Content Marketing & Private Media to Drive Your ROI

The International Association of Business Communicators recently did a special issue on content marketing.  Here is how they describe it:

Content marketing is about revealing the credibility of your brand through customer-focused information—with an authentic and trusted voice. It’s an opportunity to use creative thinking—rather than a big budget—to get better results than traditional marketing methods.

I was lucky to one of several contributors to add an article to the special edition of their bulletin.  I chose to talk about creating a content-rich private custom media channel rather than traditional advertising.  Here is an excerpt from the article:

When a company educates its current and prospective clients on its field of expertise instead of pitching them products or services, that company becomes a reliable source of information. Your company becomes the media, and you’re now in a position to provide thought leadership and build customer loyalty. You’ve established your company as a trusted resource, and your customer feels more confident buying from you.

It’s no surprise that more and more companies are creating their own private media channels with original content to speak directly to their customers. With content and private media channels, marketers can start to take prospects down the road of permission-based marketing, where marketers must first ask permission before sending content or advertisements to prospective customers. This method requires that people first “opt-in,” rather than allowing people to “opt-out” only after the marketing messages have been sent. It also helps to build trust and affinity between marketers and their potential customers. Eventually, you will get to the point where customers and prospects will welcome your content and messages because of the trust you have built with them. Trust and affinity lead to increased sales.

This tactic stands in contrast to traditional advertising and marketing methods, which rely on renting media channels from media companies at very high costs. In that model, prospects are seeing marketing messages such as ads in magazines, on web sites and television, and are likely spending little or no time absorbing them.

In addition, rented media relies on “interrupting” your prospect with your message, an inefficient way to get out your marketing messages that is more likely to build resentment than trust. When a company owns its own media channel, it is engaging in direct dialogue with customers.

Every day more companies are creating their own media channels with original content to bypass traditional media outlets. In so doing, marketers take control of their message and their audience. Not only can marketers speak directly to customer interests and concerns, but now they do not have to worry about marketing messages being surrounded by distracting—or even inappropriate—content that may conflict with their brand. In addition, the financial rewards of private media speak for themselves: For the price of a few ads in a national magazine, newspaper or broadcast network, a company can create its own custom magazine with original content for a targeted audience. We believe this trend will grow rapidly over the next few years as advances in technology and consumer behavior make it more feasible. There is no better way to drive marketing ROI than by surrounding your potential customers and prospects in a controlled environment that you own.

To read the whole special report – click here.