Have you noticed that whenever you turn your TV on there’s an Aussie athlete there? Anyone would think Australia is the number 1 nation dominating the entire event, thanks to the highly skewed coverage we are being delivered from Chanel 7.
 
There’s nothing wrong with this of course, since here we are in Australia and very proud of our country - and especially keen to cheer our fabulous athletes and teams on.
 
What this teaches us though in communications-land, is that we are 100% lead and influenced by the media that is fed to us. Sure we have choices, but if there’s one major source, as we have here with the Olympics, we are invariably at the mercy of their offerings.
 
Understanding your audience or the people you are trying to win over becomes key to any marketing efforts. Sadly, there are way too many brands out there with amazing products destined to a mystery user because the owner or manager hasn’t really researched his consumer.
 
Facebook has incredible tools that allow you to drill down on your target market right to where it matters. You can direct ads to people in a particular suburb, who eat a certain food and share the same religion if necessary. And that’s just Facebook.
 
Finding the core market of any campaign is where the results will eventuate, either via digital conversions or customers asking for your product in store.  Gone are the days where companies had to place ads randomly and hope they resonated with someone who shared the same tastes and value system.
 
So there’s no excuse. PR activity, marketing materials, content marketing and so on, can be more effective than ever before.  The talent lies in realising it’s a wasted effort, unless it reaches precisely the people it’s intended for. This is how and where a campaign succeeds.
 
Back to Rio and would you believe it - I’m watching the Beach Volleyball :) 

​Why all the fuss? Don’t we get enough in our inboxes everyday? As it is, we are bombarded with news, articles, information, podcasts, videos and social media posts – there’s no way we can ever open, let alone read, digest and act upon.
 
But we are told there’s a need for content marketing, advised that it’s an important part of the overall marketing mix, and we cannot afford to ignore it anymore.
 
So, in a nutshell.  The reasons why to implement content marketing into your plan.

• Branding – sending out interesting information gives your brand an identity, shapes your profile and builds awareness, reminding consumers you’re there.
  
  
• SEO and organic search – Google picks up on relevant content and rewards you with organic search results. The more you post relevant to your brand, the more your brand shows up in search results.
  
  
• Cross linking with other audiences – from website to twitter, you can reach multiple media platforms with just a few clicks.
  
  
• Increasing your voice in the market – interesting content gets shared. It’s the viral thing we are all after.
  
  
• Stay competitive – to carve out a slice in a cluttered market, content marketing allows you to develop your own voice of authority and targeted niche.

 
To succeed with content marketing, firstly you will need to create a strategy. Consider brand voice or tone, where to promote your content and which audience you are talking to. These are crucial to your campaign and should determine your strategy.
 
I suggest a creative session with the people you know and trust, who work with your brand, to come up with the essential elements of your strategy. This has worked best in my past experience.
 
There’s a lot of information out there on content marketing but it can be quite over-whelming if you don’t have the time or energy to allocate.  Trends are ever-changing with cut-through getting even harder. Video content is king right now and it’s worth specialising in your given topic in an interactive way if possible.