Much has been written about the importance of brands embracing storytelling — or, at the very least, becoming better at creating more dynamic audience-facing narratives. The goal of advanced content marketing is to enhance a brand’s ability to influence behavior through sustained content creation, fundamentally changing how audiences perceive that brand.

This progressive approach to operationalizing editorial content has driven many marketing teams to start evolving into newsrooms.

But while some businesses are modernizing their approaches to content, many more are struggling to get meaningful start-up investments to market. The marketing innovation investments being made today are heavily focused on the digital channel — in programmatic ad buying processes and big data in particular. But this may be shortsighted, as even a limited investment in content marketing can yield critical big-data insights that can enhance marketers’ overall efficiency and effectiveness. Therefore, it’s my assertion that any serious investment in data-based ad buying should be coupled with some investment in content as well — it’s a classic case of how the tide of content can raise all boats.

Content is the new ad unit 

The idea of distributing an article that contains no commercial messaging is still very foreign to many marketers. For brand marketers in particular, it’s difficult to believe that an editorial article (containing no commercial features or benefit messaging) can achieve the same reach and influence as a display ad, for instance. However, content can provide the reach they seek, thanks to the development of content discovery “engines” such as Outbrain and Taboola (among others). And, a real opportunity for marketers now exists to drive business impact using this modern distribution network more appropriately, and in tandem with “traditional” digital advertising instruments.

Consider the pros and cons for display ads: 

• Display ads have proven themselves to be effective brand awareness vehicles.
• Yet, engagement and communication capacity are limited and are typically measured in seconds — and usually in the low single digits at that.
• Display ads work more effectively with some context (e.g., marketing’s huge push toward programmatic, or data-based ad serving).
• They can be a costly direct-response mechanism, as click-through rates are low — less than 0.1 percent on average (according to research from DoubleClick).
• The distribution infrastructure is quite developed and fairly sophisticated. (Over 5 trillion ad impressions were served in 2012, according to research fromcomScore.)
• While display ads and rich media are relatively inexpensive to produce, compared to other forms of dynamic media, producing multiple iterations with diverse communications is typically cost-prohibitive for many businesses.
• Consequently, display ads are usually relatively static over the course of a multi-week or multi-month campaign.

Now, consider the case for an editorial article:

• An editorial article is one of the most cost-efficient forms of content to create.
• This low cost allows for a broader range of messaging options or topics that can be covered (so you get more assets for a given campaign).
• The time spent viewing/reading and interacting with articles is glacial compared to display — 20 percent of all time spent on the web is devoted to reading content.
• Article distribution scale has hit critical mass — for example, Outbrain alone is now number three (behind Yahoo and ShareThis and ahead of Google and Facebook) in ad-focused-reach; and, it is now seventh on comScore’s unique visitor audience rankings.

Sources: comScoreDataMine.com, Nielsen.com, PewInternet.org, and TNSDigitalLife.com. Image via Go-Gulf.com.

Display ads are poor at audience interaction and distribution but are solid awareness vehicles. However, they require context to optimize their effectiveness. Articles, on the other hand, are far more effective and efficient in generating interaction and distribution — critical to fast data generation; thus, they make for better contextual data gatherers. Yet, articles need support in their efforts to convey an overt brand benefit or call-to-action (i.e., asking for the sale).

So the conclusion here is that content and display are like yin and yang… the chocolate and peanut butter of the digital world. Any brand looking to optimize its investment in programmatic buying should first establish operational proficiency with content syndication and/or discovery. This combine-and-conquer effort is critical to maintaining the left and right brain balance that’s essential to any successful digital marketing plan.

Data is the fuel for a winning marketing vehicle 

Programmatic display campaigns require consumer behavior data to optimize its effectiveness. For that matter, paid and organic search techniques also require data insights to be optimized. Distributing editorial content yields more (and higher-quality) data, because this content is what audiences inherently and predominantly interact with online.

We won’t spend time here on the subject of mining data to use in story development (a topic that’s been covered extensively on the Content Marketing Institute website). Rather, we’ll focus on the role data plays after editorial content has been published and distributed.

