This Month’s Best Content Marketing Reads
As many know, I’m a big fan of reading everything and anything that helps us improve our strategies and processes for our clients. So, without dragging it out, I’ll throw out some of the best of the best articles in the last month that we found interesting, as well give you our take on the piece. Maybe you will find these articles and opinions equally as interesting!
In each of our six annual reports, we’ve only seen growth YOY and would be stunned if it ever dipped. However, thanks in large part to the pandemic, the previous 24 months saw B2B audiences request a whopping 33% more content combined compared to 2019.
With this tremendous upswing in registration volume, there can only be one conclusion: We need to produce more content.
Source: Convince & Convert
Our take: This data tells us what we thought we knew, and now we actually know it through objective research: the chicken or the egg problem has been addressed. What do I mean by that? Typically, Leadership at a company/organization might say ‘we don’t know if folks want to consumer our content, but we also don’t have any content to test this hypothesis, so maybe we don’t invest in this area right now until we know for sure they’ll consume it.’ The data confirms that if you crate it, your audience will consume it. And by the way, if you don’t create it, your competitors will, and then your customers will likely begin establishing a relationship with them, instead of you.
According to new Forrester research, B2B CMOs are increasingly playing a critical role in driving sustainable and profitable growth for their companies. They are steering their firms through cultural and societal changes—including shifting macroeconomic factors and a changing workforce—all of which have important implications for their company’s growth strategy.
Source: Agility PR Solutions
Our take: As a fractional CMO, I can safely say that having your ear to the ground regarding cultural and societal changes, and looping Leadership in and interpreting the change and how it can relate to the overall strategy - that’s key. Many folks outside our organization believe that marketing is strictly a creative endeavor, and miss the strategy component all together. I am a fan of how Agility phrased this as it’s often overlooked.
Key Instagram Reels Statistics 2022
-The Instagram Reels feature generates 67% more engagement than standard Instagram videos.
-70% of marketers surveyed said they plan to boost their video content on Instagram.
-Brands receive more engagement on Instagram Reels than on TikTok by 387,000 more likes.
-9 out of every 10 Instagram users watch videos each week.
-Instagram Reels video provides 8% more real estate than TikTok does.Source: WP Dev Shed
Our take: Yyyyyyyyyyep, times are changing. Engagement is our Social metric to focus on, so when a platform like IG Reels gives us this kind of engagement boost, we need to pay attention. What I tend to think about when we see statistics like these are not ‘hey, we gotta get on IG Reels!’, it’s ‘how do we make sure our entire content strategy can also work on IG Reels’? Just putting your content on Reels isn’t going to drive engagement. It’s new, it’s different, and users skip blatant advertising. Making your existing strategy work on Reels is not going to be easy, but at least you know where the ball is being kicked so you can start doing your homework to ensure you don’t ignore your audience on that very important platform.
Make sure all content has a clear goal. Your content direction starts with what you want to accomplish and who you need to reach to meet those goals.
Think enticing titles. You need to draw your audience into reading your content; keep your titles short and sweet, but indicate the benefit of your content.
Hook your readers from the first line. Start your copy with some exciting data, a one-sentence story, or a question. Make people hungry for the details after reading the first line.
Tell a story. Storytelling is a way to inspire, motivate, and ultimately encourage your audience to act, making it a highly valuable tool for facilitating interaction between your consumers and your brand.
Use data. This is an excellent way to add credibility to your words.
Source: SEM Rush
Our take: I’m a big fan of this article. So yes, SEM Rush is actively practicing what they preach by creating this article. If you scroll down and get to their tips, you’ll find them all super-useful. I highlighted a few above. “Tell a story”. There are countless books on just that one point. Read them! Read them all! Learn how to tell stories with your videos, photos, and words. People tend to think that story telling is simple…and then you are tasked with doing it and quickly learn just how challenging it can be. Follow SEM Rush’s advice when it comes to writing, it’s really, really useful and will help you with your content marketing efforts.
Thanks for reading, hope you found those articles as interesting as we did.
