FROM THE EDITORS Welcome to Zingg! We know you don’t have much time to hang with us, so here is the 5-cent tour. Zingg is designed to give you tools and ideas to build your content marketing strategy. Our format is short and sweet – just enough to jolt new ideas and point you in the right direction. A great starting point is The ABCs of Content – it’s a back to the basics look at content marketing. Counting down to the new year – our featured article The Amazingg World of Content Marketing for 2014 highlights the top trends. Zero to 15 is all about the rise of micro videos and Hit the Mark distils the key metrics that will help you connect with your target audience. Finally – check out our Spend Less, Get More for tips on getting the most out of your content marketing budget. Let us know what you think of this Zingg thing! Share if you like – email us if you don’t. We are big on listening and continuous improvement. Our audacious mission is to disrupt conventional thinking and inspire innovation. Enjoy! Tanya & Tyrone
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eMediaInteractiveUSA
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Our format is short and sweet – just enough to jolt new ideas and point you in the right direction.
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THE ABCS OF
CONTENT It’s all about ‘Content’ – but hasn’t it always been about ‘Content’? Product brochures, advertising campaigns, infomercials and even websites predate this ‘new’ concept. Content now includes tweets and Vines and posts, digital magazines, mobile games and apps; blogs, webinars and everything in between. Traditional marketing relied on sharing information with your audience generally from the company’s point of view -audience feedback was at best delayed if offered any at all.
Content marketing is far less about pushing information and more about sharing. In this new paradigm, companies are challenged to add value at the point of communicating – and not only at the point of purchase.
When developing your content marketing strategy , keep in mind the ABC’s
C AB
Through content marketing you invite your audience in and actively involve them in your business. Your audience, BE AUTHENTIC if successfully engaged, BE BRIEF will critique, recommend, Authenticity is the Brevity is required – complain and complemost important The on-line audience ment. value to embrace. is exposed to multiple Stick with what you messages per minute know and what is and will quickly real and verifiable. decide what deserves a second look.
BE CREATIVE Creativity counts more now than ever. The content marketing environment is a playground for creative thinkers. Add some real rightbrainers to your team and let the ideas flow!
For more inspiration, check out 101 Companies Rocking Social Media via @HubSpot
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ZERO 15 TO
THE RISE OF MICRO VIDEOS 30 seconds. 15 seconds. 6 seconds. How much time do marketers have to grab the attention of their consumers? Sure enough, for decades the 30- second television ad was the dominant force in consumer engagement, but the past year alone has shown that less can be best- at least when it comes to using videos as a marketing tool! Marketers are now challenged to effectively use the new heavy hitters in the world of customer engagement - micro videos. These incorporate the likes of Twitter’s Vine and Facebook’s Instagram. These sites together have an incredible base of over 150 million users and what’s more is that they all allow free user uploads. So the only question now is, how do you break through the clutter and ensure that your content hits home with your audience? ‘SHORT AND SWEET’ Because Vine or Instagram videos are designed to be short, they tend to be more creative and viewer friendly – which means having more people likely to click that play button.
Each platform also has unique features that can allow marketers to leverage these videos to not only show off their brand, but to make meaningful connection with customers, generate leads and build brand loyalty and support. SO, HOW CAN THEY BE USED? Vine and Instagram videos are perfect for highlighting new products and services, showing customers ‘behind the scenes’ clips as well as sharing and interacting with your community in a whole new way. “The only requirement is imagination and creativity, not size and category.” Instagram, which was officially launched as a photo sharing platform, introduced its micro video component this year as a response to Vine’s popularity. Instagram Video allows videos up to 15 seconds- which is quite reminiscent of the popularly used 15 second TV commercial. While with Vine, you get six seconds of free looping video.
Secondly and quite importantly for many, Instagram videos can be edited and enhanced beforehand, unlike Vine that only allows unedited mobile recording at this point. Differences aside though, there are some easy tips that can help you in making the most from using any of these two apps:
Be creative and practical Engage with customers Remember it’s a community, so pull your audience in by sharing information that allows them to feel valued by your company and foster interaction. Engage and participate often.
