Content marketing has been around for a while, but it’s always an important topic of conversation at SXSW because it continues to change and adapt year after year. If you don’t continually evolve your content strategy you’ll eventually get left behind in the dust on social media. We went to many sessions on this topic and we’re going to pull together all of the best content marketing insights from SXSW Interactive 2018 in this article.
Last Call for Video
If you do not start incorporating video into your content marketing strategy in 2018 you might as well not be on social media. Whatever your holdouts or reasons for not creating video may be, they aren’t enough to prevent you from creating some type of video content for your social platforms and even your website. 73% of online traffic is driven by video and by 2020 that percentage will be 80% or higher. Also, more than half of all video views are on social media. Your brand is missing out on a lot of potential attention by not implementing a full-time, ongoing video strategy.
Video Formatted for Social
While you’re busy at work thinking about the best way to create some video content, you should also consider the platforms you’re publishing this video on. Vertical video is increasingly important. 98% of videos on mobile are vertical and studies have shown that it can give up to a 9 point bump in brand recall. You should also be adding captions for those who don’t want to turn the audio on.
Personalized Content as a Service
Right now people are craving personalized content that speaks directly to them. We’ll admit, it’s a very daunting task to scale content creation that speaks to individuals, but there are a few ways you can start. Many startups right now are actually using content as a value add to their core product or service.
Wag is a dog walking app where someone will come to your home and pickup your dog for a walk around the block. There are even remote access options where you don’t even have to be home yourself. When your dog is walked you can see a map of the route. You also get a fun little video from your dog’s walk created by the dog walker. After the walk has concluded, your pup then gets a report card. This is highly personalized content created by Wag that keeps people coming back and sharing even more dog content on social media.
Coca-Cola does it a slightly different way. You’re probably familiar with the #ShareaCoke campaign where they produced a personalized product by putting names on bottles of Coke. Then they let their customers take it from there with user generated content across all forms of social media.
What are you doing for your customers or clients that can be turned into shareable content?
Unbranded Content for Brands
Creating content that people want to interact with means creating content that doesn’t feel like an advertisement. An extreme example of this comes from the fashion world where many brands have created high quality, hollywood style features that have even made it to film festivals. In some of these the only mention of the brand is in the credits. Like we said, this is an extreme example, but you can still apply this concept to other forms of content. Write articles that provide value or create short videos that entertain. Let your brand shine through within the context of the content.
Take Your Content for a Spin
70% of mobile content is consumed quickly on the go. 20% of mobile content is consumed in lean-in mode. 10% of mobile content is consumed in lean-back mode. Before you launch your content, make sure it works in the spaces people are consuming it. Don’t look at it on a 4K monitor with an amazing sound system. Put it on your phone, use headphone and try it in a number of different environments and scenarios and make sure it works.
We know it’s a very large task to implement these tips all at once, but you should always be working toward optimizing your content to get the best return on investment. Adapting your content strategy for current and upcoming trends means your brand will win in the feed. At Agency Entourage we can help you create content that shines through cluttered social media feeds. If you want to talk about more content marketing insights for 2018 and beyond, call or contact us today.
