Last Thursday The Content Marketeer published Eloqua Experience: How Brands Become Publishers and Create Customers Part 1.
Eloqua Experience is an annual marketing conference that showcases best practices for modern marketers. Toby Murdock, CEO of Kapost, the content marketing platform, sat on a panel alongside Chris Baggott of Compendium, and Tom Smith of Techweb. The topic was right in the sweet spot of Kapost and Toby’s expertise: how brands become publishers and create customers.
In today’s part two release, I share two more questions from the panel and Toby’s advice. Thank you again for your engagement on Twitter. Please leave any additional feedback in the comments below.
There’s social media marketing and content marketing. What’s the difference? How do you see content and social intersecting?
Social and content are all a part of one big continuum in the evolution of the modern marketer.
Social came first. It was through social networks that brands first had the opportunity to communicate with buyers directly. Brands declared, “Let’s get engagement!” and they focused on building fan and follower counts. But hey did it the old-school marketing way: contests, quizzes, give-aways (“Like our Facebook page and enter to win a Pontiac!”).
We’ve come to a point in the evolution of social that marketers are wondering: what does engagement for engagement’s sake do for me? Or more specifically, how are these fans and followers helping me grow revenue? And the answer is content. A sweepstake for a Pontiac is not going to move a buyer down your funnel. A blog post, eBook or infographic that provides the buyer insight on some of their biggest challenges will.
Given all that, three major differences:
1) Location of content
social – social networks
content marketing – your site: need to move them down the funnel
2) Types of content
social – short & sweet, similar to the content actual social network users produce
content – longer form, more thought leadership: blogs, ebooks, videos. really addresses the challenges of the buyer with insight
3) Objective
social – engagement
content – lead generation, lead nurturing
Now, do social networks have a role in this? Absolutely! Social networks are a powerful distribution channel for your content. As you produce content, it must be distributed through all of the relevant social networks. You must work with influencers in the networks to gain more links to your content.
This event is all about modern marketing. We’re talking about what that means, how it’s defined, what resides in the modern marketers toolbox. Where does content fit in? How important is it?
Content is the force that moves the buyer through the funnel for the modern marketer.
The buying process is now a science for the modern marketer, and it can be managed through new technology tools: Eloqua manages the top of the funnel; Salesforce.com manages the bottom. You can align sales and marketing– data comes out of all of these systems. Marketing can become a science.
This technology builds a new framework for the funnel. But the question for the modern marketer is: what moves the buyer through that new framework? Because technology has changed the game for the marketer, it has also changed it for the buyer. The buyer is in control. They will engage with you on their terms.
So how do you attract the buyer to the top of the funnel? How do you build trust, build permission? How do you continue to move the buyer towards a purchase down the middle of the funnel? How do you equip your sales people to be thought leaders to close at the bottom of the funnel?
It’s all about content. Modern marketers have built a new, scientific funnel for them to measure and manage through the process. But it is content is the force the move the buyer through it.
Want to learn more best practices in content marketing and how to build your content marketing machine? Download our How to Build and Operate a Content Marketing Machine eBook in partnership with Eloqua.