7 Takeaways from Content Marketing Masterclass [June 2017]

You only have to login to your email account or skim through your social media feeds to know that, as consumers, we’re constantly inundated with ads, images, videos and text posts - aka, Content Marketing. So as PR and marketing professionals at B2B and B2C companies, how can we make sure we’re sending out the right content to the right channels? How can we cut through the noise and reach our target audiences?

Last week, Mynewsdesk was invited to present at Content Masterclass to share our years of content wisdom with a room packed full of marketers, communicators and PR pros.

It was an incredibly valuable afternoon with a lot of problems shared, solutions discussed and ideas to takeaway.

Here are my 7 key takeouts from the afternoon which might help you when trying to navigate the quandary that is content marketing.

1. Build A Strategy

It’s far too tempting to launch into a new blog post, press release or campaign without thinking about how it fits into the bigger ‘business’ picture. It can take weeks to get this 6-12 month plan in place but it will enable you to have a much more consistent conversation with your customers. Make sure all your content is on the same page (not literally!).

2. Test & Learn

Unfortunately, good content marketing is not something you can just switch on. It needs fine tuning to see what works and what could work harder for you. Run A/B testing on the different bits of content you post, publish and print to see what gets the most views, likes and shares and use this insight to inform further campaigns.

3. Keep Track of your Assets

One of the biggest challenges facing communications professionals is keeping track of the content you’ve created. Marketing and communications teams are often inundated with assets from content archives as well as new campaigns and we understand it can be difficult to remember where that logo was saved from that pitch you did in 2013. Whether its campaign specific or evergreen content, make sure you effectively track or label assets from the offset! And, where possible, relate your materials in a newsroom to add value to your readers’ experience.

4. Analyse

Unlike other digital marketing and communications channels, you can’t directly track whether your article, press release or blog post has generated revenue. However, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t analyse how hard your content works online! Use engagement figures such as open rates, click-throughs, shares, likes and mentions – to further inform how you communicate with your audience.

5. Use Tools

Don’t feel like you need to do it all yourself! Having the right tools in place can make your life easier while also making your communications and content more effective. Work out what would improve your processes – is it access to a media database? Monitoring your coverage online and on social media? Publishing your content on multiple channels at the click of a button? And then find to find the best solution for you!

6. Quality not Quantity

What was reiterated brilliantly by Claire Wilson (Content Strategy Director at Stratton Craig) is to avoid content for content's sake. Think about what you want to achieve from a press release, blog post or newsletter – what do you want the audience to do, think or feel. Content should inform, promote or entertain so, if it doesn’t…don’t post it!

7. People Buy The "Why" 

Emma Moorman, Senior Product Manager at Hitwise, summed this up when referring to Simon Sinek’s TED Talk – “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”. This is something Mynewsdesk demonstrated in our 2016 campaign, ‘Give a Beep’. In finding a small brand’s “higher purpose” (their reason for existence) we were able to build a campaign which focused not on their product but on their purpose - cycling safety.

If you'd like to learn more about the Give A Beep campaign or see the slides from the presentation then please get in touch - we'll be happy to ping them over!