Content Marketing 2.0 – Integrated Content Marketing

There was a time when we used to ask our friends, colleagues, and relatives before buying any product or service or for any other issues. We ask for solutions for humans. That has changed now completely. Now, we hear about Google or any other search engines. In the next few minutes, you will get a complete idea about Integrated Content Marketing.

We have turned digital. That is why businesses are also going digital in order to meet the customers’ needs. That is when digital marketing has come into the scene.

And…

When we are talking about digital marketing, content marketing has to be there, as content is the king of digital marketing. After content marketing, now comes Content Marketing 2.0 or integrated content marketing.

Here, in this, we will talk about integrated content marketing only. But before starting with the main topic, we believe it will be best if we provide some basic understanding of the usual content marketing.

What Is Content Marketing?

It is basically the type of marketing that includes the creation and also sharing of online materials, like social media posts, blogs, and videos. The main purpose of content marketing is not directly promoting the brand but offering its consumers detailed information about the services and products in order to stimulate interest in them.

So, we can say that content marketing is all about distributing information about your business offering so that the target audience gets interested in them.

Content Marketing 2.0

Isn’t it fascinating how content marketing has changed in the last few years? In 2012, Google+ was the newest hot thing. Back then, almost nobody knew how to design or integrate their websites for mobile.

Also, content marketing was just taking the pace in order to gain traction as a viable business tactic. After a few years, it has become mainstream. Especially during the pandemic time, the digital marketing industry boomed.

In the last few years, the entire content marketing thing has changed. Now, we are moving towards, and businesses are also content marketing 2.0 – integrated content marketing.

Why Evolving Is Necessary

With the rise of content marketing, businesses started to witness real results. With this, they started to rush toward creating more and more content.

All those company blogs were filled with posts, and a huge number of pages were written in order to fill infographics and countless ebooks. However, in this scenario, when the best possible content marketers were producing content that provided value to their audience.

But, soon, all those noble content creators were overwhelmed by a group of people who were imitating and also proclaimed themselves as thought leaders. A number of companies put the center concept of content marketing completely aside.

And that too in favor of whatever got the most clicks. This is the environment where the ever-popular list posts have risen along with the unoriginal posts and also the always disappointing “Buzzfeed” posts.

In the initial days, there was only a single problem because it created a lot more competition to get the attention of the audiences. So, eventually, in the crowd, it has become really hard for your audience to find out your content piece.

However, as per the content experts, audiences always thrive for quality, and if the content has quality, the audience will find out somehow. It is also true up to a certain level. There are a group of companies who were able to build authority in the crowd of millions or billions of content.

However, with every passing second, it has been seen that more and more audiences are slipping away from the quality of the content. At this point, infographics were no longer the huge traffic that they used to draw.

All those well-researched, long posts were not being shared or even shaved for later references. So, we can say that audiences were going through some sort of severe content fatigue.

The number or mass of low-quality content pieces had already started to leave an inverse effect on the expected outcome of all the content despite the quality. When the market is flooded with low-quality content, downloads, leads, clicks, and desired customer action take a serious hit.

All these low-quality content pieces actually degrade trust with the audience along with instilling a sense of wariness regarding the content.

And why not?

They have been disappointed so many times before. The majorly problematic part of the above-mentioned relationship is that the number of low-value content pieces is not likely to reduce. It is nothing but the laws of nature.

Whenever the competition is all about finite resources, the cumulative outcomes or rewards of almost every competitor in that particular area decline; still, a few will eventually grow to dominate the specific area, only in case they possess volume and superior manpower. Other than that, most will get to witness a decline.

So, now, the question is-

How the content marketers will continue to offer value to their company or organization in this tough situation? The solution is the same; they need to adopt them in order to find value in newer areas.

This was when Content marketing 2.0, or integrated content marketing, came into action.

The Next Evolution Of Content Marketing

When there are a number of exciting changes that are happening in the content marketing space, here, the most important part is discipline. At the initial time, it all made sense.

Finalizing content marketing at the top of the funnel was actually proving itself a disservice to an entire organization. Considering emails and blogs are the only spaces to utilize content in an organization is indeed a narrow view of the customer experience.

In reality, the usual customer experience is full of the content piece, whether it is sales deck customers seeing their first demo or onboarding or training documents they utilize for training themselves along with their team.

A non-existent or bad content piece can actually derail the experience of the customer with your company. At the same time, a good piece can make all the difference. To your customers, the content quality you are providing during the lifecycle of the customer is actually the reflection of your services and products.

Importance Of Integrated Content Marketing Strategy

Till now, we have only talked about the evolution of content marketing and why integrated content marketing came in the first place. Now, we will talk about why it is necessary to go with integrated digital marketing.

Integrated content marketing usually needs more than ideas that properly function in silos. It actually requires all the parts of the same equation to move altogether, and that too in perfect harmony.

All of the moving parts of an integrated content marketing strategy have to assist each other. In case it can be done, the whole unit will become much more successful than it would be the case if only individual ideas will take action.

With the help of an integrated content marketing strategy, all your marketing moves will make sense totally as they will be one singular part of a larger machine. Also, as the blueprint has been made already, there is no need to guesswork anymore.

Each content piece you will deliver will definitely have some purpose. They will also send your audience to another aspect of your campaign. The basic idea behind this is to completely immerse the customer with such quality content that they will be super motivated to buy your products or services.

Components Of An Integrated Content Marketing Strategy

So, everything begins with the content, which is specifically your organizational communication with the particular markets you are serving. The content you are delivering should do the marketing part for you. When people start to share the content pieces you are creating; they are obviously going to become more interested in checking out your company.

When it comes to supporting your integrated content marketing strategy, a number of marketing channels are all prepared to serve you. There are two major rules.

• All the aspects of your communication campaign should be perfectly coordinated across the distribution channels you are utilizing.
• That also should be measurable and trackable.

Now, we are talking about some of the most crucial channels for your integrated content marketing strategy.

Website

It is the hub of your business. The website is where the sales are actually made, and all the essential information is shown. All your strategic pointers will point here only. Your website must be a crucial part of your content strategy. After all, you are stuffing it with enough content pieces.

Email Marketing

When it comes to communicating with your customers, email is the main form. It offers optimal trackability along with doing much more for building relationships than anything else. Email content should be short, informative, and offer your customers a solution they need.

Social Media

The main role of social media is to keep your current customers engaged. Along with that, it also needs to simultaneously attract new customers. Here, you need to ensure that you are posting or using shareable content.

Mobile Apps

Apps are responsible for providing interactive advertising opportunities and a rich content viewing experience, along with real-time analytic insights, and all these come with newer revenue opportunities for your organization.

Print

Content marketing is basically an online phenomenon. However, print advertisements also can be proven useful as long as they are linked directly to other aspects of the same content marketing campaign.

To Conclude

We have almost covered the essentials that you need to know about integrated content marketing. In case you have any doubt or queries, you can reach us any time. The best part is that, along with offering you a complete solution, we will also be able to offer you the services you will want for your business and company.

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