News – Page 4 – Editorial PR

04/Jun/2018

Brands are only spending a fraction of their advertising budgets on mobile content even though smartphones now account for more than two-thirds of measured site traffic, according to a new in-depth report published by Gartner L2.

Mobile devices have soared in popularity for content consumption during the last few years as the public pivots towards small-screen devices to read the latest news, articles, blogs and watch videos. However, it appears that brands have yet to fully adapt their campaigns and strategies to cater towards this latest trend.

Gartner L2 noted that mobile content consumption was traditionally associated with “top-of-funnel” awareness but has now evolved into something much greater that can have a real and lasting impact on revenue and growth. Gartner L2 studied 400 consumer brands to identify new trends, best practices and case studies as marketers continue to optimise their content and ad campaigns across devices and platforms.

The major takeaway is that brands that don’t optimise their content for mobile consumption are missing out. A sizeable 67% of measured site traffic for brands is now attributed to smartphones, and to a lesser extent, tablets, but brands are investing just 13% of their total ad spend on mobile content.

“Mobile has expanded from a top-of-funnel awareness device to a legitimate transaction point for brands,” Gartner L2 VP of Intelligence, Evan Neufeld said. “However, even as consumers increase their reliance on mobile phones, the majority of brands continue to underinvest in mobile marketing initiatives. Those who fail to prioritise mobile risk losing sales and consumers to competing brands who understand the degree to which mobile phones are constantly connected to their customer bases.”

Gartner L2’s Senior Associate, Evan Bakker, added that brands can overhaul their mobile marketing efforts by delivering higher quality content and ads to smartphones, improving their targeting with sophisticated platforms and investing more money in Google’s Shopping Ads. Bakker said this is very important in an era where “cross-device purchase” journeys are becoming increasingly prevalent.

In other branded content news, research from online news site Topix has found that brands that tap into a consumer’s history and nostalgia during the creative process can reap the rewards through higher levels of engagement. Audiences also react strongly to schadenfreude and humour.

Topix looked at the highest grossing brand stories since 2013 with the aim of uncovering the emotions that lead to the highest levels of engagement. The study indicates that marketers can benefit from being more attuned to the emotions of their customer base, as knowing how they will react and behave can help brands serve up more relevant and personalised content.

“We’re in times that are very challenging,” Monster’s vice president of marketing, Margaret Magnarelli said. “If we don’t combine feelings with facts, we’ll lose customers. They want to feel validated.”

Nostalgia, history and schadenfreude – which is defined as a person taking pleasure somebody else’s misfortune – topped the list of emotions, with humour and pride of knowledge rounding out the top five.

Aimee

18/Sep/2017

Facebook and YouTube both made a pitch to brands and advertisers during their conferences at the dmexco international expo last week. Brand safety has been a major challenge for the digital industry in 2017, and the tech giants claimed they were making moves to ensure ads are always placed against high-quality content on their respective platforms.

Facebook announced the biggest changes, as it will now implement new monetisation rules for content types. This policy means articles or videos with unsavoury topics and imagery, ranging from tragedy and conflict to violent, adult, explicit and inappropriate material, will be prohibited from ads within Instant Articles, Branded Content and mid-roll breaks.

There will also be a raft of new digital tools so brands can get a much clearer overview of the third parties that are monetising their content and create blacklists to exclude some publishers. The pre- and post-campaign reporting features will be a notable improvement, as it is currently difficult for marketers to determine exactly where their ads have featured.

Facebook’s vice president of global marketing solutions, Carolyn Everson, said the changes reflect a growing “uneasiness” in the digital industry following the high-profile cases of ad misplacement earlier in the year. She said that calls for improvements had been heard “loud and clear.”

“At Facebook, we take very seriously our responsibility to earn and maintain the trust of our advertiser partners – and give them the confidence they need to invest in us. That’s critical to their success and ours,” Everson said. “That is why we’re introducing new monetisation eligibility standards that will provide clearer guidance on the types of publishers and creators eligible to earn money on Facebook and the kind of content that can be monetised.”

Everson also touched on the growing desire for independent validation for ads and higher-quality metrics. Facebook is working with Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify to improve its brand safety controls and is set to join the Trustworthy Accountability Group to protect against fraud. Accreditation from the Media Ratings Council and reviews for first-party ad reporting will also follow shortly.

“These reviews and partnerships help with viewability verification,” Everson added. “They’ll also help us deliver the most accurate metrics possible to our partners. We know how important it is to provide the right insights to our clients so they can focus on business growth. We’re not perfect. But we are striving for accuracy, and these third-party verification efforts will help identify potential issues.”