People are interested in videos that are entertaining and useful, and how you cater to their interests. Sharing tips and how-tos or something interesting related to your brand for example, not only prompt consumers to potentially revisit your page to absorb what they viewed but also to share them with friends.
Be authentic This is your chance to show customers why you do, what you do in an interesting and fun way. Don’t try to oversell your product.
Use hashtags in captions Hashtags are highly trackable, allowing you to accurately monitor the success of your marketing campaign efforts.
For additional perspective you can check out this infographic and these cool posts
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Hit The Mark! How To Use Analytics To Connect With Your Target Audience
Average Time Spent on Page
Social Sources
This can answer key questions for you such as: Are visitors actually reading your content? Are visitors engaging? The more time spent by visitors on your web page indicates the quality of their experience.
Exit Rate Where do visitors leave your page? If you notice that there is a high exit rate on particular pages of your website, you may want to revisit the page layout or the content, to make it more engaging.
Embrace the social revolution! Check out the social sources’ traffic being delivered to your website and determine the value that’s being added through your social media engagement.
Successful marketing is built on knowing what your customers want and providing that for them. For many businesses though this is easier said than done- especially when it comes on to providing relevant content.
Response to Calls-To-Action
Web analytics tools can make the process of understanding customers a whole lot easier and the great thing is you don’t have to break the bank to start off! There are quite a few free analytics software available that provide information that can really help.
Conversion is your main reason for having a website. Check your analytics report for the number of responses to your CTAs (Calls-ToAction) , whether it’s sales, telephone calls or contact submissions.
Remember, many of these analytics software take only minutes to install and are completely free. So get hold of the valuable data they provide, and let your website work for you!
THE AMAZINGG WORLD OF CONTENT MARKETING FOR
2014
Greater dependence on Mobile Technology With research showing that 73% of Americans already accessing most of their info from mobile devices, we’ll definitely see an increase in the amount of content optimised for mobile devices and growth in marketing’s use of the technology.
Shorter will remain better A definite increase in the use of social media tools that emphasize brevity and improvements with these tools
CHEERS TO THE CONTENT MARKETING REVOLUTION!
2013 represented a big leap in the world of content marketing. Never has the axiom ‘quality over quantity’ been more true, as a host of content marketing pieces flooded the available distribution channels. ‘Short’ became the hit word as media channels promoting brevity like Vine, Twitter, Instagram Video became a mainstay among marketers to not only highlight their products and services but engage customers and prospects with personality.
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So, here’s what we think 2014 will look like:
Content Marketing will make the big leagues There will be an increase in the dominance of content marketing as a strategy paving the way for innovation in the presentation of content to consumers
Improvements in Social Media Marketing and Measurement tools
With the increased dependence on social media channels to share content, tracking the progress of how their engagement have contributed to lead conversions and sales will become top priority for marketers across the board- and the tools will be there to meet this demand for sure.
SHARE WITH US SOME OF YOUR CONTENT MARKETING PREDICTIONS FOR 2014
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Spend Less, Get More Using Content Marketing effectively on a Low Budget Without a doubt, content marketing is one of the most effective ways to drive traffic and build awareness for your brand. Content marketing can go the full mile from publishing status updates on Facebook to writing content for your blogs. But what are the sure fire ways to engage in content marketing successfully on a low budget?
Make Your Content Pop Users spend on average less than a minute on any given webpage. Less is best, when it comes to words in an article. Make sure your content can be easily consumed and is of value to your target audience.
Optimize your content for search engines A great way to increase traffic is to include the most searched for keywords and phrases throughout your article. This is great for increasing your appearance in search results and leading traffic to your website.
Get Social with Social Media Don’t just post the headlines or topics, pull out key points and ask relevant questions to gain the attention of your readers. Have them sharing with you, and ultimately with their friends - you can’t beat the value of word of mouth!
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