Insight

Content Marketing Success: Quality not Quantity!

Ross Miles - 07.03.2017



What is Content Marketing Success? Most brands know they need to create and share content in order to get ahead in the competitive digital market. But the findings from a recent study make for worrying reading: More than half the content being created is having little-to-no impact on either business results or consumers’ lives.

Worrying news for Content Marketers

As Marketing Week reported, Havas’ latest ‘Meaningful Brands‘ study found that 60% of the content created by the world’s top 1500 brands is “just clutter,” filling up the online space but serving very little purpose.

With more brands and agencies finding their foothold in the constantly-changing digital marketing landscape, researchers explored the role of content to determine its value; how does content actually impact the customer experience and, as a result, their relationships and interactions with brands?

The study questioned 375,000 consumers across 33 countries. The majority (84%) expect brands to produce content, whether that’s articles, podcasts or experiential events; but 60% also described branded content as being “poor”, “irrelevant” or “failing to deliver.”

Content Marketing Success: The Benefits

Getting content right is important. According to the Havas study, there’s a 71% correlation between effective content and brands having an impact on a consumer’s personal wellbeing. As a result, the brand becomes more meaningful and achieves better results.

‘Meaningful brands’ – those that benefit consumers personally, collectively or functionally – were found to outperform the stock market by 206%, with 137% greater returns on KPIs.

The report found that while most brands do alright on the functional and collective benefits, many fall short with personal wellbeing. That’s why 74% of global consumers and 94% of UK consumers wouldn’t care if a brand disappeared.

What content works?

Tech brands topped the meaningful brands list, with Google, PayPal, WhatsApp and YouTube taking the top positions – perhaps because tech is so ingrained in our lives that it benefits people personally. However, brands from other industries also made the top 10, including Nivea, Ikea and Lego.

Brands needs to understand what content works for their audience, and where the opportunity to add value lies.

For example, Retail consumers expect educational content from brands, but they also want to be entertained. In other industries, such as healthcare, consumers want to be inspired, supported or rewarded. It’s not all about getting a laugh, but creating meaningful conversations and relationships.

Relevance is key to Content Marketing Success

Good content marketing should reflect your values and your mission as a brand. Fireworx can help you build an online and offline content strategy that engages with your target audience. We can help you understand how your product or services can affect their lives in a meaningful way. Only then will you have content that really cuts through the noise.