by Marianna Muscat | Nov 13, 2018 | Content Marketing
Big brands continue to be overtaken by lean, emerging start-ups. Consider how the entire paid television and Blockbuster sector has been overhauled by streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. If brands are not agile and quick to adapt, they can become irrelevant. Fast.
One way in which brands are successfully reinventing themselves is by looking within their business and establishing themselves as the go-to authority within their industry. To do this, they become knowledge centres. Not only does this create a new, unique selling proposition, but they also succeed in finding a way to continue to offer value to customers.
Content marketing is the backbone of any company’s transformation into a knowledge centre. Some of the ways that you can use content to establish your brand’s authority in your sector include the following:
- Dominating Search Results
If people type a keyword used in your industry into Google, they should be met with a lot of content from your brand. Everything from helpful information to the top 10 guides to online tutorials should be published by your brand. This content needs to be optimised for keywords to deliver results.
- Develop Authority And Establish Trust
A brand becomes authoritative if they have a strong brand narrative. Creative storytelling across multiple platforms can help you develop authority. To build trust, you need to engage with your customers emotionally. One way to do this is to tell your brand’s story and get your online community contributing to your brand in the form of user-generated content.
- Credibility And Collaboration
The most successful brands are the ones who are transparent and encourage collaboration from their audience. Instead of trying to control your brand, invite your audience to engage with you so that they can help you build your brand.
Are you ready to use content marketing to transform your company into a knowledge centre? Then contact WSI OMS today.
by Marianna Muscat | Oct 9, 2018 | Content Marketing, Google
Earlier this year, Google rolled out an exciting tool for marketers, specifically marketers who are engaged in video campaigns. Google’s Reach Planner helps you plan your reach on YouTube and other video sharing platforms.
The tool is available in Google AdWords; it is currently still in its Beta phase of testing. It allows you to get unique data on your reach in more than fifty countries and you can look at people’s demographics all the way down to the devices that people are using to watch your videos.
You can get recommendations based on your budget and the assets you have available. You could, for example, tell Google’s Reach Planner that you have 3 minutes of video, what your budget is, and ask for advice on how to go about marketing your video on YouTube. In just a few clicks, you’ll see a reach curve, frequency, and other key metrics for the audience you defined. You can also make on-the-fly adjustments to flighting or other campaign inputs to see how these metrics change.
Reach Planner can be used to:
- Reach audiences across multiple devices.
- Accurately plan the reach of your ads across YouTube and Google video partner sites and apps in 50+ global markets.
- Develop Target Rating Point and Cost Per Point calculations.
If you have a Google Sales Representative, then you can request that the Reach Planner is added to your AdWords account.
Need help with your video marketing campaigns? Then contact WSI OMS for more information today.
by Francois Muscat | Sep 24, 2018 | Content Marketing
With one foot in the first world, and one foot in third, the South African Millennial is in the unique position where they have the outlook and aspirations of first world Millennials, but understand the limitations and socio-economic factors of being in a developing nation. Traditional marketing campaigns are not effective for this kind of outlook. A new approach must be taken, and experimental marketing needs to be implemented.
The South African millennial is an interesting breed. Living in a developing third world nation, but with the hyper-connectivity of their first world counterparts, the South African Millennial is a target audience that responds to a more innovative form of advertising.
Some Facts on Millennials
The term Millennial was created by Neil Howe and William Strauss, and is used to denote anyone who was born between 1980 and 2004. In 2017, Cosmopolitan ran a survey on Millenials in South Africa. This survey yielded the following figures:
- There are 195 million Millennials in the country
- 78 percent are employed, and therefore economically active
- 96 percent have a bank account
- 62 percent have bought something that was out of their budget
- 62 percent are saving for something
These numbers show that Millennials are not only active consumers, but are trying to move up their station in life. By 2020, 50% of the workforce will consist of Millenials.
A large percentage of the workforce now consists of Millennials, so they have a lot of buying power. This means they are a prime sector to target.
