Being socially connected is a must for brands, but multiplying accounts on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram does not guarantee that a brand will successfully establish a connection with its audience. To better align with customers, at the same responding to new pressures and expectations, you need more than just any branded content distributed via one marketing channel.

There are several challenges that contemporary brands must bear in mind if they want to play this game. First and foremost, they need to be where customer is. That requires coming up with a comprehensive, multichannel customer outreach strategy. Secondly, they have to be fast. Timing is vital and you must not take your time when responding to customers who expect a quick answer or you risk losing them. And thirdly, you need to leverage new data sources to make sure that you can develop a comprehensive profile of every customer which will add relevance to your targeted content.

EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE

Call it a digital-age stalking, but firms must be present where their target audience spends time. However, recent changes in the virtual landscape have made it more difficult than it used to be. The last significant growth in the number of marketing channels happened roughly ten years ago, when email, paid search and SEO emerged as useful tools for brand marketers. The decision which channels to incorporate into a comprehensive strategy depends on goals, company type, content and messaging. Competent marketers develop processes helping them to determine fit of new channels for pre-existing campaigns, and for forging new campaigns to fit new channel opportunities. They just know how to wow a digitally-empowered consumer. Nowadays, marketers have to be up to date with approximately 10 social media platforms. Of course, it is a very dynamic environment, so you have to be prepared for constant changes. Other digital options include display ads, search ads, SEO, etc. Marketers need to remember that such traditional channels as TV, radio, print or e-mail have not yet lost their relevance. Finally, the significance and impact of smart branded content is rapidly growing.

IN LOVE WITH CONTENT

Approximately nine out of 10 organizations produce content to attract and retain customers worldwide. Spending on branded content is set to reach $1.8 million in 2013, or 37 percent of marketers’ ad budgets, up from $1.7 million in 2012, revealed a Custom Content Council survey. The biggest portion of that is going into print. Spending on publications rose the most of three measured categories in 2013, to just over $1 million from $775,000 in 2012. Spending on electronic content was up 13.8 percent to $574,490 and spending on other content shrank to $264,423. The question that marketers are currently trying to answer is whether to outsource the content creation or generate it in-house. Forty percent of respondents said they were doing some outsourcing, down from 56 percent in 2012. But those who are only outsourcing are doing bigger projects, spending an average of more than $1 million in 2013, up 5.5 percent. Outsourced or not, content is produced by virtually every firm. But that does not mean that all companies know how to do it well.

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY

Content marketing as an industry is hardly new. One of the largest manufacturers of agricultural machinery, John Deere started their custom magazine called The Furrow back in 1895 to solve the specific problems of farmers. Many believe that it marked the formal beginning of the content marketing industry, but most likely brand "story-telling" started soon after the world's first company had been established. Despite the fact that content marketing has been around a long time, many brands have not yet mastered the art of developing useful content to create a behavioral change in customers, as opposed to traditional marketing and advertising. Traditional marketing is no longer fit for purpose, hence the drive towards "brand as publisher", and the increasing primacy of content generation in marketing departments. Nowadays, brands are spending hours on honing and polishing professional content in an attempt to wow a whimsical and choosy consumer. Truth is that content is not enough. It is just one aspect of a more customer-centric approach to marketing, so it must supported by other strategies. Producing tonnes of content may be a good strategy, if your goal is to remain in the middle of the pack and spend more money than you need to. What do best marketers do? First, they generate content tightly linked to individual consumer needs - in small scale but across many media. And second, they put this content at the centre of a multifaceted marketing approach so that the consumer can engage with it online, in person, via social networks and over more passive channels like television.

Sources: http://influxinsights.com; http://www.adweek.com; http://www.linkedin.com; www.incitemc.com Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/earlysound/