EAE News
Contents that connect and storytelling are a trend in digital marketing
29 de May de 2019
The Focused Program held at the Madrid Campus aimed to establish a digital marketing content strategy and analyse the opportunities it offers to reach increasingly elusive consumers.
Loreto Gómez, the Founder of Lady Tools and consultant at Sofá Verde, took part in the Focused Program held at EAE's Madrid Campus. The digital marketing and advertising expert gave a presentation entitled "Content marketing: quality vs quantity" in which she analysed the use of information to achieve different communication objectives.
Generating quality content is an expensive and complex business and the decision to focus on quantity or quality depends on the objectives to some extent. In any case, it is important to target a certain audience and get them hooked. It may well be true that content is king, "but distribution is queen (and wears the trousers)" (Jonathan Perelman, Buzzfeed). Therefore, as Loreto explains, "we have to talk not only about generating content but also making it go viral and going even further, thinking about the distribution".
With respect to content distribution, the expert discussed different channels using influencers (regions, audience and previous work) of different kinds: citizens, advocates, professionals, ambassadors and celebrities; mega, macro and micro influencers. Another content distribution channel is organic SEO traffic. "When I generate a content, I have to think about the search engines: keyword search", paid advertising (PPC/SEM, content agencies, content platform) and the brand's one advertising actions (through social media, newsletters, events, etc.).
From the range of content distribution media (proprietary, paid advertisements and earned media), at each point, we have to choose the type of channel that is right for the brand. "On social media, you can achieve a really effective impact. In reality, they are used for gossiping", explained Loreto Gómez.
Turning to types of content, the digital marketing expert listed the kinds of content that exist and emphasized the importance of visual content because, in digital environments, there is no such thing as a free lunch. "It is not enough simply to generate content. You have to ensure that it reaches the community". Nowadays, companies are increasingly achieving brand amplification through influencers. The video format is also becoming more and more important all the time, with live broadcasts.
Companies have to find content that gets users hooked so that they can be prosumers, not just consumers. The expert described this as being a content curator: "generating third-party contents and adapting them to your brand".
The presenter of this session of the Focused Program at the Joaquín Costa Campus then analysed how to plan a good content marketing strategy, taking into account aspects such as the objective (traditional & digital marketing), audience (knowing the target) and format. In addition, she recommended different buyer personas to offer them different content and prioritize the audiences that generate a higher ROI, stimulating the key audience. "We have to know this market niche and generate ad hoc content for it. Micro-segmentation is gaining importance in the digital sphere, adapting content to each time of the day on a regular basis".
Empathy maps are a technique that enables us to draw a profile of the audience at which the contents are aimed. Combined with active listening on social media, it is a very handy resources for planning. It has to be focused at the company in which we conduct content marketing to identify whether or not it is feeding the buyer persona, "to get to know them, find the right channels and interact dynamically". She also discussed the customer journey and adapting the content to each of the channels.
Based on all these guidelines, Loreto Gómez went on to emphasize some fundamental elements of content marketing: a growing interest in generating community and links, the increasing importance of customer service on social media and rethinking influencer marketing to include collaborators and employees as brand ambassadors. Moreover, she highlighted the importance of creating contents designed to enhance engagement, "telling stories and, most importantly, making connections". A significant part of the content is storytelling. "We have to tell stories, varying the intensities on all the channels so that the users look for us, creating stories with the contents and getting the users involved".
Social media
Consumers are exposed to advertising saturation both online and offline, meaning that traditional advertising actions are losing their efficacy. As such, it is important to identify where each target audience moves and adapt your content to each platform (each uses different protocols and requires different strategies). While social media are not great traffic generators, Loreto Gómez emphasized their connection to brand awareness and recognition.
"You need content that is adaptable to the social network and that can grab people's attention. Try to get users hooked somehow because there are lots of distracting elements", explained the digital marketing expert, listing three characteristics that determine the potential interest in social media content: applicability, relevance and authenticity.
The new social media paradigm with Facebook (stories, bots, carousel, stickers and frames), Instagram (stories, live video, carousel and stickers), Twitter (ads, moments, video, emojis and stickers) and YouTube (immersive video and digital content creators) offers lots of different options to generate authentic content that stimulates engagement.