However, Millennials live in a hyper-connected world of globalisation and the internet. Trends come and go faster than major companies are even able to understand them. Such a culture of high-speed craze followed by obsolescence means that a new kind of experimental marketing is required. Branding through social media and other forms of digital marketing is the new TV or billboard.
Times are changing, and Millennials are forming the forefront of that change. Experimental marketing keeps things new and fresh, and allows us to reach a massive client base in record times. If you need help or advice with your digital marketing campaigns or content marketing initiatives, contact WSI OMS.
by Marelise da Silva | Sep 5, 2018 | Content Marketing
When you sell products online or in person, people will be curious as to what other people think about these products. People want to know:
- If others liked the product,
- If it worked for them, and
- What the results of using the product were.
People like case studies and testimonials, which is why you need to start creating a testimonial database. All this is, are screen shots of emails, names and examples of what people said about your company. Start saving this information because the power of testimonials is large.
Testimonials shouldn’t be an afterthought, it should be something you save and archive every time someone gives you a compliment. If the compliment or feedback is too short or vague, ask them to expand on what they enjoyed about your product and if they would recommend you to a friend. If they say yes, ask them why they would recommend your product or company to a friend.
Be sure to ask for permission to publish the testimonials as well. Some people may not feel comfortable with their personal communications being published online if they weren’t informed that the information would be made publicly available.
Not only can these testimonials be published on your website to build your authority and reputation, but you could also use these screen shots as an introduction to a presentation or to print on marketing brochures for a conference.
Do you need help with your content marketing, social media marketing or digital marketing? Then contact WSI OMS today.
by Marianna Muscat | Sep 4, 2018 | Content Marketing
Being judged online can be harsh. For people who didn’t grow up with the internet, it can also make you feel a bit vulnerable to share your thoughts and opinions in a voice that really sounds like you.
The result of holding back on writing in your authentic voice is that your content can sound impersonal and flat. Instead of being quirky, slightly arrogant, or playful, many writers and content marketers choose to ‘play it safe’ by using an overly professional tone of voice in their online writing.
Finding your voice and owning it is tough, especially when you’re getting started with content marketing. It can be especially disheartening if you receive negative comments or messages online, but don’t panic if that happens to you. For every negative comment, you would have struck a nerve with people who resonate with the true you.
When you start a blog, start a business or build a business, you are going to want to conform to the people around you. You might think that you want to put your best foot forward; but in the effort to do that, you will mute your personality and blend in with everyone else. The fear of being judged by people online is going to force you to be exactly like other people.
Even if you have unshakable confidence in yourself, that fear can be there, but push through the fear and share your personality, thoughts and opinions online. If you have stories to tell or solutions to offer people, then you need to communicate in the most authentic way possible.
Do you need help with your content marketing, social media marketing or digital marketing? Then contact WSI OMS today.
by Francois Muscat | Sep 3, 2018 | Content Marketing
How can you create better content that shakes people awake and makes them read every word, click every link, and watch every second? How can you create content that people want to consume? Here is a simple formula to tell better stories:
Content needs to be story driven. If you start with a story, people want to pay attention, and they want to listen. People like stories and there are three parts to a story:
- Context – state the situation that led to the story
- Inciting incident – this is usually a conflict of some kind
- Resolution – this is where you can state how the conflict was resolved
Think about how you can turn pieces of your existing content into better stories. Case studies, for example, are a great opportunity for better storytelling and content marketing.
Many times, companies create stock-standard, dull case studies that list the client’s name, the product that was specified for their project, and the result. Consider how much more interesting this case study would be if you gave more context to the situation. Tell the reader what industry the client is in and what challenges they were facing. Then you could go on to tell how your team went about determining what type of products or services were needed to resolve the situation. Then, you could have before and after photos showing how you successfully overcame the challenge.
Virtually any content that you post can be improved with better storytelling. If you’re posting team photos, tell your audience who the people are, how long they have been with your company and what they are working on. Give people more context, more conflict and more resolutions for fuller, better stories.
Do you need help with your content marketing, social media marketing, or digital marketing? Then contact WSI OMS today.
