From Monday, March 16th to Wednesday, March 18th, 2015, I attended the content marketing conference " Content Marketing Sydney " (hosted by the U.S.-based Content Marketing Institute) in Sydney, Australia. While the official page touted it as the largest conference in the Asia-Pacific region, it actually had a strong Australian local flavor... That said, for us, where content marketing history is still relatively short, there were many thought-provoking messages.
Content marketing may seem similar to mass advertising at first glance in terms of strategy and planning, but in reality, they are quite different in many ways. We often proceed using our past methods and criteria without realizing this. How can we avoid falling into that trap? Today, I'd like to share three key takeaways from Sydney as a quick update.
1. Are you afraid to narrow your target audience?
~‘Fractal Marketing’
In the digital age, we often hear that target segmentation is crucial and that 1-to-1 communication is key. Practices like tailoring content and ads based on the target audience are common.
But do you ever set niche targets during the content planning stage, or when conceptualizing the content platform itself?
For example, you might set the target as women in their 30s interested in agriculture, who work in an office during the week and enjoy farming in the suburbs on weekends. That level of definition is common. But what if we narrow it further? What about someone specifically interested in raising livestock, particularly small animals like chickens, ducks, or turkeys? When you propose a plan targeting this level of specificity, the typical reaction in meetings is likely: "That's a very niche audience, right?" or "Targeting just a few thousand or tens of thousands of people doesn't make cost sense, does it?"
Yet, it's precisely this hyper-niche focus that drew attention to "The Chicken Whisperer®." It delivers every conceivable piece of information about raising chickens—from how to get them to lay eggs and avian flu updates, to events teaching chicken care, and even campaigns where you can win a chicken coop! The radio show broadcast here reportedly has about 20,000 weekly listeners.
While 20,000 may not seem like a huge number to us, accustomed to mass communication, in today's world where information floods everywhere and users who finally engage with a brand can be distracted by new news the next moment, having repeat visitors who keep coming back is a huge asset for a brand.
To gain this valuable asset, create content or a content platform targeting a more narrow, micro audience. While this requires considerable courage from the content creator, from the user's perspective, there's nowhere else gathering such niche, detailed information – providing ample reason to visit repeatedly.
2.
～‘Story first, media second.’
"Let's do Facebook," "Let's start a blog." We tend to say these things during meetings and proposals. But Facebook and blogs are merely tactics.
Before tactics come into play, we must first consider:
① What constitutes a valuable content experience?
② What kind of "success" does providing that content experience bring to your own media platform? What kind of "success" does it bring to your business?
③ How exactly—meaning which channels and at what frequency—will we actually deliver that content experience?
④ How will we sustain this effort?
⑤ Specifically plan valuable content experiences.
Only after thinking through these points should you arrive at the tactical decision to start a blog. Yet, as Robert Rose of the Content Marketing Institute pointed out, these steps ① through ⑤ are often skipped (I believe this is the same in Japan).
When starting a project, we tend to decide on the visible "box" first and postpone figuring out what to put inside (or rather, we often don't even realize we're deciding in that order).
But what we must consider first is the "content" itself. That is, the content. What information needs will it address? What kind of content experience will it provide? Trying to come up with concrete plans before the format for the content (articles, videos, blog text, etc.) and the strategy are even set is a very difficult task.
This might be a slight digression, but I believe what's needed here isn't the final form of the plan, but rather something like a "sample plan." Think of it like a prototype for a product. By having this tangible material in front of us, we can rework the concept of what constitutes a "valuable content experience" and then produce another sample plan to embody it. By continuing this back-and-forth process between the concept and the prototype, I believe the value we should provide becomes clearer and sharper.
3. Are we seeking a universal yardstick that applies in every situation?
~‘Purpose-Driven Content’
According to a Content Marketing Institute survey, 89% of marketers in Australia said their organizations were already doing content marketing. However, only 29% felt it was effective, while 50% said they couldn't tell whether it was effective or not.
There is no objective yardstick that determines success or failure in content marketing. Ultimately, it is the stakeholders with clear goals who decide whether it is successful. In other words, without clear goals, it is impossible to judge whether progress is being made or whether the efforts are effective.
The term "Purpose-Driven Content" came up several times at the conference. Why are you creating that content? What is its purpose? Before diving into fun content planning, you need to define the purpose and the KPIs to measure its achievement.
Oh yes. I almost wrote this offhandedly, but during one session, it was casually mentioned that while KPI measurement is often thought of as "metrics to prove the value (of that content)," it's actually "a tool for improving the process."
Content marketing is about "moving toward your self-defined goals while continuously improving the process." Only by experiencing this journey—smoothly clearing hurdles along the way, or sometimes failing and gaining new insights—can you truly feel "it was effective." It's not just about "point successes" like "the content went viral" or "we acquired lots of new customers."
To experience and achieve such effectiveness, what's essential is "documenting" the strategy you set at the outset. "For content marketing success, document your strategy first and foremost," and "then, while reviewing that document, adjust your content planning and distribution methods to align with your goals" – this was also advice heard several times at this conference. The content of the documented strategy might include things like this:
① What is the goal?
② What kind of persona (user profile) will be satisfied by achieving this goal?
③ What constitutes a valuable content experience? Can we incorporate this experience into the user's journey leading up to purchase?
④How do we differentiateour value propositionfrom others?
⑤ How will we express our message? Through which channels? For what purpose? (Editorial policy/strategy)
⑥ How will we make it happen? Promotion? Technology? People? Measurement?
⑦ How do we ensure its continuity while building value over time?
Content marketing isn't a limited-time campaign; it's ongoing. While it's expected to continue indefinitely, things happen: leadership changes, interference from other departments, sudden drops in product sales. All sorts of things happen. Each time, the team must respond. But if the core strategy isn't documented, there's no clear point of reference. You can drift off course without realizing it. And when these "circumstances" persist (which they often do), the purpose itself becomes blurred. You end up unsure whether it was effective or not.
Those are the three points I reaffirmed in Sydney.
Those with experience in mass media marketing communications are, to varying degrees, accustomed to that approach. How to break free from that way of thinking? I believe this will become a crucial factor determining the success or failure of content marketing going forward.
From the Front Lines of Content Marketing [6]
