A beginner's journey
into (content) marketing
into (content) marketing
Imagine three people walking down a cobbled street. The first one might look down and see that each cobble has a different touch of grey and blue. The second one, a scientist, might solely be focused on the wind. He sees it as a force, upon which he is an opposite force as he’s walking right into it. And the third one might simply dislike walking down a cobbled street.
From this example, we can derive that these are three very different individuals, right? So, why aren’t we fully integrating this knowledge when it comes down to the internet? The internet is individual Some see the internet as a portal to cute cat videos, others as an easy way to get the goods they want, as fast as possible. Even others, like me, see the internet as a bookshop. A place filled with information and knowledge. Now, all these different people will use and navigate the internet in different ways. If you’re interested in cute cat videos, you’ll probably Google “cat videos” and go straight to Youtube. But if you’re interested in knowledge on a certain topic, you mind not necessarily end up on Youtube. But why am I telling you all this obvious stuff? Because I believe this is where personalization comes in. But is the internet personal? I see the internet as an enormous bookshop. Not surprisingly, bookshops are among my most favourite places to be. For instance, when I’m in a city and I’m early for a meeting, I like to check if there is a bookshop close by. I simply Google it. But it doesn’t stop there. I like bookshops with a nice interior. So I’ll check Google streetview to look at the building. Maybe the place even uploaded some pictures of their interior. Then I check what kind of books they sell. If they have a large section on history books, I’m hooked and start walking right away. But reading this, I realize these are quite some steps before making the decision. And they aren’t even bulletproof. What if a nice little bookshop isn’t on the Google My Business list? Or what if they simply lack the SEO skills, so they don’t pop up on the first page of search results? Yet, this is where, in my humble opinion, the future of marketing and search engines lies. Getting all those steps together in a matter of milliseconds. Digital identity Because Google already knows that I’m often in Antwerp and Ghent. It also knows that I’m a sucker for history books and that I’m constantly on the lookout for small and cosy bookstores. Google knows this thanks to my digital footprints. So why not puzzling it all together? Why not creating an algorithm that, based on the keyword “bookstores” gives me options fully tailored to my history of needs and wants? A system that only looks at your interests, location, browser history, …? All those things that define your digital identity. It would give a highly personalized answer, leaving behind big bookstores that won’t draw my attention. And it wouldn’t just look at the companies scoring well on SEO. Not only would it force companies to be more customer centric in their online presence. They would have to clearly define their business, and show what is in it for their clients. On top of that, the entire Google search engine would put consumers first. What's in it for marketers? So what’s the deal for marketers? You would have to segment your audience, tailoring to their specific needs. Why not create different homepages on your website for all the different segments? (Some companies are already doing this, and with good results!) I’m trying to get more into this “personalized marketing”, and hope to get a more practical blogpost in soon!
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I was recently thinking about an email campaign I might do for my job. We’re introducing a new technology, and I made a video about it. There will also be a blogpost on our website. However, I was wondering how we could make the impact of the emails greater. How could we personalize the emails to our clients, so that they would be truly interested? Segmentation is key? Then the word ‘segmentation’ came to me. Why don’t we simply provide a standard email, with the video and a link to the blogpost of the new technology. But on top of that, supplement the email with content that is suited to each reader. For example, clients that come to us for scaffolding, would receive additional content like ‘when is the wind a safety issue for scaffolding?’. People coming to us for insulation would receive additional content about what types of insulation we use, and why we use them. Neat, I thought. I’ve got an entire email campaign figured out, and most of all, I can segment very hard. Because, I could look beyond what kind of services which client was using. We do quite a lot of business in the harbour of Antwerp, so I could also segment on that region. Why not supplementing the mail with content about insulation in ships? Then I started to think about the work function of the reader. A CEO wants to read other things than a plant engineer looking for the best and most suited insulation for his pipelines. Or content might be king? So, while I was hammering out all the details of segmentation for this particular email campaign, something struck me. The segmentation was a, I believe, good idea. But the problem was the content. We simply don’t have enough content yet to start a deep segmentation. So lesson learned: only segment if you have the content to show for. But the bottom line of this all is this: segmentation should not be exclusively part of the content distribution phase. It should already start during the content creation, even sooner. How do you do this? By developing buyer persona’s, even before you start writing. This way, you can identify what people are looking for, and it is easier to get the content to the right person when the content is ready. Buyer's Persona's as a start Time for an example. Let’s say you’re a financial institution. You get a lot of question of prospects wanting to know more about your knowledge. You don’t want to waste all that time on the phone, and most importantly, you want to reach more people. So you start a blog. This is where it begins. Instead of starting to write right away about what you can do for your potential clients, start developing buyer persona’s. Ask yourself what their interests are and what they would want to get out of your knowledge. Thanks to the analyses of your clients and the visitors of your website, you understand there are quite some differences in your clientele. You have upper middleclass families, who are trying to enlarge their wealth through safe investments. On the other side, you have clients looking to gain money fast, for example by speculation. (Personal note: don’t speculate. Remember the crisis of 2007!) So, you need content for both those segments. Content that gives families a safe solution, without risks. And other than that, you also need content that gives expert and current advice on what stocks are good for a quick win. When you keep this in mind, you’re already segmenting before your even distributing. It will make it a lot easier when you’re planning an email campaign. If you want a more expert view on segmenting and more, I highly recommend this blogpost by Tom De Baere. This is the first post on my new blog, A Beginner's Journey Into (Content) Marketing. On this page, I will document my travels through the knowledge there is to be found about marketing. But first, let me tell you a little bit about myself.
My name is Simon Sileghem, and I work parttime as a Communication Administrator at Hertel. It's a big Belgian company, that works with industrial isolation, scaffolding and tracing. In my spare time, I'm a freelance copywriter. I mostly write things that fit into content marketing. Which is why I'm so interested in it. But, why should a copywriter be training himself in marketing? Shouldn't he be writing a book, or some snappy slogans? Maybe, but I simply want to know WHY I'm writing something. As an intern at Head Office, a content marketing agency, I wrote for the A.S.Adventure blog. When I first got there, I didn't really think about why I was writing a certain post. I only knew I enjoyed writing and reading the posts. But after a while, I started to get it. You don't write those blogs to have nice to read articles. Sure, they have to be fluent and well-written, but mostly, they are there to solve a problem. And not your problem, but the one of your customer. And that's why I'm looking for marketing knowledge. So I'm not just a copywriter, but one that is able to write stuff that people need. So, how am I training myself? Well, I'm taking my first steps into marketing literature. I'm currently reading three books. Firstly, there is Content Inc. by Joe Pulizzi, which is a very nice book to understand why and how you should do content marketing. Secondly, I'm reading The New Rules Of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott. It demonstrates how marketing has undergone an evolution towards the digital. Which is pretty interesting, and it's filled with practical cases. Last but not least, Flip The Funnel by Joseph Jaffe. I'm still on the first pages, but I'm hoping the book will make it clear how people go through the marketing funnel, as this is something I'm very interested in. So, that's it for today. And oh, if you're wondering, I've studied Journalism. Probably one of the furthest things of marketing you can study! |