It’s always interesting to hear what experts are saying about the state of business.
We have our thoughts about online marketing, content marketing, SEO, social media and more at Ghost Blog Writers based on our experience, but we like to examine the thoughts of experts in various fields too.
And when we review those thoughts we like to share them with you and add on a few extra action points and thoughts.
It’s all aimed at helping your business grow.
In a recent interview on eMarketer, Rishi Dave, Executive Director at Dell, discussed the state of content marketing. He had some really good insight that could help you with your content marketing efforts this year and beyond.
We pulled out a few points from the interview and expanded, but it would be worth your time to read the entire interview.
Point #1 – Content Marketing Is “Always On”
Here is what Dave said about B2B companies and how they will approach content marketing in the future:
They will shift their mindset from what I call a campaign mentality to an always-on mentality. Digital marketers have to figure out how they can stream content constantly to their customers. They have to learn to operate more in a media model than in a traditional marketing model. This shift started about a year ago and will be really happening in earnest over the next year.
The idea of businesses being media companies is something that’s been discussed for a few years now. The more you can embrace that concept the better your position will be in the online world. Building an audience through content is perhaps the best way to sell online.
Action Point: Setup a regular blogging schedule. Use The Snippet Strategy to share that content with customers via social media, email, etc.
Point #2 – Same Budget, Different Investment
The next point is about how companies will invest in marketing. The dollars will be the same, but the channels will be different.
Companies will shift their spending from the more traditional marketing techniques—which aren’t as effective anymore—to having people participate in the media model. Companies will probably spend the same amount of money.
We’re seeing this in our work. More companies are hiring writers, having their in-house team work on content and they’re hiring companies like Ghost Blog Writers to handle the blogging strategy and writing.
Action Point: Analyze your marketing spend and determine if you need to shift more to content and blogging. It’s what many other companies are doing.
Point #3 – With Content, Solve Pain Points
Dave touches on a simple strategy for content and blogging with this quote.
I think more important is looking at the pain point that a customer has and build content that addresses that pain point, and it may or may not go viral, but if you can get a lot of engagement, a lot of people reading it over a period of time, then it becomes very effective.
This is something we do at GBW. We find the biggest questions a target reader has and answer those with blog posts. It’s very effective as Dave says. It’s not always about going viral, but really helping your target customer and earning their trust.
Action Point: Make a list of common questions for your business and answer them with blog posts.
Point #4 – Optimize For Mobile
Finally, Dave mentions mobile and the role it plays in all online marketing.
I think that B2B marketers are also going to be struggling to figure out how mobile is going to play in the B2B buying process. It’s very important to optimize for mobile, because everyone is interacting with content on mobile phones. How people are going to use mobile to help nurture customers—I think B2B marketers are going to start figuring that out next year.
Mobile is one of our big points this year at GBW. Last year we tweaked the GBW website and it is not responsive so mobile visitors get a great experience.
Action Point: Invest in responsive design this year.
Conclusion
Dell is a very successful company and they’re focusing more on content when it comes to marketing.
You can tell from Rishi Dave’s comments that Dell is looking at building an audience, answering common questions or pain points and making sure they are optimized for mobile.
These are things you can do as well to improve your online marketing this year.