strategy

A brilliant blog from the brilliant Mike Teasdale from Harvest Digital on some of the most important issues marketers are facing when trying to get content right - and identifies some common pitfalls.

Content strategy is one of the most interesting and rewarding areas of digital marketing. From a channel perspective it sits across customer experience, social media and organic search.

Content marketing is fast becoming an integral part of the marketing mix, providing a dynamic channel from which brands, publishers and agencies can drive awareness and customer engagement to create a deeper relationship with consumers.

In fact, research from Outbrain reveals that more than 90% of respondents predict that content marketing will increase in importance for them over the next 12 months. The research, based on a survey of more than 1,300 digital marketing professionals examined the strategies, objectives, and challenges that marketers are currently facing.

Many brands continue to treat their Facebook strategy as if marketing has moved no further as an art since the days of glamour models on car bonnets. I’m struck dumb by the lack of meaningful engagement so many moderators offer in their schedule of posts. Whether it be the ubiquitous “win this if you press like” or the “it’s funny because it’s true” sharing of the everyday-odd, I wonder if there is a goal behind the effort.

Of course, in the run up to Christmas, every other brand will be launching a competition in order to extend their fan-base. There’s nothing wrong with that, everyone likes a chance at winning something for themselves in the season of spending. Come January however, when the big bucks have been spent, I think it unlikely that the new fans will represent an increase in engagement in line with the inflated fan figures. I’ve written about the complexity of competition positioning before on this blog, however it’s the lack of ‘engagement strategy’ that worries me more today.

Developing a Digital Strategy in a Social World took place on Weds 26th Sept at the Advertising & Marketing Hub at Facebook. Digital media has gone through more revolutions in the last decade than other forms of media have experienced across their lifetimes. From web 2.0 to commoditisation of display advertising to sweeping changes of social media.

How do the world’s leading digital strategists plan, develop and maintain a coherent brand in such tumultuous times? Tune into the livestream below and catch up with our expert line-up of strategists who handle some of the world’s leading brands as they navigate the rigours of a changing digital landscape. Panelists at this session included Sonia Carter (Kraft Foods Europe), Justin Pearse (Bite Communications), Johannes-Tobias Lorenz (McKinsey), Craig Hepburn (Nokia) and Alastair Duncan (Alternative Genius).

What better way to begin our Facebook Marketing Conference next week (Weds 18th July) than with Facebook themselves?!

After some essential tea & coffee and a short welcome, we'll kick things off with a keynote from Andy Pang, Measurement Solutions Group Lead from Facebook.

You'll then get to hear about BBC Worldwide, Cadbury Dairy Milk / Kraft Foods, Yorkshire Tea, Manchester City FC, TBG Digital, Beyond, Markettiers4DC, Edelman, GlobalWebIndex and more! The full programme is below...