It’s been said that content is king. While there’s no higher power in terms of engagement, brands often forget the importance of promoting their content – most people don’t find content by mistake or accidentally. Every piece of content needs a promotion strategy that combines paid, owned, and earned media.
Let’s discover how content goes hand-in-hand with paid media for an omnichannel approach to digital marketing.
A Little More on Content Marketing
Last month, we discussed the basics of content marketing in this series’s first blog, What Is Content Marketing? In this blog, we’ll discuss the “middle-funnel” in the customer journey. Middle-funnel content refers to assets that reach leads already in your database, engaging with your brand. They’re the active researchers digging into customer reviews, product specs, user guides, etc. Content at this stage needs to align with what they’re looking for in order to move them closer to purchase. Mid-funnel channels and tactics include email marketing, automation, webinars, and live events (among others) deployed on your brand’s owned media platforms.
Owned Media:
Owned assets are accounts and platforms that you have control over. Most companies have at least one of the following media properties:
- A Social Media Presence (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest)
- Email Lists
- Blogs
- Website
Having more than one owned media property and marketing across each platform is called “omnichannel.” Promoting your content at this stage in the funnel increases the chances your leads will see and (hopefully!) complete the desired action. Brands should develop a plan to promote their content in a unique, platform-specific way across all of these assets using a blend of paid and earned media, which, in turn, is supported by SEO (search engine optimization).
Paid Media:
Paid opportunities require a different approach than more traditional advertisements or ads. The point is to engage with the content, not just see the content. You want people to like it, comment on it, and share it. Putting dollars behind content ensures that it’s viewed by the maximum number of people within the right audience.
Earned Media:
Earned media is valuable exposure due to its credibility and potential reach. Influencer campaigns, brand partnerships, and celebrity endorsements allow brands to reach a vast and qualified audience. And while you might not see the same level of message control, the amount of trust placed in recommendations such as these is enormous.
Content SEO:
While social media is important, SEO is the foundation of successful marketing. Content SEO refers to content that helps a brand’s web pages (owned media) to rank high in the search engines. Content SEO is essential because algorithms regularly crawl websites determining the value of published content. Without good quality content, your site does not stand a ranking chance with search engines.
Let’s discuss your content marketing strategy! Give us a call, send us a message on social, or email ed@mittcom.com. And don’t forget to sign up for our list to catch our content marketing series’ third installment!
