Times Square at Dusk - by Stuck in Customs
Traditional marketing is crazy aggressive when you think about it. Rather than focusing on information that enriches the lives of others, marketers generally choose methods that interrupt your flow of thought and aim to imprint their message on your psyche. Doesn’t sound like fun to me.
In contrast, you have the idea of content marketing.
Let’ start with the basics….what exactly is Content marketing. I consider it a term that widely describes all marketing genre’s, formats and modalities that involve sharing content as a means of engaging current and potential consumer bases. Or, any form of marketing in which you decide to use valuable information as a means of gaining fans and attendee’s.
As you embrace content marketing as a means of growing interest in you event, you need to realize that you are essentially shifting your focus to delivering high-quality, relevant and valuable information to definite and prospective attendees. It’s important to understand this point because it can radically change how you approach your communication with your attendees and vendors.
Think about it for a minute……go ahead……take a full minute. I’ll wait.
If you are focused on sharing information, content that is valuable to your attendees, exciting, engaging and different…..where will you get it from? What does it look like? How will you determine what information is valuable?
These questions are only beginning. From there you begin to question every piece of promotional material with a question of value. You begin to ask what the attendee is getting from that piece. How is it making their experience better?
And those are great questions that radically change how you and your attendees interact.
The benefit with content marketing is rooted in the benefits of retaining reader attention, improving loyalty and building excitement. All through the act of engagement.
The idea of sharing your content as a means of persuading decision-making is what drives event professionals to look for information that was deemed “too valuable” to share for free and……well……share it for free. It’s the act of sharing that builds trust.
So let’s discuss the nuts and bolts.
What does content Marketing look like for the event professional.
There are a multitude of mediums and within each medium you are likely to be sharing the same content. Remember though that your audience interacts with each in a different way and expects a different style of communication from each medium.
For example:
- Social Media: Brilliant tools from Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn all allow you to broadcast your message quickly and easily. The tone is often more casual and information is shared in short bursts. Your content should be short or focused on links to websites or blogs.
- E-newsletters: These have developed a reputation for being a gateway resource to deeper information that often lives on a website. Use your newsletters to share links and teaser info that provides enough knowledge to make them want more.
- PDF Downloads and White papers: Good for explaining benefits and in depth concepts that may be of added value. The content within these should be very thorough and focused on solving problems.
- Video: Wonderful for building engagement. Get your speakers or leaders to record short videos before an event and for growing engagement after an event.
- Webinars: Like video, a webinar is a great way to engage with your audience. A webinar provides an emotional connection to the information we might normally deliver in the written word with a greater ability to share images and tutorials. You can add music, movement and the sound of a human voice. Be sure that you stay focused on concise presentation so that your viewers don’t drift.
The purpose of the information shared is not to spout the virtues of your own products or services, but to inform your customers and prospects about key industry issues, trends and exciting announcements. And yes………sometimes these bursts of information do involve your products.
The major motivation of a content marketer is the belief that educating your customer results in recognition as a thought leader and industry expert.
Information builds Trust.
What do you think?
by on December 10, 2009