YouTube didn’t announce new features and tools during its conference on Thursday, but it did release research showing that 95 per cent of its ads globally meet viewability standards. The platform’s chief business officer, Robert Kyncl said it is aware of its “serious responsibility” and is currently “working around the clock” to improve ad placement.

YouTube is also set to launch a new original content series backed by celebrities, including Katy Perry, Ellen DeGeneres and James Corden, as another case study to show that brands can be trusted to be a platform where high-quality videos and ads thrive.

Aimee

18/May/2017

One of the most common phrases heard in modern digital business is ‘content marketing’, and with good reason, because the time when content had wide, organic reach of its own accord is long gone.

Now, strategists must skilfully navigate the marketplace to ensure content reaches as many people as possible. And, with the progress made in artificial intelligence (AI), it’s likely this next-generation technology will soon be widely integrated with advertising strategies.

Though some may fear AI, the concept of using machines to simplify life is nothing new. In fact, there’s evidence that shows that having artificial entities carry out work had been thought of as long ago as the early 14th century.

However, when it comes to harnessing AI to carry out content marketing, there’s still a lot of debate.

Auto-generated content

AI can be utilised to create content that strategists can use in marketing campaigns. In fact, technology research company Gartner suggests almost 20 per cent of all content generated by businesses will be created by machines by 2018. Creating optimised content with AI can speed up processing time and save a lot of money.

Harnessing the power of social media

When it comes to social media, AI is already creating a buzz. Both Instagram and Facebook have bet big on AI, utilising it to change algorithms to optimise user experience. Image and voice recognition and sentiment analysis can further enhance this.

Doing this enables brands to drill down to specific members of their audience, giving them the potential to boost leads, conversions and sales.

Change campaigns in real time

One of the huge benefits of AI is that campaigns can be followed, analysed and changed in real time. Using AI tools, huge chunks of data, such as user behavioural patterns, can be analysed on the go.

However, while there are many benefits to AI in content marketing, there are also several disadvantages, the main ones being lack of creativity, inability to provide content with perspective and the authenticity dilemma.

AI is limited in its creativity. While content can be curated, AI tools are not yet at a level where they can discern good from bad. Similarly, content requires a degree of emotional depth to resonate with an audience, but adding perspective is near impossible with AI at present.

Finally, content marketing strategies work best when brands provide their audience with value and authenticity. Human interaction naturally builds trust, as its far more genuine than interacting with AI.

It’s unlikely AI will replace the humans behind content creation any time soon. There remains a need for perception and an emotional tone, something current AI tools are not able to provide.

However, by optimising the positive aspects of AI, such as target audience analysis, brands can take important insights from campaigns while they’re running. This enables them to maximise the potential of content in terms of positive impact quickly and efficiently.

Aimee

18/Apr/2017

Over the past few years, one thing has become clear – content marketing really works. In fact, brands are turning to content marketing more than ever before as a way to reach their target audience – not only to sell but also to engage, build rapport and create loyal fans. However, a recent survey conducted within the UK’s content marketing sector discovered that whilst budgets for this form of advertising are soaring, many people simply do not know what to spend it on.

It seems as if the content market in Britain is at a crossroads. Though companies are realising the potential that content has to grip and connect with consumers, and are increasing budgets as a result, advertisers still do not understand how to best spend the money. In addition, a lack of skilled professionals in this niche means that much of the money might be going to waste because it’s not being used correctly.

The latest findings have been revealed by The State of Content Marketing report, which was launched to some of the leading senior marketers earlier in 2017. The survey had a number of key aims, one of which was to identify where money is being spent. In addition, researchers want to discover what challenges lay ahead for companies, as well as the current variety of activity being conducted.

The results of the survey showed some surprising findings. For example, though 79per cent of respondents say they feel content marketing results are ‘very effective’ or ‘effective’, 62per cent of decision-makers admitted they did not understand how to effectively measure the Return On Investment (ROI) for campaigns primarily led by content. Meanwhile, just 6per cent of those replying said they were ‘definitely clear’ on how day-to-day activities should be run.

The report did, however, identify just how marketers are currently measuring their content marketing campaign success. For example, 85per cent of people say they watch traffic and that when this increased, it was a sign of success. The second highest measure was based on SEO ranking, with 45per cent of marketers using it as their goal. Finally, and somewhat of a surprise, just 38per cent of marketers placed a priority on sales increases as a way to measure the success of a campaign.

