Content Marketing at its best may require you to…

Sitting on the train headed home watching people scroll through their phones, two thoughts come to mind that I am sure you are thinking.  One, who rides the commuter train in LA? There are a lot of us by the way.  Two, what is consuming everyone’s attention???  When you boil it down, for sure there is some content marketing in their feeds as I type this.  Content marketing has existed and been a part of our culture and history of America dating back to the 1730’s when Benjamin Franklin started publishing “Poor Richard’s Almanack” to publicize his own printing business.  See, there were influencers even in the 1730’s!   Over the last 5-10 years, with the explosion of social media, content marketing has taken a whole new approach.  At its heart, content marketing is used to create awareness for your brand.  It is not designed to move potential customers “down the funnel” to the point of sale.  It’s a “top of the funnel” solution.  However, at its best, content marketing is one major tool used by smart marketers and businesses to move consumers to the point of sale.

As a business, there are two things that can dramatically shift your exposure as a business to new customers as well as create affinity for your brand.  Content Marketing and Event Marketing.  Combined, they drive results.  So, which comes first?  That really depends on who you ask.  In all my experience, the client (hopefully that’s you reading this) gets the biggest bang for their marketing dollar by putting on amazing events and then creating a great content marketing plan that captured amazing content before, during and after the event, minimizing costs.  Of course, you can do content and event marketing separately, but in order to drive more immediate results, execute them both simultaneously.  I’ve seen it time and time again.  We did an event series when I was with Disney and traveled the country in six major markets to create awareness and drive voting for one of our tentpole priorities.  That year, we create both the event as well as a TV and social media campaign around that and received an over 200% increase in the call to action from the year prior.  No matter if we are trying to move an audience to action or just introduce them to your brand.  Audiences constantly have better recall when they can see, feel and experience your brand in action.  That experience is a lasting impression.  This event, with your name on it, is a reflection of your brand.  Whether they have a good or bad experience, people will remember your brand.  Of course, we want them to remember that they had a GREAT experience with your brand.  Then we move quickly to tell the story of your brand on digital and social media to reach a broader audience and capitalize on the halo effect of the event.  Focusing on the highlights of your event, we create a lasting connection to your brand so the next time the customer is in need of services, they think of you and your brand/business.  The halo effect from your event can last months through compelling digital and social media content driving sales for your business.