Marketing Opinion South Africa

The content marketing buzzards

The carcass is the prize. In this story the carcass is content marketing success. We (as in the content people) are the buzzards, but instead of enjoying the spoils, a lot of us seem to be stuck circling.

There's a ton of theory in the content painted sky we inhabit at this moment. It is the sandy river lines far below that represent kilometres of sentences, articles like this one, most written for Google's spiders and not necessarily for people.

There's the canned hunter that is the paid for viral seeding so prevalent these days; Ah, the bored game ranger that is the grey scale platform expert. Do you hear the unmet desire of our human nature to tell authentic stories trying to claw its way back into our mainstream?

But we are stuck in the air, rotating around as if attached to an invisible clock wheel. We can't seem to get down to that carcass. How will we ever feast on it? We're a bunch of circling, cawing buzzards. How will our internal and external content marketing efforts turn into breakthrough? How will I ever learn to stop using these misplaced animal analogies?

Tips

Here are five tips to help get a pulse running through your internal/external content marketing efforts:

  1. Strategy first, platform second: If all your staff are on mobile don't try infuse a desktop focused comms platform. If all your clients are on Twitter don't expect them to migrate to Snapchat. Caw!
  2. Know your business: How does your product end up on the sales room floor? How does production relate to finance? How does silo number one fit in with silo number two? What is Betty in HR's favourite thing to snack on while prepping the review sheets? This will help both your external and internal marketing but most importantly - with real understanding in hand, the stories you're battling to conjure will begin to tell themselves.
  3. Heart: Get someone in who cares about the community you're trying to reach. They will instinctively reach out to get to know them and, in doing so, create life in your efforts.
  4. Facebook is a glorified call centre: It is not a branding page. Use it to create a two way communication platform that answers questions in realtime. Train your people to use it this way.
  5. External is internal: Make your staff feel number one in the world through the way you interact with them and they'll pay it forward through their own networks. Mmmm, Ambassadors. Caw!

"Caaaaaaaaw!" We will reach the carcass but flying lower means getting ever more in tune with the realities of the human lives at the end of our content marketing endeavours.

About Travis Bussiahn

Travis Bussiahn is the Executive Creative Director of the Happy Media Video Agency. He solves creative and business problems for both Happy Media and its clients. He understands the importance of emotional connection in content, branded or otherwise and believes in traditional media's ability to be blended with new media to profound and holistic effect. He loves and excels at concept and the art of story. Contact details: website www.happymedia.co.za | Twitter @TravisBussiahn
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