Paid syndication of article (and video) headlines across content discovery engines, such as Outbrain and Taboola, can yield a vast array of behavioral data that can help marketers tailor subsequent engagement messaging. For example, a click on a compelling headline is likely to be a more accurate indication of a user’s interests and intentions than a click on a display ad — according to an eMarketer report, only 15 percent of consumers trust display ads completely or even partially. Additionally, article interaction can play a critical role in optimizing the context in which display ads are served, resulting in better receptivity and more efficient performance.

Combining the data from the initial click on a headline with the behavioral data downstream of the click, on a brand’s website for instance, enables a marketer to assemble a more complete profile of a consumer that can be utilized to inform engagements even further downstream — such as in a display ad.

A case in point

Here’s an illustration involving LasikPlus, a leading LASIK surgery provider. LasikPlus has a well-informed editorial strategy based on a number of behavioral data sources. However, informed editorial strategy in and of itself isn’t necessarily an accurate predictor of article interest or performance.

Take the following two article examples:

Both articles follow the same editorial strategy, in that they’re focused on addressing an insight that audiences need more information around — the efficacy of the procedure. However, the article on the bottom dramatically outperformed the article on top in generating audience interest, click-through and, most importantly, traffic to LasikPlus‘s site. This media performance data can be leveraged to optimize the syndication spend, maximizing LasikPlus‘s investment in assets that yield traffic most efficiently.

When analyzing click-through data further in conjunction with web analytics data, each article reveals a slightly different user behavior path — which might signal the need to create a different post-engagement messaging strategy.

As the report in Figure 1 illustrates, visitors enticed by the benefits of LASIK beyond treating nearsightedness also clicked over to the “How Long Does LASIK Last?” article, as well as to another article about additional benefits of the procedure. Visitors stemming from this entry point were also clearly interested in investigating the costs associated with the procedure, albeit in a lesser volume.

As the report in Figure 2 illustrates, visitors initially clicking through on the How Long Does LASIK Last? headline spent a little less time on LasikPlus‘s site. This is particularly revealing: While one article did a better job of driving traffic to the brand’s site, the other article was better at churning this traffic and sustaining on-site engagement. The data also indicates that visitors in this pool were interested in reading about additional benefits of LASIK, as well as cost information (although to lesser degrees).

Collectively, both user paths reveal powerful insights and important data points with which to target and re-target users with varying display ad messages. As the figures above illustrate, depending on what content a user has engaged with — and in what sequence — specific messaging on the LASIK procedure’s benefits, efficacy, or pricing may be more appropriate at a future engagement point.

Over time, this data is valuable in shaping buyer personas and determining at what point prospective customers are in their purchasing process. LasikPlus understands that consumers often spend many months researching and considering a LASIK procedure before seeing a doctor. Behavioral data stemming from interaction with content can help reveal insights around communication opportunities to sharpen commercial messaging, or in other words, what message to serve up and when.

The case for getting started with content

As many brands are escalating their investments in content marketing, many more are struggling to justify a meaningful initial investment. Article distribution, or treating content as an ad unit, can be the perfect tactical approach with which to get started. Further, the data gathered from this initial foray into the content marketing space can provide valuable insight into how to craft a meaningful, long-term editorial mission — setting the strategic stage for a more sustained content marketing investment down the line.

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David Germano has been working with EBT to develop courses in digital marketing.  David is the VP of Content Marketing for Magnetic Content Studios, anEmpower Group company focused on sustained content marketing. For more than 13 years, David has been helping brands develop and operationalize content marketing strategies that build audience. David joined Empower in 2011 from his most recent role as the General Manager of ManoftheHouse.com, a joint venture between BBDO’s Proximity and Procter & Gamble Entertainment.

Other essays by David Germano

by David Germano

Fast, dramatic changes in the digital space have given brand marketers new opportunities to earn and sustain the consumer’s attention without paid media. Social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, to name just three, empower brands to communicate directly with an audience.

While many brands rush to leverage these direct to consumer channels, few have altered their brand narratives and their approach to content creation as they move from paying others to broadcast their brand content to leveraging it themselves for direct consumer engagement.

Despite the existing opportunities, it would seem that few brands — and only a few more of their agencies — have the content, process, and methodologies in place to fully benefit from direct distribution to the audience. The current brand-agency paradigm has been effective in leveraging search and social algorithms for more efficient distribution of “brand” assets, but the efforts stemming from this approach have failed to deliver some critical elements:engagement, efficiency, and scale.

Brands looking to achieve this “holy trinity” of digital effectiveness need to shift their content creation approach even further.

