Integrated Marketing Communication Assignment (GC0286)

Table of Contents

1.1        Introduction.

1.2        What is content marketing.

1.3        Reasons for the growth of content marketing.

1.4        Content is the present and future of marketing.

1.5        Implication of content marketing.

1.6        Weakness of content marketing.

1.7        Conclusion.

1.8        References.

1.1 Introduction

Fill and Turnbull (2016) note the recent growth of a contemporary practice called “content marketing”. Content marketing refers to the strategic marketing strategies which develop and distribute relevant, valuable as well as consistent content to attract and retain the potential and target customers. Research conducted by Content Marketing Institute (2016) shows the vast majority of prominent marketers are using content marketing in the current business worlds such as Microsoft, P&G, Cisco and John Deere. In addition, the majority of small and medium-size business content marketing around the globe improve their business performance including increased revenue and profits. This paper discusses the reasons for the growth and potential implications of successful content marketing. Then, this paper critically analyses weak content marketing efforts providing visual examples.

1.2 What is content marketing

According to Curata (2016), content marketing refers to developing, implementing as well as delivering marketing messages to attract, nurture and retain the customer base of a company. Content Marketing Institute (2016) defines content marketing as the marketing strategies that create and distribute attractive content to convince and retain valuable consumers.  Forrester (2014) said content marketing used as a technique to increase brand preference among target consumers through publishing attracting content and meeting customer changing needs and expectations. Gartner (2015) said content marketing is the process that creates and delivers text, images, video, and graphics through several marketing channels such as social media, social graph, content management system. Kotler et al. (2015) said a number of stages must be followed in a content marketing process, whereas the key stages are strategy development, content and asset development, inbound and outbound marketing, and sales enablement. Melnick (2016) defines content marketing as other marketing techniques that use media and published information content to influence and motivate the target and potential customers. Palmer (2014) stated that content marketing techniques provide useful and relevant useful information which motivates the buyers, rather than interrupting or pitching them. Lieb (2015) specifies eight key content marketing use cases which are creation, optimization, distribution, curation and aggregation, workflow, legal and compliance, audience and targeting.

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1.3  Reasons for the growth of content marketing

A number of reasons have been defined by several experts behind the growth of content marketing in the current business world. Content Marketing Institute (2016) said the small and medium enterprise businesses use content marketing to increase revenue, reduce costs and improve customer retention and loyalty. Strategy Plus (2016) states that producing quality and useful content is essential for small and medium-size organizations to increase revenue and customer bases. The effective ways of delivering content by small and medium-sized enterprises through the mobile presence and social media. In a study conducted by Strategy Plus (2016), 42% of total businesses did not use mobile responsive websites, thus, mobile and social media can be one of the effective areas to focus on by the businesses.

Image: Mobile and social media usages in content marketing   Source: Strategy Plus (2016)

According to DeMers (2016), the cost-efficiency of content marketing is unparalleled because most of the content marketing techniques and tactics are executed cheaply or free, just need to invest some time. Diamond (2016)  said content marketing has interdisciplinary benefits in different areas of business including in generating revenue and customer service, email marketing and social media marketing.

According to Pulizzi, (2016), content marketing plays an effective role in increasing business visibility and reputation, brand image, and customer traffic and conversation. Denney’s is an incredible example of producing truly entertaining content as a marketing strategy that supported it in increasing its brand image (Patel, 2016).

Image: Denny’s Content marketing   Source: Patel (2016)

Denny was able to match its audience’s voices and the platform of its contents. The content was genuinely funny and unique and different from other Denny’s advertisements which promote the people to share and increase its brand image and preference among the target audiences (Patel, 2016). As Jobber and Hadwick (2016) note, it supports businesses in increasing customer acquisition by generating new traffic and conversation on business websites and retaining customer retention by motivating the existing consumers with new and important information. Kotler et al. (2014) said one of the key merits of content marketing is it provides long-term business viability and higher ROI and makes the business efforts stronger.

1.4 Content is the present and future  of marketing

According to Jobber and Hadwick (2016), the key difference between informational garbage and content marketing is the content marketing focuses on valuable and relevant information which promotes the target and potential customers. Pulizzi (2016) said businesses pout valuable or relevant information through content marketing messages. However, a huge number of content marketing messages put by marketers may cause irritation among the customers when they receive the same messages again and again. Curata (2016) said the content marketing process is different than another kind of marketing, where a quality content marketing message focuses on a number of issues. First, content marketing always comes before social media strategies (Kotler et al., 2015). Then, search engines reward businesses that publish consistent and quality content. Next, successful personal relationship strategies address the needs and expectations of consumers (Palmer, 2013). Following this, content marketing focuses on inbound leads and traffic. Finally, content strategy is a key part of content marketing strategies (Content Marketing Institution, 2016)……………….

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