Re-envisioning Content Strategies to Build a Customer Following Organically
By Joakim Holmquist, Director of Digital Marketing, EpiserverSince its inception, marketing has been about getting the right message in front of the right audience at the right time to nurture relationships and sales. However, the science of slicing and dicing data to segment audiences and strategize and optimize content to advance their relationship with the brand is now the foundation for next-generation marketing.Given the current state of information overload, marketers face a big challenge: we are a culture with a huge appetite for content and yet are more scrutinizing of that content than ever before.Here are three technology-supported strategies for digital marketing and content management that will help marketers engage in the digital age:1. Create a seamless multi-channel experience: Cohesion across channels continues to be a critical element to digital strategy. At the very minimum, consumers expect a seamless experience regardless of what medium they use – PC, phone, tablet; whether via browser or app. This does not mean all content should be identical. Rather, it needs to present a seamless and cohesive representation of the brand.For example, a consumer viewing information via a smart phone is more likely to be in a browsing stage – perhaps they are flipping through sites browsing surfboards while they wait for an oil change. How can you structure the experience so that they are compelled to take the next step when they are back home and in front of their laptop?Marketers need to rethink multi-channel content – how content is structured and managed and developing rules for how and when that content is delivered.2. Personalize content: There’s an old quote that says, give the people what they want and they will come. Web experience personalization enables marketers to push targeted and adaptive content to keep visitors engaged. The idea is to engage the consumer in the moment and present relevant content with the goal of gaining interest and loyalty. Marketers can leverage standard data such as how they arrived at your site or app, user profile information, visit history and most common session activity. Personalization technology combines these with a layer of real-time situational factors – local weather, market fluctuations – to give the message specificity that is meaningful at that moment and cuts through the clutter.3. Super charge your search: Creating a strong digital experience means retaining a lot of content. If that content isn’t accessible to consumers in a useful and relevant way, it is essentially useless. It is vital that marketers have a solution that will map search results without the lag of manual management. Search technology that “listens” to visitors is also a huge asset to marketers. Using tools such as autocomplete, related queries and behavioral ranking, marketers can boost search result relevancy and accelerate the journey to conversion.Consumers’ constant content craving presents a prime opportunity for marketers; the key is building a strategy that reaches the consumer in a way that is meaningful to them and supports their journey. Winning strategies will leverage solid marketing strategy with key enabling technology to succeed in this endeavor.
About the Author: Joakim Holmquist is the director of digital marketing at EPiServer. Supported by a network of 880 partners in 30 countries, EPiServer empowers more than 8,800 digital leaders to embrace disruptive, transformational strategies that can deliver standout experiences for their customers—everywhere they engage.