Owned media, redefined

Strategist Jim Cuene recently proposed a state of constant content to help marketers behave as publishers. And the Altimeter Group’s Content: The New Marketing Equation does a great job of illustrating a “path” for brands to follow in rebalancing their marketing efforts, shifting “from push to pull.” In fact, Cuene and Altimeter both reference the need for this shift in their content creation. But what characterizes this shift, and how can CMOs get started when looking to alter the manner in which their organizations influence consumers?

The shift they both reference is to a state of “owned media” — not the narrow, “brand-controlled” definition that seems to be pervasive across many media strategy blogs. Rather, it’s to a state of “media ownership” — a more progressive definition of owned media. By simply flipping the words and adjusting the grammar, we add clarity around the model. Jim Cuene is right. Brands need look no further than many online publishing properties for a model on how to create content using an operational discipline that ultimately leads to better results.

Do you own media?

Does your brand stand to benefit from media ownership? Answer the following questions to assess your brand’s state of media ownership:

• Always-on: Are you publishing content for an audience on a daily basis?
• Editorial: Are you publishing content that an audience needs and shares?
• Independent: Do you own the technology or the platform delivering the content? Do you have the final say in all aspects of the user’s experience?
• Networked: Is the content on your platform optimized for distribution?
• Measured: Are you evaluating how efficiently you are producing media, or the consumption of your content?
• Monetizable: Could your content platform be someone else’s paid media?

If you answered yes to all of the questions above, then congratulations, your content marketing initiative is optimized for better business-building results. If you answered no, then the next step is to assess where your organization is in its journey to operating as a publisher.

Ownership makes for better content

This assessment of owned media is important because it instills a level of accountability with content creation.

Online publishers operate by exacting principles because they need their audiences to consume, engage, and share the content they produce. Operationally, these publishers need to ensure that their editorial efforts are efficient and yielding high-quality content that resonates with their most important critics — the audience. Their very businesses depend on it.

Brands want their audience to consume, engage, and share content, as well. By applying the same business acumen in planning and evaluating your audience engagement as any publisher would, brands can effectively achieve the three goals of engagement, efficiency, and scale. Not employing this methodology, in my opinion, is the single biggest reason brands are finding underwhelming results in their current search and social efforts.

Discovering the path

With some brands, asset creation evolves into a content strategy, wherein incremental success can be achieved by delivering the same old brand narrative but doing so with a slightly broader focus on types of content, and through innovative channels such as Facebook and Twitter. But the issues of reach and engagement are not addressed by this approach.

I’ve had brands with significant search and social programs in place confess to me “We’re not getting enough traffic to the website,” and “We have 1 million Facebook fans, but very little engagement.” And, these brands are sustaining the same paid media spend to maintain the necessary share of voice in their respective categories. This is not the kind of efficiency brands are looking for when executing content marketing strategies.

The good news for brand marketers is that their preliminary efforts in content marketing put them squarely on the path to owned media. It’s within these initial phases of content marketing that brands soon discover how important some level of editorial process is in generating quality content at a faster rate, and at higher volumes. By editorial, I mean the constant process of determining what the audience needs. It’s also at this stage where brands discover how important the investment in a centralized platform is in helping them manage to and optimize content marketing across multiple digital channels such as Facebook and Twitter.

There are several successful, brand-owned media programs that can help guide other brands.Home Made Simple, Nutrition Possible, and The Responsibility Project are all examples of how brands can take an editorial approach to engage the entire audience — not just limited segments of it, which is where most brand marketers seem to focus. This audience-centric approach is paying dividends for these respective brands while amplifying their earned and paid efforts, as well.   This shift to true “always-on” editorial is the biggest challenge most brands will face on the path, but it is critical to creating quality content that audiences prefer, and realizing the full potential of owned media.

Editorial shift

So how do marketers go from content that represents their messages to consumers to content that audiences themselves are looking for? It first requires thinking beyond the brand’s target segments and focusing on understanding the needs of the entire audience in much greater detail. This can be particularly challenging, as marketing operations are almost exclusively geared toward distilling layers of consumer research into one-size-fits-all insights and, consequently, focused messaging. And for good reason — brands don’t have the resources to talk to the entire audience through traditional paid means. But they can accomplish this through the right owned media strategy.