Industry expert Simon Penson said: “It appears a large percentage of marketers are choosing content marketing as their weapon of choice, before thinking about what they want this activity to achieve. Whether it’s traffic, keyword ranking or sales, content marketing has the ability to assist these goals, but it’s important to have this objective in mind from the start. As content marketing experts, it’s important we continue to share performance measurement tools, educational guides and best practice eBooks with marketers, so they have the tools to bridge the gap in knowledge and confidence we have seen in our survey.”

As the use of content marketing increases, strategists will need to focus even more on using the correct ROI measurements so they can hone their strategies to gain the best possible success.

Annie

07/Apr/2017

Content marketing is as much time consuming as it is challenging. After spending vast amounts of time creating the right content in the first place, brands then undergo lengthy periods trying to actually share the material. This is where automation can be extremely beneficial, helping strategists to disseminate content quickly.

There are three key principles when it comes to finding more content marketing time; content curation, social sharing and monitoring. Done correctly, these processes enable content marketers to optimise their strategies without taking more and more time.

Content curation

Curating content can often seem a long-winded process; however, it is vital if brands are to grow their online presence and find the right audience. Of the many content-sharing rules, it’s generally agreed that at least half of social media updates should actually be content from others relevant to an organisation’s audience.

Finding this content can be time consuming, so automating this process is a good idea. There are a variety of tools available that, after having fed in relevant data for search terms, will automatically discover new and appropriate content that can then be shared with a target audience. Content is often provided in a daily updated stream, enabling marketers to oversee what they’re sharing and ensure it’s relevant.

Social sharing

Meanwhile, the best social media management includes scheduling as a way to provide a constant stream of content to fans, followers and audience members. It ensures that marketers, regardless of their time zone, can share updates with people at the most appropriate time of day.

To conduct this process, automation is required (unless strategists are going to be sitting at their social platforms 24-hours a day. Most integrated schedulers enable content to be queued up and delivered at specific times, including a brand’s personal blog posts.

It should be noted that marketers should not be over zealous in their scheduling. For example, queuing a news piece for two weeks time may give rise to a conflict of interest once the day to publish arrives.

Monitoring

Finally, it is crucial that strategists monitor their content, but with so much material out there, not to mention ongoing campaigns, it can be hard to keep an eye on everything. This is why automation can be useful, helping experts to manage their content and take note when a brand is mentioned.

There are many different tools for this, many of which can be programmed to alert brand strategists when there’s mention of their organisation. In addition, marketers can engage and reply with audiences from a central dashboard instead of having to log in and switch between the many various platforms. In addition to individual brand names, other relevant data, such as owner’s name or specific products, for example, can be included in search terms.

Automation is an essential part of running a content marketing campaign. Not only can it be used to keep an eye on how successful marketers have been, but also, it can provide experts with more time to work on optimising campaigns for increased success.

Annie

01/Apr/2017

Content marketing has become a crucial tool for businesses wanting to increase their exposure and brand awareness. However, it is far from a quick fix and takes many resources to craft and run a successful campaign. All too often, many of the common mistakes occur, even when seasoned professionals are running advertising. Therefore, it is important to regularly review strategies.

Lack of content promotion

In this era, it is crucial to promote content. Once upon a time, material could be posted onto a blog and then left to gain attention. No more. Now, even the best content has to be shared if it’s to gain the right attention – even if it’s an exceptional piece of carefully crafted content.

Without promoting posts across a varied range of platforms, there is less chance the right people will see it. Though focussing on SEO can help gain more views, organic reach shouldn’t be relied on. Instead, every single piece of work should be shared on multiple platforms to get as many views as possible. This helps build followers, brand awareness and consumer trust.

Publishing content on the wrong channel

There are many platforms available to content marketing strategists these days, but it’s important to publish the right content in the right place. For example, a blog post might work well as a link on Twitter, but it might not gain attention on Pinterest. Meanwhile, LinkedIn certainly isn’t the right place to share personal or funny GIFs, though these can work well as occasional content posted to FB pages.

Focussing on quantity instead of quality

It’s unsurprising that marketers want to create a lot of content and publish it regularly to remain visible to their target audience. However, focusing solely on producing a lot of content instead of checking for quality is a huge mistake. Content must be genuinely useful to consumers, of high quality and with added value; there’s no point in producing average content.

Failing to harness the power of Google Analytics

Good Analytics is an extremely powerful tool, yet many content marketers fail to use it properly. It can give insights into which content is performing the best, thereby helping creators make material that is most likely to find appeal with audiences. It can also tell marketers which website pages get the most hits, and how long people spend on a website. This information is invaluable, and should be used as a matter of course.

