Do Your Clients Know Which Forms of Content Work Best?

BY Kathy Crosett
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Do your clients know which forms of content work best for them? They are busy creating content to draw their prospects and eventual customers into the purchase funnel. And their content also should engage current customers. Research shows that paying attention to where content appears and who it targets is critical.

Where Does the Content Appear?

According to Integral Ad Science, consumers have criteria for determining the quality of content. The elements that rank highest for them are:

  • Trusted/​established source or company 67%
  • Doesn’t contain violence or negative tones 64%
  • Content is objective 59%

Consumers also apply varying to rules to content produced by vendors in specific verticals. For example, when checking out retailer content, the ad experience is most important. However, when consumers are looking at automotive content, they judge what they’re seeing in terms of production value.

Consumers also pay attention to where ads appear. And 51% of consumers believe the brand or marketer bears responsibility for placing their ads near good quality content. In fact, 39% of consumers will stop doing business with brands that buy ad placements on a low-​quality content environment.

Ads aren’t the only content that marketers use to catch the attention of consumers. Marketers also write white papers, conduct surveys, and create educational videos. The rapid expansion of online media space puts marketers at a disadvantage. It’s expensive and nearly impossible to have mass appeal. Your clients can’t be all things to all people.

Who Does the Content Target?

 In his speech for the virtual Content Marketing World 2020 meeting, Skyword CEO Andrew Wheeler urged marketers to ask, “Do you really offer something to everyone? Or do you offer something very specific to a really specific group?” The answer, in many cases, is that marketers are selling a specific product to a specific group. Once they gain traction and credibility in the marketplace, they can expand. Successful expansion often requires adjusting content.

As your clients plan their 2021 content marketing strategy, they should remember that consumers are far more likely to believe industry experts (60%) than social media influencers (34%). Wheeler recommends that marketers, “Start treating content as a part of your value proposition, as a product itself, something that rewards your customers for being customers.” This recommendation speaks to the importance of retaining customers going forward and directing content campaigns to them. 

Which Forms of Content Work Best

Good content campaigns, those that contain quality and relevant data produced by industry authorities, work hand in hand with paid media to attract attention. Consistently releasing good content and adjusting the details as the needs of the target audience change will allow your clients to leap ahead of the competition.

Do your clients’ target audiences prefer TV ads? Do they make purchase decisions based on their exposure to out-​of-​home advertising? Or are they only influenced by mobile ad campaigns? You’ll find these answers to these questions in the AudienceSCAN profiles on AdMall by SalesFuel.


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