Long-term benefits beat short-term fascination: content marketing is more than just a cool campaign!

The following article was first published in the August issue of "Markenartikel" magazine. Special thanks go to Mirko Lange and Carsten Rossi, who provided extremely helpful input and comments in the feedback loop! We hope you enjoy reading it!

This post originally appeared on Mael Roth's blog in August 2015.

The term "content marketing" has now also reached us. As is well known, this "content-driven communication" aims to address customers through content instead of relying solely
on the "old levers": traditional advertising messages and (in some cases) public relations. However, the strategic and systematic approach - communication based on benefits - has not yet fully arrived.

In fact, it is a real challenge, because this approach requires the perception and marketing-strategic implementation of a paradigm shift: customers are not interested in the brand, but in their own needs and the solution to their own problems.

A systematic approach places the customer at the center of communication without losing sight of the company's goals.

The often cited best practice example Curved (from E-Plus) is more long-term in its approach than an isolated campaign, but it is imperfect. In this magazine, content is created according to a trend analysis in social networks and search queries in order to attract users. Once they are on the site, they are then directed to the online store where they can buy the brand's products. Here, the brand takes such a back seat that the term "surreptitious advertising" is regularly used.

From a marketing strategy perspective, however, the problem here is that the attention and usefulness generated by the content does not pay off for the brand. The sender of the message is not clear. It is primarily about direct sales and the question of the sustainability of this content for the brand is justified.

Another campaign strategy in which content is used aims to generate "leads" with more exclusive content. This involves attracting a prospective customer who has to communicate their personal data in order to gain access to the promised content - for example a white paper. Inbound marketing works very well, but here too, the focus is often on "campaign thinking", i.e. short-term thinking.

A content marketing campaign is good, a systematic approach is better

However, the fact that we still largely think in terms of campaigns is not a bad thing in itself, as it gives decision-makers a feel for the effectiveness of content. This creates an internal business case for "content".

Brands that will deal with the actual topics and problems of their target groups will place usefulness at the center of their communication, so that content establishes itself as a function within the company. Essentially, it is important to realize that the potential customer and/or existing customer is investing their valuable time and attention. As communicators and marketers, we need to value this. Our target groups have become more impatient and less tolerant of advertising.

We tend to take it for granted that people are interested in the company and the brand (and the content directly related to this). We need to say goodbye to this, because our attention span is constantly decreasing. This is understandable from the consumer's point of view, as we are bombarded by thousands of messages in every form. A filter sets in that is directly related to our increasing media consumption. More content requires a stricter filter. When brands have to earn attention rather than buy it, usefulness as a strategy is no longer a "can" but a "must" in order to be remembered and enjoy a positive attitude from potential customers. Our friends from overseas have already understood this.

What we can learn from companies in other countries

While we in Germany are still arguing about who is better at "content" (public relations? marketing?), our friends overseas have already started to abolish internal company silos and outdated job roles in order to create new, modern workflows and responsibilities.

Marketeers at Uncle Sam have now integrated the connection between usefulness in communication and trust better than companies in the German market. The following examples illustrate this:

Columbia Sportswear developed an app called "What Knot to Do in the Greater Outdoors" to help outdoor enthusiasts tie knots as needed during outdoor activities.

Another good example is the "Ajax Social Wipes" - an online tool with which you can clean your Twitter account of spam and robot accounts. The benefits are obvious and are linked to the product benefit.

Our neighbors in France also have a notable example with the "Gouzi" app from Evian, which I reported on a few months ago. It is intended to be used as a diary to support parental care and thus help parents to optimally supervise their child's development.

What is seen by some as a nice gimmick, however, offers the basis for a successful approach that can be integrated into the communication strategy in the long term. Companies such as Birchbox, which inspires potential and existing customers with beauty tips, or the marketing platform Hubspot, which provides a veritable goldmine for digital marketers with its excellent blog and large online library, are examples of this.

But systematic content marketing can also be used for market research. For example, the Kraft Foods Group - 98% market penetration in the USA - uses content not to build or maintain engagement with consumers, but to understand them even better. Over 22,000 attributes are tagged and tracked when users interact with content online.

These examples all have one thing in common: they offer the user a practical benefit and see communication as a service that is simultaneously in line with the brand objectives and contributes to the "brand capital" or pursues a specific marketing objective.

It is not easy, because this new understanding entails a whole series of structural changes and must be integrated into the corporate culture so that not only communication but also other touchpoints are characterized by a positive experience. This paradigm shift requires a transformation. Too often, content is created in so-called silos - each department creates its own content from its own perspective - and in doing so, they lose sight of the consumer.

But this transformation is necessary. We - communicators and strategists - must face up to this paradigm by taking a closer look at the actual needs of the target group(s).

Conclusion - value creation through systematic usefulness

In future, brands will have to define themselves less through forced attention and more through perceived usefulness and experience factors. Of course, advertising is not dead. It can be an excellent complement to content. However, as attention spans are constantly decreasing and advertising inflation has become so extreme, useful and entertaining content will set the course for more efficient communication.

If this system is successfully established, sustainable added value is created for the benefit of both parties involved: companies and consumers. The good news is that it has never been so accessible for companies to understand what makes our target group tick! The world is opening up and the web offers countless starting points.