Not listening to target consumers

To get more views on content, businesses need to know what their customers want. And to understand this, it’s vital to actually listen. There are many tools to help monitor specific keywords across social media platforms, allowing marketers to follow conversations about brands, products or people. It is also important to respond to all social media comments and act swiftly to correct problems; showing people the face behind the brand.

By avoiding the above mistakes, content marketers can help hone their strategies, develop better content, and give campaigns the best chance of success.

Eain

24/Mar/2017

Content marketing has become an essential tool for businesses wanting to succeed in the modern world. With each passing year, turning to content marketing is becoming an increasing priority for many. However, there are a lot of myths that firms must break through if they’re to develop a strategy with the potential for achieving great success.

Top-tier content creation isn’t easy

The first thing that many people do not realise is that there’s no easy path to creating top-tier content. Firms can churn out vast amounts of content, but without the right and most relevant research, it’s unlikely to strike the right chord with consumers. Amateurs in content creation are unlikely to begin creating amazing material immediately and should set their expectations a little lower. This doesn’t mean to say that brands shouldn’t strive for the best, but it’s important to remember that creating exceptional content is an ongoing process.

Large quantities of content do not guarantee more reach

There’s a myth that more content gains more reach – yet this simply is not true. Many firms still have traditional search engine optimisation (SEO) in mind, and believe that if they can produce great quantities of content, they’ll gain a larger reach. However, in many cases, prioritising quantity over quality can hinder advertising attempts.

The best approach is to start slow and adhere to a plan. It is far better to reach 100,000 through a single blog post, than produce 100 posts which only reach 1,000 each.

Great writers are rarely inexpensive and easy to come by

Many companies also wrongly believe that they’ll be able to hire a great writer for little expense. The best writers, who invest time into producing professional content that has the best chance of making it into the top tier, can not only be hard to come by, but are rarely cheap. In some instances, firms hire a great writer at a low cost and find their quality quickly decreases.

Not paying writers professional rates means it is harder to keep their attention and engagement. This means that content is unlikely to ever succeed.

Content must not be confined to company websites

There’s a huge myth in the content marketing industry that content should only ever be posted on a firm’s own website. Whilst there is sense in this, especially for organisations wanting to give readers a reason to visit, content posted as guest blogs or on other sites can be hugely successful. It is a good idea, therefore, to split content between posting on a firm’s website and in other places.

Quick revenues can be found from content marketing

Finally, many believe that turning to content marketing offers a quick revenue increase. This is far from true; content marketing is, in fact, the long game. Overnight achievements are unlikely to be found, and strategists must be prepared to see slow gains at first and, with luck and determination, efforts snowballing over time.

Content marketing can be hugely successful for companies. However, it is vital to try and avoid common mistakes and break through the many myths if strategies are going to get off to a good start.

Eain

16/Mar/2017

If the saying ‘a picture can tell a thousand words’ is true, then the use of video, which is essentially a string of many pictures, should not be overlooked when it comes to content marketing. Each month, around six billion hours of video is watched on YouTube, showing just how popular this medium is. Therefore, it is vital that content marketing strategies realise video’s potential and include it in their campaigns.

Educate instead of entertain

A key aspect of video content is to remember that educating works better than entertaining. There are, of course, those viral videos of bizarre and humorous moments that gain millions of views in a short amount of time. However, this often occurs more by luck than judgement. It is, therefore, essential for marketing firms to focus on educating their customers as a priority, even if this education is wrapped up within a funny video.

Educating consumers is nothing new. For example, McDonald’s used a two-minute video in 2014 as a way to respond to negative rumours about their chicken nuggets. Not only did this help to battle bad press, but improved the brand identity of the fast food chain too.

Social media is important

It may sound obvious, but social media remains extremely important, and a modern firm must have an account on at least one popular platform. However, whilst many companies utilise places like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to share their content, a lot still regard video sharing sites as separate entities. This is not altogether true though, and firms would be wise to realise that uploading videos to platforms like YouTube and Snapchat gives consumers the chance to easily share and engage with content.

In addition, diversifying into more platforms gives companies the chance to reach a larger audience. This grows their social media footprint and can result in a bigger demand for services and products.

Vertical videos are on the rise

Vertical videos have always been avoided if possible. Consumers are accustomed to television’s horizontal frame, and there’s an ongoing debate about the perceived low quality of vertical videos. With the two black sidebars taking up the screen, vertical videos have, traditionally, been mocked.

However, though this video format is not the best for computers, they can find favour on mobile devices. And with the rise of mobile, it’s not hard to see how video formats might also change. The evolution of video means that content creators may well see the ways in which they create video change too. Vertical videos have a narrower format, and the areas at the top and bottom of the frame become more important as they are key focus points. It also promotes a more personal and in-your-face style.