For most brand marketers, becoming more informed editorially simply requires organizing all of the available data around audience behavior to define and understand consumer’s content needs. For example, Man of the House publishes dozens of articles that present unique perspectives on personal grooming — from the best grooming gifts for dad to rationales for getting a manicure. This content might fall outside the focus of brands like Gillette or Art of Shaving, but Man of the House content is informed by extensive consumer research. And by interpolating this existing audience data, Procter & Gamble knows its articles are falling in line with what interests the site’s primary audience (dads), which is likely much larger than the consumer segments Gillette advertises to.

Once this audience editorial analysis is complete, it will continue to guide your brand’s editorial strategy development and help you determine the right level of owned media investment.

Having worked with a multitude of consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers, I’ve always been somewhat amazed with the sheer depth of consumer knowledge each organization possesses — and equally amazed at how little of this knowledge actually factors into its content creation. When brands take a deeper look at their broader audience, there is always a more detailed set of topical categories to map, and brands should follow this map in creating the content they deliver to this broader audience. The appropriate level of data analysis can help brands chart this map.

Editorial mapping

Beyond existing consumer data, analytics should be used to inform the editorial on an ongoing basis. The resources required to develop and sustain an owned media strategy can usually come from the brand’s existing investment in analytics. But even free resources, such as Google or Compete, can provide a wealth of information — especially if they are used in conjunction with more robust paid tools.

The process for mapping an editorial approach should rely on at least four key data channels:

As the chart illustrates, this process is well informed by analytics and can yield a detailed editorial map of topics that are based on the audience’s preferences. Revisiting our example around Man of the House, these various data sets are advising the editorial focus for the entire grooming channel:

• Google Analytics data is being used to identify the most popular articles, which are then served up at the top of the page to drive further content consumption.
• Google Trends helps to advise on topics that are trending throughout social media,
• Google Adwords is being used to track topic popularity by reviewing search query volume across a host of long-tail keyword phrases related to grooming.

Lastly, it’s critical that publishers keep track of the competitive space for topics. This article in particular is a great example of observing what is being talked about and joining in the discussion. This editorial map is the foundation of an iterative process that’s always on, and optimized for producing content that gets consumed, creates engagement, and gets distributed.

And, not or

To be clear, the editorial shift required to create owned media impact is not an “or” that could replace another approach. It’s an “and” that supports a brand’s broader marketing strategy. Advertising and other paid media still work, but technology has now made direct distribution to an audience an affordable strategy (with the proper approach).

Regardless of where a brand might be in its use of owned media, it should consider developing an editorial voice that guides sustained content creation to address the needs of its audience that aren’t being met through that brand’s other marketing efforts.

David Germano has been working with EBT to develop courses in digital marketing.  David is the VP of Content Marketing for Magnetic Content Studios, anEmpower Group company focused on sustained content marketing. For more than 13 years, David has been helping brands develop and operationalize content marketing strategies that build audience. David joined Empower in 2011 from his most recent role as the General Manager of ManoftheHouse.com, a joint venture between BBDO’s Proximity and Procter & Gamble Entertainment.

Other essays by David Germano

In some places QRCs have thrived — Starbucks is the foremost example. Some people show their tickets with QRCodes on their phone. But the system has revealed problems. Often advertising is too far away for smartphones to capture their QRCodes. Somes photo angles don’t capture the information correctly and you don’t know until you get home.

Here is a series of Do’s and Don’ts developed by Uriel Peled on the MarketingProfs blog.

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Improper Ways to Use QR Codes for Marketing

Perhaps the relative novelty of QR codes has some companies a little confused about which best-practices to adopt. Subway—the international sandwich maker—created shirts with massive codes on the back of the T-shirts. The question arises: When are those QRs going to be scanned, considering that we communicate face to face?

Often, companies are so excited about using QR codes as part of their marketing campaigns that they forget the basic rules of the game.

These codes were designed expressly to simplify the marketing message, not to complicate it. Convoluted marketing messages detract from the effectiveness of using the QR code in the first place. Rambling lists of instructions and bullet points to get your message across are a definite no-go. Simplicity and appeal trump instruction-laden advertisements.

Companies that don’t understand the true marketing potential of this resource run the risk of losing out on its potential for getting their messages across to customers. Many marketing departments are loath to embrace this technology and hope that it will simply go away.

