on the platform that can help push that content out to new and old markets.
Lego, for example, has optimized its YouTube channel and publishes user-generated and promotional videos that are highly engaging and interactive.
A household brand like Lego targets many demographics, and having an active YouTube channel keeps them relevant among their customers.
Focusing only on one platform isn’t advisable since customers get information on different channels, but it’s best to select the best platforms that your primary demographic uses regularly.
3. Authentic Blog/Website Content
PR-driven articles or overtly gimmicky sales-based content don’t resonate long-term with people. If you want to raise brand awareness, convert leads, or increase your website’s rank, you have to curate blog/website content that is authentic, adds value, and has an emotional component.
SEO techniques can be implemented in your blogs/website content to help it rank on search engines. However, it’s essential not to rest on the brand name alone.
For example, a reputed chocolate brand can reach out to chefs to use their products in recipes and create a recipe section on their website. Adding authentic and valuable content like this is a great way to attract clients and rank on search engines.
4. Demographic Research
Another critical component of content marketing is knowing who your demographic is and what interests them. Depending on their age, income, profession, location, etc., content can be built to resonate with the market you want to expand into.
Big brands sometimes fall into the trap of knowing their demographic and not updating their information regularly. People change, situations change, and so does how your content hits/misses your demographic.
Researching the current trends with your existing and potential customers is a great way to create content that will significantly impact them.
5. Cohesive Message and Strategy
Content marketing sometimes fails because many enterprises manage various teams and individuals that contribute without a cohesive and structured plan or strategy.
Companies with multiple products or departments face this problem, and the lack of communication between teams can confuse content curation and marketing goals.
The solution?
Have a solid and clear content marketing strategy that involves all the teams. When the strategy is focused, the teams’ actions will positively impact the overall content message.
6. The Enterprise Content Marketing Team
Adding to the point above, enterprises with 1000s of employees and various departments will find it easier to create a team of point people from each department that handles the content marketing for the entire company.
Having a centralized unit for content marketing will ensure that only the best cohesive content that benefits all departments and company goals will be curated and rolled out.
7. Promote Content
Creating fantastic content is one thing, but being able to promote it is another. Hiring a team of experts who can strategize the best platforms (digital and traditional methods) can boost the effectiveness of the content created.
For example, an advert can be published on social media and TV, but it can also benefit the company if aired at sporting events, music festivals, conferences, etc. Promoting your content is a critical component of content marketing, so consider it when considering its distribution.
8. The Company’s Mission Should Align With the Content Strategy
A company’s goal is important and can change every few years.
For some years, the goal has been purely sales; for others, it has been brand awareness, positioning, etc. That’s why the company’s head needs to make its mission and expectations clear to its department team leaders.
Strong leadership will help get all the departments under them to work and achieve the company’s goals – this includes a content marketing strategy that the teams can create to meet the primary company mission.
“Knowing an end goal ensures that the teams work backward and plan/create the content to get your company to the finish line,” says Steve from Red Houston SEO.
9. Base KPIs on Goals
This point might seem logical; however, when running a content marketing strategy for a big brand, these indicators can sometimes get overlooked or forgotten because so many people are involved.
Additionally, having key performance indicators based on your goals will make monitoring and analyzing your content marketing strategy easy.
For example, if your goal is to build brand loyalty, your KPIs will focus on returning customers, product reviews, referrals, etc; knowing these clear KPIs will also impact and help curate content.
10. Set A Budget
One of the perks of big brands is having a bigger budget that can give birth to extraordinary ideas.
Unlike startups that must be budget-conscious, big brands have years of experience and financial backing to create content, hire the best experts, onboard influencers or celebrities, partner with reputed events, or host their global marketing initiatives.
Whether you are an enterprise or a small business – a budget must be set, considering all the variables from big ad spending to minor printing expenditures.
Auditing and reviewing the budget annually will also give you insights into what aspects of your content marketing strategy worked and what didn’t.
11. Slower Pace
One of the biggest pitfalls of content marketing for big brands is how campaigns get rolled out. Red tape and bureaucracy can slow down the speed and impact the timing of a campaign.
Start-up tends to work a lot faster because their teams are smaller, and decisions get made quicker – therefore, they’re a lot more relevant and can churn out content more efficiently.
Enterprises focusing on content marketing must move as quickly as their competitors and smaller businesses.
Having a smaller dedicated marketing team with direct access to higher-ups can help larger enterprises operate at the speed of a start-up.
12. SEO is Important
Content creators and SEO experts used to run in their circles; however, digital marketing is a huge component of any market strategy since most people use their smartphones, devices, and laptops to consume content.
If enterprises want to influence the masses with their content, they must reach them – SEO can help.
Google and other search engines constantly update their algorithms to give users the best results and content based on their search queries. Therefore, hire an in-house SEO team or expert to grow your reach and maximize your content marketing strategy.
13. Divide Content Teams
Content teams can sometimes feel stretched thin and divert from their KPIs due to additional requests from the sales or marketing teams.
Therefore, many enterprises have started to divide their content teams to ensure that the content team is working to its fullest potential while also supporting the other departments.
One group acts as an internal content agency that supports the departments, and the other team is dedicated solely to content curation and the company’s KPIs.
This is a great way to churn out content and stay on track with the content marketing strategy.
14. Analyze and Measure Results
The only way to truly know if your content marketing strategy is helping you meet your company goals is by analyzing and measuring the results of the campaigns.
Content marketing is a very effective tool for enterprises, but it can always be improved or changed to get more results. According to the Market Insider group, 84% of businesses have a marketing strategy; however, only 11% think they have an excellent strategy.
As an enterprise, you should have an analytics team that can monitor the results and offer insights into the content that didn’t perform well.
Knowing how the campaign performs can help make future decisions and changes to your content and marketing efforts.
In Conclusion
If you’re a big brand and have a vested interest in content marketing, then:
● Ensure there is communication between your departments,
● Have clear leadership and goals
● Hire the right people to meet your company goals and
● Create content that targets your primary demographic. It really can be that simple!
We hope you got a better insight into the pros and cons of content marketing for big brands. Do bookmark this page and check back for more articles just like this one!