Key Takeaways from the Content Marketing Show

The third Content Marketing Show promised to be the biggest yet. The lecture theatre was packed and it certainly felt much busier than the last one, which was held in November 2013.

The day was filled with 15 presentations from content marketing experts. There was a lot to take in and I madly tapped away at my laptop during the day.

By way of a summary, here are some dos and don’ts to keep in mind when planning, executing and measuring content.

Dos

    • Be human and empathetic. To achieve this, you should be truthful, share feelings (albeit carefully) and own up to any mistakes made.
    • Use data to make your story. You can improve your content with insight gained from research.
    • Keep plugging away with your content marketing efforts. It’s not easy but you can compete with the biggest and best brands simply by creating content.

Source: Fergus Parker’s presentation

    • Create content to capture customers further up the funnel. You can get the attention of those not even looking for your product.
    • Create content that triggers emotions. Higher arousal emotions (e.g. surprise, fear, anger, amused) get shared more. This is why sites like Buzzfeed work so well.

Source: Emma Dunn’s presentation

    • Create content that people will want to share because it makes them look cool. People use their personal social media channels to portray an image of themselves to their friends and family.
    • Know who your audience are and what will connect with them. This is why researching your audience is so vital.
    • Make sure you have an online audience that is going to react positively. #AskThicke anyone?
    • Be authentic.

 

  • Use content to overcome buyer objections by presenting your service or product as the solution to their problems.
  • Use thought leadership as part of your content marketing strategy. This is a great option if you have to create content for a ‘boring’ industry.
  • Keep informational content separate from transactional content. It can be counterintuitive to try to inform and sell on the same page.
  • Always ask why you’re making a particular piece of content three times so that you can get to the real reason. Keeping business goals in mind is necessary to see the best results from content marketing.

 

Don’ts

    • Don’t try too hard to be relevant. If the World Cup isn’t relevant to your brand or your audience don’t post about it on social in an attempt to get engagement.
    • Don’t inappropriately hashtag jack:

Source: Stephen Waddington’s presentation

  • Don’t forget about keyword research! This can still be done using historical keyword date, on-site search, forums and Q&A sites.
  • Don’t push something that’s not working. It’s important to notice when something isn’t working and to recognise when it’s time to try something else.

Did you go to the Content Marketing Show? Are there any key takeaways that I’ve missed that you think are important? Let me know in the comments below.

P.S. You can find all the speaker decks from the day here.