QR codes are here to stay, and the sooner their untapped potential is understood, the better for everyone.

10 of the Worst Real-World Examples of QR Codes in Action

1. QR codes in subway tunnels around the world may appear to be a good idea, but if they are too far away, or trains are moving too quickly, their message is lost on passengers who don’t have time to scan them properly. Moreover, passengers may not have cell signals in subways.
2. QR codes should be placed in an easy-to-scan location. If they are too high up (on buildings, for example), their message is lost on passers-by.
3. Improper use of QR codes occurs at airports, where lists of prohibited items are associated with codes for the purported benefit of passengers. It almost seems as if people are so eager to use QR codes that they use them merely for the sake of using them.
4. Some sports companies are attaching QR codes to bikinis, in the hopes that more people will see their marketing message. This may well prove to be an effective marketing mechanism, but it’s not the QR codes that people are really interested in, is it?
5. Redundancy is yet another trap that many companies may fall into when adopting QR codes in their marketing campaigns. For example, Bank of America attached a QR code that links directly to its website—from its Facebook page…
6. There was even an instance of a dog owner posting a picture of his lost Dalmatian with a QR code juxtaposed over the Dalmatian. This failed for two reasons: the spots on the Dalmatian confused the QR code message, and it is ineffectual for the purposes of finding the dog: A simple telephone number would suffice.
7. Believe it or not, certain grocery stores use QR codes to replace barcodes on individual items, such as bananas.
8. Though it might seem like a good idea, it is probably not in good taste to put a QR code on your loved one’s tombstone.
9. Barcodes tattooed onto your body… Enough said!
10. Moroccanoil Inc. included a QR code on its product, but there was one problem: The QR code was one-eighth the size of a US quarter.

The Proper Use of QR Codes

QR codes are most effective when they form an integral part of a marketing message that is appealing, engaging, interactive, and unique. There is also a movement toward making the visual appeal of the QR code more enticing so that users, passers-by, and potential customers are more likely to stop, scan, and enjoy the multimedia message that the QR code has in store for them.

QR code success stories abound, in categories from lifestyle to leisure, entertainment, food and drink, promotions, events, information, and beyond.

10 Great Ways to Correctly Use QR Codes

1. Lifestyle companies such as Macy’s, JC Penney, and Tesco are some of the most notable success in QR codes marketing. These companies find inventive ways of incorporating QRs into their marketing messages to entice customers to scan and enjoy the benefits.Tesco’s for example, became the second biggest retail grocery chain in South Korea (changed its name to Home Plus)—not by expanding the number of stores, but by including codes on posters in subway stations, train stations, and sidewalks, allowing people to order groceries, on the spot.
2. Restaurants are cashing in on QR codes too—just ask The Melt, famous for its grilled cheese sandwiches. Customers can easily scan QRs that will then automatically get their food on the grill while they are being seated.
3. Universally popular names such as Taco Bell and Mountain Dew used QR code campaigns on their drink cups, with many free music downloads available to those who scanned them. In total, some 200,000 downloads resulted from this successful campaign.
4. THQ Homefront is a videogame that uses QR codes throughout the game for players to unlock exclusive, never-before-seen content. Within two days, some 30,000 codes were scanned.
5. Leonardo DiCaprio’s film Inception also made use of QR codes to ramp up the sense of mystery and hype around the movie. Flyers, T-shirts, and posters promoting Inception contained codes that led to a fake website named What Is Dream Share?
6. Google’s Favorite Places marketing campaign earmarked 100,000 places to visit in the USA. Those top businesses each got a window decal with their QR code on it. Passers-by could then scan the code for a wealth of information on the business.
7. The Florida State Law Library uses QR codes in its books to help link them to other electronic resources.
8. A restaurant in Washington DC named Policy uses QR codes in its window, by the menu box. Patrons and passers-by can scan the QR codes, taking them to the online menu or allowing them to make reservations.
9. vCard electronic business cards are great way to use QR codes to add rich multimedia content to traditional business cards.
10. Scandinavian Airlines put together one of the most exciting promotions ever; the ad campaign required two smartphones (side-by-side) to scan the QR code to receive the deal. This campaign boosted revenue and got more people to fly together.

Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2014/24499/proper-and-improper-use-of-qr-codes-10-great-examples-of-each#ixzz3V3anehjc