Do you lie awake at night not able to sleep because you can't seem to make headway with your marketing efforts? And, content?
As a true Brooklyn Italian would say fuggedaboutit!
Do you find yourself asking how and why the lines are blurring between Editorial and Content?
Do you constantly wonder how to activate marketing to really get your message and brand known? Well, you’re not alone.
It comes down to being vulnerable and asking for help. Your internal team sometimes just cannot attack all that there is to do in a day, and sometimes roles get really confused. That's where companies and people, like us, come into play-Team Gu. Team Gu specializes in content, and recognizes you need a wealth of talents to do this content game right.
We have worked with scrappy start-ups through to Fortune 500 companies and we’re seeing that the big ole “content” question lies beneath the surface for the majority of our conversations almost 100% of the time.
The fact of the matter is that the old tricks don't work. The old "content is king" overused term has long been gone. We've moved into that "content is emperor" territory now, and brands should really be getting very serious about spending money in this area.
Consumers are not falling for that ole “advertorial” trick, so the question becomes how does a brand tackle this issue when building content, partnerships and more?
Furthermore, millennials and just about anyone regardless of age that is a "connected" tech type of human (what I like to call Generation Connected; Brian Solis was at the helm of that saying back in 2012) are very keen to pick up on advertorial and abandon it when they see it --how do you target your audience while getting your message across?
As noted in a previous Team Gu post, the truth is that content is emporer, folks, and it rules the marketing land far and wide.
What exactly is content? Technically speaking, it is some kind of physical or digital expression of a brand. It can be a written article, visual, video, or some kind of physical manifestation (e.g.: experiential efforts) of what a company does, who it is, how it provides value, and overall tells a story about the brand. Smart content is compelling and moves a user to some action.
Editorial, today this means something very different than it used to. It is now speaking to how content is organized to help tell brand stories in a cohesive manner (whether that’s through a written article, a video, etc.)
You want to walk your target audience through your process and engage them in a way that makes them think about your brand holistically--giving your voice a journalistic angle helps do that.
Content and Editorial strategies helps marketers develop the right ways to “speak” to their target audiences, which have also been called buyer personas. The marketing activations happen when this overarching strategy is pushed into different campaigns, written in proper styles, and pushed through the right channels. The point is to publish content (aka: stories) that is customized and optimized in order to reach each target audience group in a manner in which they will consume it easily, engage with it, share it and then create loyal relationships with the brand.
The best solution for a brand is to ensure that all content that is produced and defined by an Editorial Strategy, is developed with each of the target audience groups in mind. And, if you’re doing advertorials, don’t think that you can hide them any longer. The more authentic and transparent a brand’s voice and being becomes, the more that targeted audiences will engage, share, and trust.
Marketing teams today need to be built with all of this in mind. It is hard to find persons that can possess all of the necessary knowledge to execute editorial and content, and the overarching marketing strategies across all channels. Let’s face it, it’s a really big job, and the number one killer for companies is that their own teams just don’t have enough time. See our previous survey completed with that insight.
That’s where Team Gu enters stage left. Whether we’re talking about a large corporation or a small startup, it’s challenging to get things done; there is almost never enough time. Ever. We will help brands decipher the best approach, how to fix what’s happening, and really get things moving to help you reach your business goals.
That can mean an entire process of building your brand voice, writing your brand stories, defining who you are, doing a brand health check, organizing current content, creating content strategies, launching and writing social media and editorial platform content plans, developing visuals, writing scripts and creating/producing video, managing a team of writers-- all of these are things that we can help your company accomplish.
Sales teams and/or anyone within the company doing Business Development outreach also relies on getting good content into their hands that is useful and actually speaks to the people they’re targeting.
Every company has different business goals, but we know from years of experience that having original content with a cohesive story becomes a cross-departmental must-have. Smart content and editorial equals inbound lead generation.
Proof is in the pudding you say? Yes, we agree. Here are some great examples of creative content marketing that is working. And, here is a recent case study we just published for you to review (this case study is all about how creative content strategy, smart editorial, and proper execution with the right team can drive eComm sales.)
What makes us the best team to work with? Together, we have many, many years of professional experience across a variety of brands and platforms and we can bring that experience to the table.
We can help strategize, harness, empower, train and implement with your team, whether you are launching a small start up or honing your established brand voice to take your business to the next level, whatever that might be. Ultimately, marketing is about storytelling and bringing people into the fold of your brand and voice, and the bottom line is that we have the skills to make that happen for you and with you.
We want to help you sleep better at night!
WRITTEN BY NATALIE DOLD