Content marketing challenges in 2015 are numerous especially in today’s media environment. Challenges like a lack of resources, strategy, time and budgets are often talked about given the number of polls conducted like the one below.
But there are other issues as well given the proliferation of animated GIF’s, infobesity, loss of organic reach on social media, measuring thought leadership etc. There are companies like BuzzFeed that seem to be making enormous strides despite these challenges. In this post we will take a look at some opportunities, lessons we can learn and how to effectively address some content marketing challenges this year.
Content Marketing & Media
BuzzFeed’s New Revenue Chief Says There Are 3 Reasons People Share Its Videos
Buzzfeed is investing a lot of money into video and international content. Buzzfeed Motion Pictures is redefining how the company views distribution and storytelling. In March they hit 1 billion monthly video views.
Chief Revenue Officer, Lee Brown in an interview with AdWeek says the company categorizes why people share videos into three major buckets.
One, identity (“This is so me!”); two, emotional gift (“This made me LOL and I want to share it”); and three, information. We think about each division as an R&D lab. We’re taking what our video producers are seeing as they gather data from the 50-plus videos they’re making each week. We then apply those learnings for brands to create compelling, shareable videos.
Here is an example of what Buzzfeed readers love.
Snickers Found Amusing Fails All Over NYC and Put These Stickers Next to Them
Snickers has had a long time affection for peoples mistakes. So BBDO the agency that runs campaigns for Snickers sent out a team of creative scouts for mistakes around Manhattan and Brooklyn and selected the some rather absurd ones for the campaign.
Take a look at some examples below:
The door sign (Enter, Do Not Enter) was found in the entrance of a building in Williamsburg.
The “7st floor” sign was in a commercial building in Midtown.
McDonald’s Has Brought Back the Hamburglar, and It’s All Anyone Can Talk About
McDonald’s has resurrected the Hamburglar or at least a new version of the character. According to comments he is viewed as hot, creepy or a WWE wrestler
The Legend. The Lore. The good looks? Hamburglar is back, America, and he’s after our Sirloin Third Pound Burgers! https://t.co/M2Zi2OXo4u
— McDonald’s (@McDonalds) May 7, 2015
Just to clarify, I am not the new @McDonalds Hamburglar #FACT pic.twitter.com/YkOv5WBufy
— Cesaro (@WWECesaro) May 6, 2015
Snapchat Debuts Video Ads for 2 Cents a View
Snapchat hopes to woo advertisers by encouraging them to find a place on their network. At a recent Daily Mail/Elite Daily Digital Content NewFronts presentation, the company announced it would making 10 second ads available at a cost of 2 cents per view.
LinkedIn Introduces Analytics For Your Posts
The social network for the career minded announced that it created an analytics dashboard for publishers on the platform. The dashboard includes metrics like number of views, comments, likes and shares. However it also shows profiles on those who have interacted with a post and the demographics of readers.
The Story of Web Standards
To explain the importance of web standards Column Five, Microsoft and W3C created an explainer video to showcase the journey to date for the Web and development to HTML5. It’s a great way to tell a story.
Content Marketing Know-How
What Consumers Expect of Local Businesses on Facebook
According to a report from G/O Digital of the 1000 people surveyed 73% of them said that facebook is the most important social media platform for local businesses to have a presence on.
The kinds of content they would like to see from local businesses include offers/discounts, testimonials and success stories.
Animate Your Social Media Marketing With GIFs
Can too much of a good thing be a content marketing challenge? Chances are you would have noticed a proliferation of animated GIFs over the past year or so. While they may have been fun initially, could it be they are becoming a bit dreary for your audience or does it still have the potential to connect with your audience?
Alison Zeringue tells us how to make our social media marketing pop with animated GIFs. According to Google Trends the interest in reaction GIFs or animated GIFs used to express an emotional reaction to something is continuing to rise.
She shows us four ways to use GIFs in social media marketing which include:
• Add some personality to your brand to help people see you are human
• Make your content more viral
• Feature your product, sneak peeks or exclusive info
• Highlight your company culture and create unique content
The ridiculously good-looking #GalaxyS6. #BlueTopaz pic.twitter.com/cpu2qcYZv6
— Samsung Mobile (@SamsungMobile) March 10, 2015
Content Marketing Challenges – How Can Content Creators Avoid Content Fatigue?
One of the silent content marketing challenges marketers have to face is that of content fatigue. Julia McCoy says that according to the Huffington post, the amount of information available online will increase 600% by 2020.
Moz supports this argument. Infobesity could make it difficult for readers to find the information they are looking for quickly and efficiently, which in turn could lead to disengagement and increased bounce rates.
She provides 10 easy ways to fight content fatigue.
Content Marketing & SEO: The Bigger Picture
Among the content marketing challenges in 2015 is the integration between SEO and content marketing efforts. Marrying the two efforts isn’t easy and seo is more than traffic, conversions and revenue. Trond Lyngbø says there are 4 elements to a SEO plan developed around a content marketing strategy. They are:
- Find out what people want and give it to them.
- Use re-targeting lists to communicate with them, even after they leave your site.
- Make special price offers on your product or service if prospects act now.
- Evolve a smart content marketing plan to build content that pulls in your target customers
Read more on what it takes to succeed despite the challenges.
The Best Way to Measure Thought Leadership
Eric Whittlake touches on one of the content marketing challenges in 2015 with this post on why though leadership matters and how to measure it.
It is quite difficult to measure your investment in thought leadership. Most people just use leads or content consumption as a metric. However when you or your business is seen as a though leader then the media will want your perspective on what is happening in the market. Wouldn’t that be a better measure? How many quotes and references are you getting each quarter?
Would that keep you on the right path?
How Different Generations Consume Content Online
Fractl and Buzzstream analysed how different generations consume online media. Their studies found that a higher proportion of baby boomers spend more than 20 hours per week consuming online content than either Millennials or Generation X users.
Other interesting discoveries include 60% of each group uses Facebook to share content. The next most popular network being YouTube but with only 10% using it to share content.
Other details can be found in the infographic below.
Cool Tools I Have Discovered
Hotjar – An online tool that offers heat maps, visitor recording, conversion funnels, proactive chat, form analytics and feedback polls.
Ruzzit – An online tool that helps you find specific viral content from around the web.
#ContentCatchup: Updates and tips to increase website traffic