Yesterday, March 8, it happened again: after a successful in-house customer workshop on neuromarketing in November, this time we had Mascha Gerretsen visit. She is the author of the book “Content Marketing and Community Management” and took us through all the important facets of content marketing in 2,5 hours.

The importance of content marketing

What does a restaurant guide have to do with car tires? At first glance, of course, nothing. But Michelin understood one thing quite well a long time ago: we need to create content to get our customers to drive more miles. Because the more kilometers they drive, the sooner the tires wear out. But when are motorists willing to take a detour and drive extra kilometers? When they know they are going to a special restaurant. Behold, the Michelin Guide.

At the intersection of your knowledge + skills and the customer's pain points or passions, that is where the sweet spot lies. That is where the greatest opportunities lie for the use of content marketing and that is where you will achieve the best results.

The FAME Cycle

Mascha outlines the ROEM Cycle, in other words, the 8 phases you go through when you get started with content marketing. Roughly speaking, setting up and implementing a content marketing strategy consists of the following 8 C's:

• Commitment, budget & organization: getting everyone in the organization involved in the implementation of content marketing. Divide tasks within the team and determine budgets.
• Content goals and target groups: determine what you want to achieve with the content you are going to write and for whom you are creating the content.
• Content strategy and tactics: what will be the content format, what will be your hero content, what will be hub content and what will be the tone of voice of your content?
• Content planning: what are you going to publish and when? And where?
• Content creation and design: what does your content look like? What will the visual style be? And then: start writing!
• Testing content and concepts: which variants of our content achieve the best results for our established goals? Which article does better and why? What are we going to A/B test?
• Content promotion and conversations: how do we draw attention to our content? How often should we post something and how often should we announce that we have new content?
• Conversion, analysis and optimization: where has the most conversion been achieved, what can we improve about the current content strategy?

2 practical learnings

What is the reason that you create content for your target group? What is your content mission statement? In this short and powerful mission statement you explain why you write what you write and for whom. An important insight from the workshop is: also share this mission statement with your target group. For example, place it briefly below each message or place it above your news overview page. It keeps you focused on the topics you write about and whether they fit into your strategy, but it is also clear to the reader. They know better what to expect and why you publish all that content.

Another practical insight is working with content formats. There are many content formats that can be invented. Think of lists, quizzes, interviews, a challenge, a reconstruction or a test. By publishing these formats or sections at fixed times, you create a nice rhythm in the content you publish. Not only for yourself, but also for your target group. This also makes creating your content more of a process that is easier to transfer.

About the content marketing workshop

At Van Ons we believe it is important that we proactively inform our customers about the latest trends and developments in the digital playing field. We therefore organize in-house workshops for customers every quarter on various themes. And next April 25 we will organize a major customer event in Amsterdam Noord (at Pllek) with leading speakers from the industry. Haven't received an email with an invite for the 25th yet? Let us know at info[at]van-ons.nl!