The answers to that question included “relevance”, “differentiation”, “reaching the right people”, “consistency of message”, “prioritisation and control of messages”, “the challenge of communicating with a range of audiences” and “making the most of data generated”. Fear was also in the air -- the fear of letting go and losing control. Everyone agreed that it was important to be “part of the conversation, rather than controlling it”, but this was often difficult to achieve, especially when sometimes sceptical and often jittery C-suite management get involved.
Luckily experts were on hand. CEO & Founder of Waggener Edstrom, Melissa Waggener Zorkin'’s advice to “say less” was simple, if surprising, for a communications professional of great repute and many years’ standing. Her view is that most organisations should promote no more than three messages. The key is to prioritise and think strategically.
This echoed advice of my own. It was clear from the conversation around the table that all the organisations represented, and all their competitors, plan to do more content marketing. In future, therefore, the key challenge will be overcoming the “info-sation” (or information overload) of the target audience. This requires a radical change of mindset for many marketers who honed their skills in a period of communication scarcity. By this I mean scarcity in the sense that there were a finite number of advertising slots available through the traditional channels, and you paid more for the really scarce ones. This old world was one in which “more” meant “more”. We live in a world where the abundance of opportunities to communicate, and maximising those opportunities, is becoming the key marketing challenge. In future, “less” might well be “more”.
This builds us to the key point of the evening, that the true value of content marketing lies in changing the behaviour of the target audience, rather than simply raising awareness. This is why the focus on core messages and core behaviour changes becomes crucial. Focus allows a brand to “own” an area of debate and to be more credible in that debate. There was also sage advice about the importance of understanding what your own brand heritage can add or detract from your credibility with different subject matters and styles of content.
Rounding off the evening Guy Dunn from The Economist Group, who chaired the event, joked that content marketing as a topic had replaced social media as the surest way to fill a room with marketers. He went on to say that perhaps the biggest lesson for him had been that companies were all focusing on content marketing, but still could not readily define what success in this area meant – either in terms of the content produced or the audience delivered. The greatest focus over the next few years will be in defining these criteria for success.
The dinner was the first in a series planned by The Economist Group and Waggener Edstrom. If you’re a senior marketer and grappling with the challenge of content marketing, we’d love to hear your views on what’s working and what keeps you awake at night. Feel free to leave a comment below or contact [email protected] to get involved in a future panel discussion on the subject.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited (EIU) or any other member of The Economist Group. The Economist Group (including the EIU) cannot accept any responsibility or liability for reliance by any person on this article or any of the information, opinions or conclusions set out in the article.
