In the beginning of Internet marketing, brands just had a website. Then came email, which was followed by branded blogs, social, video and mobile. Today brands’ owned media includes dozens of online channels, each with their own niche content delivery and audience.
But all of those channels have one thing in common: They are content driven. From its website and email to its social channels and mobile apps, a brand’s owned media would not and could not exist without content.
In 2014, a marketing strategy that includes the creation and management of content for every branded channel is essential. As consumers’ attention shifts from channel to channel and platform to platform, they not only want to see consistent and useful content in each place, but they also expect it. Brands need to be prepared to distribute content to each of these places so that they reach their entire audience.
In his 2014 marketing prediction, Topher Howden, director of strategy at Raidious, predicts there will be more emphasis on what content is being delivered and less emphasis on where it’s being delivered.
“Any strategy that isn’t omnichannel is unlikely to be as successful as one that publishes great content wherever it needs to go,” Howden said.
While it is important to understand the differences in each of these channels, implementing a multi channel strategy doesn’t mean a brand must have the bandwidth to create separate content for each. It means a brand must have a team that can create high-quality, flexible and scalable content so that even one piece of content can be tweaked to perform well across all channels and interfaces.
Rather than isolating messages on a website, email, blog, social or mobile, a multi channel content strategy allows brands to send content to targeted audiences across all owned media channels so that is more accessible to potential customers and consumed by a larger audience.
