Search Results

Whether or not you understand marketing, we can’t deny that the digital space is evolving faster than ever thanks to the capabilities of technology and social media. If this is the case, does it mean that consumer behaviour is also moving just as fast? 100 percent. People are constantly having to get updated, stay informed, learn and practice the never-ending changes to a platform’s features, algorithms, products and services. It’s become more and more challenging to reach your target audience, engage them and keep them interested. There is SO MUCH content, apps, and tech out there, that people are getting easily distracted. Unless you’re a business with high budgets to create expensive ads and invest into big advertising campaigns, it can be really difficult to gain the attention and traction you need. Where does this leave the rest of us if you’re not a brand like McDonald’s, Red Bull or Apple? Don’t surrender to the bout from the big guys. You too can achieve success in reaching your content objectives… as long as you’ve got a well-planned content marketing strategy. What is a content marketing strategy anyway? A content marketing strategy is the planning for the creation, delivery and governance of useful, usable content and optimising to ensure your target audience is engaged through the correct marketing channels. People generally don’t realise but content also includes website development, user research, user experience, SEO, events and creating content for the right channel to the right audience. Ultimately, content marketing is all about creating content that will build a database by helping people solve problems and make better decisions depending on the stage through the funnel and the experience with the brand and how you leverage your existing owned channels to drive action. To develop a content marketing strategy that works for you, below is a step-by-step guide to get you started. Planning Creating & Accountability Distributing Measuring 1. Planning Your Content - Many businesses make the mistake of creating content without taking the time to plan for the content. It’s more common for people to have a knee-jerk reaction to an executive's combusting idea than to sit down and discuss in detail what the content is, why it’s needed, who it’s for and what success looks like. We’ve said this before and we’ll keep saying it until the end of time - it’s not about you, it’s about your customers and what their needs are! Concentrate on your key audiences and map out the type of content you need to create and address the problems and topics that will help you speak directly to them. Remember that your goal is to develop real purpose (the why) and inspire action. 2. Creating & Accountability - This is the stage you need to appoint specific tasks and responsibilities to specific personnel to create the content required. Sharing the content will ensure that individuals in your team do not burn out. Collaborative action is powerful as it enables your team to develop your brand voice that is representative of a meaningful and diverse background. 3. Distribution - If you are creating content and not thinking about how it will be seen, STOP. Stop wasting your time, your resources, and your money. For the content to have any chance of providing you with a return, you need to have a clear roadmap of where the content will live and how it will be seen. Whether it be an organic or paid approach, as long as you have a strong understanding of your key audience’s user journey and behaviour, it will be a lot easier for you to reach them. 4. Measuring - To really understand if your content is performing within the guides of your objectives, distinguish which metrics would suit your content type. When you get the results, analyse, assess and optimise your content to improve it and get it closer to the result you desire. Be consistent in tracking the results and implement changes for more effective engagement. Once you’ve answered all the questions from our Content Plan Google Sheet, consolidate and summarise your responses in a strategy document to share with your team. Ensure that everyone from executives to your copywriters understands the real purpose and who the audience is. Gaining buy-in early on from everyone in the business will not only help with central alignment but it will also increase your chances of great success. The strategy document should detail your business problems around brand awareness, engagement, reaching your prospects, your USP and the solution for each. Describe how the content you create will acquire new customers and retain existing customers. Once the strategy is locked and loaded, create a content schedule. Make it interactive, clear, concise and colourful. This should be accessible to anyone involved in the content production listing the personnel responsible for each task, the deadline, and the date it needs to go live. Remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither will your content empire. Patience, practice and ongoing commitment and consistency will pay to be worth every penny.

Did you know over half of all videos are viewed on mobile? Whether it be ads or branded content, consumers are watching and increasing exponentially on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. If you’re creating content, it’s time to adapt it to the most engaging formats. Think about you use your mobile. Do you find yourself frequently flicking or scrolling through really quickly? Do you always have sound on or off? Do you turn your phone around or are you watching it vertically? When you take into consideration your own habits, you’ll find that it’s not too dissimilar to most others. On mobile, people are consuming content fast because their attention span is short. Facebook has confirmed that "47% of a video’s value is delivered in the first three seconds, and 74% is delivered in the first ten seconds - after that, attention starts to decline”. This means that the old school thinking of placing your logo at the end of your 30-second spot is no longer the most effective placement. "But it’s too expensive to create additional ads for socials”, I hear you say? Well, not necessarily! This can be a rather low-risk and cost-effective exercise if you were to optimise your existing assets for mobile. You don’t have to reshoot any new content. Assess what you do have, and repurpose it. Married with the right branding, relevant messaging, and targeted audience, you’ll have creative that you can test, learn, and maximise for every campaign. Below is a checklist for adapting your existing assets for Facebook and Instagram: You have 3 seconds to get the viewer’s attention. Include your brand. Make it iconic, think M&Ms, McDonald's, Red Bull, Nike… what makes them memorable? Is it the font they use? The colours, the tone, or the language? Set the scene quickly and communicate your campaign message using graphics, motion, or a captivating visual to convey your message. Exchange your original ad voice-over for text or graphic overlay instead to provide context and drive the story quicker. Have an intriguing and attention-grabbing cover or thumbnail for your video to get your viewer to stop or scroll back up. Vertical and square videos perform better compared to horizontal ones so optimise your videos to spec. 4:5 ratio for Instagram and 2:3 for Facebook feed. Get creative and make it dynamic! Incorporate split screens or grids, adopt a montage, turn it into a GIF, loop it, or increase speed to add more layers and detail to your story. Your product or promotion needs to be front, centre and obvious. There’s no time to waste! Your ad should work with sound and without sound. Explore alternative outputs for in-stream at 6-seconds and 15-seconds. In summary, if you’re looking to create a bigger impact, think big but with small changes. Sounds easier than it is, but when you take on the challenge and see the results for yourself, you’ll understand that it’s worth the time and extra effort.

Have you ever considered repurposing and recycling your existing bank of content so it doesn’t go to waste my not being seen or heard? Understanding how you can transform the content you have specifically for social media channels can be extremely beneficial to you. [Source: Visme.co] Creating content can be a challenging and time-consuming exercise when you don’t have enough resources to help you get the job done. That is why it is of high-value to look at opportunities and plan for it beforehand prior to you even pressing record or starting a new piece. For example, the next time you’re considering filming new video content, map out the key messages and identify areas where you can maximise the opportunity to repurpose your content. Also think about how you can: Capture the audio and output it as a separate file Have a photographer or someone available on hand to take some photos which you can post as a carousel or stills. Strip the audio so you can output the file as a podcast or use as sound bites Transcribe the audio recording so you can convert it into a blog post If your video is a longer piece, it will most likely contain a number of meaningful information. Cut the video into bite-size pieces so you can output 15-30 sec edits across your socials. Take memorable quotes from the capture and turn it into engaging graphics. Use Canva, Word Swag or Photoshop to access a wide range of styles and photos to make it interesting. Create a GIF or a cinemagraph to bring to life a still image or a key quote. Edit the video into vertical specs for Stories 9:16 format if your original video was recorded in the landscape 16:9 format. [Source: Renderforest.com] It might seem like really hard work at first to develop your own library of content but like any project, if planned out well, you can save ample time to ensure that the one piece of content you’ve invested in, will last you for months on end. Look for ways you can ensure your content has longevity and can be repurposed to reduce your long-term costs, create efficiencies and increase your brand’s exposure. Want to repurpose but simply don’t have the time? At ONIX Productions, we can take your various formats of content and repurpose and reshape them into new and engaging content for your socials so you can easily share them. Contact us to find out how.