Reflections From CONTENT2013
With so many speakers at Content2013 ranging from software developers, content strategist and magazine editors; the top three topics at this event for me were, Blogging, Apps and keeping content up to date and relevant.
Eve Williams, Managing director of Cedar Communications describe content marketing as
“Branded content is no longer about simply selling the brand. It’s now about providing relevant services and advise to the consumer”.
She mentioned how they helped a big brand, Tesco on content marketing by distributing a free weekly newspaper on food to educate the consumer bout healthy tips and recipes. This experience was enhanced by creating a blog on which clients can share and exchange knowledge. For me this was a good strategy in marketing and to build a trusting relationship with the client.
Blogging has become an integral part of of marketing and content marketing. Sam Wilson, Digital Editor at Woolworths said that editors are moving into retail to write, edit and maintains these blogs and to manage content on websites. Sam also said that major clients should be professional on these blogs and not to say anything personal or harmful to the public, which might be harmful to the companies’ image. This is sometimes hard to do as some people can become personal on platforms like these and you need to distinguish, which is a customer concern/query and which are just total time wasters.
Julia Hutchinson pointed out that
“One of the biggest challenges of all for marketers is understanding that content is not just “stuff”, and if you want to really engage your target audience, your focus has to be on quality”.
Applications on mobile phones and tablets have also come under the spotlight in content marketing. Apps can be very useful on a compact device such as a cell phone to keep the user updated with new info and he or she can also give feedback on that particular info.
Apps are definitely going to play a big part in building content marketing and maintaining your customer audience. The event was well organised and very well presented.