Utilise video for ongoing success

Video is unlikely to go away and is, in fact, continuing to rise in popularity. Therefore, savvy and forward thinking firms would do well to embrace this form of media and build it into their content marketing strategies with increasing levels..

Aimee

20/Feb/2017

A new survey has delved into the world of content marketing to discover today’s best practices. The report also highlighted that the age of infographics is on the wane, with poor images and market saturation leading to the decline. In addition, it shows that SEO remains an important aspect of content strategies.

Almost every brand marketing team these days is focussed on content, with the production of high quality material over quantity continuing to be extremely important. Clutch, the B2B analyst firm behind the latest survey, questioned 300 people about the aims of content marketing. Nearly 80 per cent admitted the challenge was to boost online visibility for companies, while the remainder touted lead generation as their top priority.

The founder of Moz, an SEO software firm, explained that SEO and content marketing remain one and the same. Rand Fishkin said that both aspects “very much need each other,” adding: “As far as SEO goes, without content there are no rankings and there is no opportunity to appear in results.” This belief goes hand in hand with the report’s findings, which reaffirm that to find success with content marketing, it is vital to have a strategy. The days of churning out article after article, therefore, are now gone.

This belief is taken into consideration by 89 per cent of survey respondents who said that the amount of content created remains important. For companies building their brand, infographics and product reviews are the content of choice, with 19 per cent and 18 per cent respectively. Meanwhile, for those focussed on lead generation, research and original data, content was most popular at 21 per cent. “The justification is that content that earns social shares typically is formatted for entertainment – list posts, videos, quizzes – while content that gets links and earned media is more informative”, the report said.

Many firms are still creating infographics although this form of media does seem to be on the decline. Mr Fishkin explained that back in 2013, infographics were the go-to content; however, “the age of infographics is dying, and most of them are quite bad,” he said. “The ones that have success do so in a slightly manipulative way. The embed gets linked back with very particular anchor text that takes advantage of search algorithms.”

However, reaching saturation doesn’t mean the end. For example, Brandwatch’s marketing manager of Europe, the Middle East and Asia wrote in 2015 that the huge rise of Instragram clearly shows an appetite for visual content, but there should be a higher emphasis upon the need to focus on quality, and that means content and messaging becomes even more important.

Finally, the report also highlights that Google has made content comprehensiveness a larger priority and, therefore, gives more weight to quality material. It is not a clear cut process, Clutch says, but content marketing strategists need to ask themselves three questions during the curation process; who is it for? Why should the reader care? And what makes it stand out?

Annie

09/Feb/2017

Over the past few years, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) has come under fire and it now has some negative connotations associated with it. However, when used correctly it is still an important part of the content marketing process, helping strategists to not only formulate their advertising plan, but also to put content in the right places. Therefore, it remains as important as ever for guiding more eyes towards digital publications.

The past decade has seen the internet explode with various strategies to harness the power of content to drive website visits, leads and sales. SEO is used across many of these. This is the process of utilising keywords within content to gain the attention of search engines. Despite many people now disregarding the importance of SEO because it has so often been used badly, it is still an important tool.

Firstly, SEO provides a good basis for forming a strong content strategy. This is because when developing a keyword plan, brands have to ask important questions, the answers to which can be used to create the right content for the intended target audience. For example, SEO requires a business to establish who its target audience is, and what the brand needs to deliver to those potential customers. What’s the best material to create and how can this be enhanced to generate more interest?

Utilising SEO in content marketing can also help brands build trust and authority within their niche. Incorporating quality keyword terms into articles ensures that content has an extended digital lifespan. Over the months and years, any brand can build up its backlist of content in a particular market, thereby increasing its authority on the subject matter. In time, this will also increase consumer trust, helping companies attain long-term success in their content marketing strategies.

Finally, by using SEO practices within content marketing, firms are challenging their competitors. Within any field, it’s likely that companies are all striving towards producing high-quality, evergreen content to attract consumers. By using SEO, strategists can help a brand become a recognised authority within its field, thus putting pressure on competitors. Some of the best content includes podcasts, How-To articles, guides and videos. By providing these on a regular basis, adding keywords and building a reputation for expertise, even small companies in niche markets can gain dominance over bigger rivals.

The negativity surrounding SEO is unlikely to disappear. When it’s used badly, it’s all too obvious, with promotional keywords and phrases appearing inappropriately; however, when it’s used correctly, those targeted terms should fit seamlessly into content and be difficult to pinpoint. As such, content strategists should not immediately disregard the use of SEO. When used as part of a carefully considered marketing plan it can help a campaign realise resounding success.

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