The Content Marketing Train Has Taken Off, Are You Onboard?

The best way for brands to connect with people is to behave like them–reacting and responding to the world around them as things happen. This means they need to be as instinctive, natural and–most important–creative as everyone else. But, as the velocity of content increases, the timeframe for responding decreases. Brands need to jump in within minutes, even seconds, with just the right piece of content.

To do this convincingly, a strong brand–one that is understood, known and activated by everyone who represents it–is critical. From tone of voice to visual expression, employees at all levels need to feel both confident and empowered to act on behalf of the brand no matter the context.

As brand dollars continue to shift from traditional advertising to content marketing, the pressure rises on proving value. Brands and content marketing partners will get more strategic about how to measure the ROI of their investment in content. First it was fans and likes, then it was page views and social reach and today it’s about attention and deep engagement. Content marketing today—more than ever—is about impacting both a company’s sales AND their reputation.

UX = Ticketmaster

With the rise of mobile content consumption, readers are moving seamlessly across personalized streams of content. When we have the internet in our pocket, we can dip in and out, jumping from stream to stream, sampling across many sites in the course of a few minutes. People no longer simply “read.” They “snack” and monitor. They make a decision in the fraction of a moment as to how valuable a piece of content is, how much time they should give to it, and ultimately whether they will share it forward.

As a result, a brand’s digital presence is fragmented across many possible points of contact. An organization must craft user experiences that fit the environment in which readers will discover, read, and share. Surfacing and structuring a company’s most relevant insights—as great content—can position a brand as a trusted authority. Enabling meaningful forums and social extensions—building a community—establishes an ecosystem around the brand, which can shift reactions from “ugh, advertising” to “ah, that’s what I was looking for.”

And that is the ticket right there.