In the second part of this series, Ian Hetri, Digital Marketer and Co-founder at Growthsquid, explains how to produce branded content and measure digital marketing campaigns.

Generating ideas for social media sites is crucial for SMEs. Credit: pixabay

Produce Branded Content

I started blogging and freelance writing in 2010 and quickly realised the power of words and influence blogging have on people. Most importantly blogging was free. I started with eBlogger but soon fell in love with WordPress and since then have been using WordPress.

A site I follow closely for marketing is MarketingLand. Their columnist, Rebecca Lieb, says content marketing is more important to brands and marketers than ever before. Why is that? Because content isn’t advertising. It certainly isn’t interruptive.

Content is valuable, informed guidance for real people, looking for real solutions to their problems.

As Brian Sutter, Director of Marketing at Wasp Barcode Technologies told Forbes last year: ‘The idea of teaching instead of selling seems to turn marketing on its head, and yet it’s at the core of content marketing. “Teach, don’t sell” is exactly what makes content marketing different from advertising.’

If you are good at what you do, create a content driven website instead of just a standard website that only showcases your products.

Help others solve their problem by educating them using your website or blog.

If you do it well, you can become the go to site in your industry and that means more traffic and more sales

‘Create a content driven website instead of just a standard website that only showcases your products.’

How do you come up with content idea for your website and social media sites? Here are my top methods of generating content idea:

1. Brainstorm with your team: pull your team together and brainstorm ideas on what content to create.
2. Visit social media or web forums: what are people complaining about on social media and web forums that are related to your business?
3. Use your own experiences: what are your experiences that you can share to educate your clients?
4. Get inspiration from clients’s problems and testimonials: find solutions for your clients and share that as content to educate others.
5. Use Quora: ask questions in Quora or search for related questions that address your client.
6. Use a blog idea generator: use Hubspots to get content ideas.

Distribute Branded Content

Content distribution channels. Credit: AmpLive

Content distribution channels provide a means of connecting with your audience on a number of different levels.

These channels can include blogs, web page content, social media, eBooks, whitepapers, infographics and newsletters.

The bottom line is for you to deliver some form of message to your target audience.

Forbes magazine states that it’s easier now than ever to hit your target audience: ‘Digital marketing channels are now more level than ever before. Due to the way customer behaviours have shifted, it’s now easier than ever to hit your target audience’.

Anyone can produce content, but it takes smart marketers to determine the right audience and the right digital channels to deliver that content to their audience.

Your content distribution channels fall under three main categories: paid, owned and earned.

No channel is better than the other. All have their pros and cons, and it’s up to you to decide which works best for you and your target market.

Measure how well your digital marketing campaigns perform

Digital marketer Ian Hetri

Measuring your return on investment (ROI) on every marketing campaign deployed could be difficult. But, if you are consistent with your digital branding, this can easily help you succeed in your digital marketing.

The question is, how do we measure ROI for digital marketing that then reflects your strong brand identity?

It may take longer for you to really see your ROI.

But you should make that an excuse not to monitor your digital marketing performance over time.

‘Anyone can produce content, but it takes smart marketers to determine the right audience and the right digital channels to deliver their content to their audience.’

There is obviously more to it than this but let’s keep it simple.

If you categorised your digital marketing campaign into three main sections (search engines, social media and email), you can have some idea about how your digital marketing campaigning is performing.

Under search engines, you may want to pay attention to your click rates, back links and organic positioning of your preferred keywords.

Under social media, pay attention to brand mentions, content shares and engagement.

Under email, pay attention to Call to Action click through, forward rates and lead to customer conversion rate.

What I can do is to suggest you teach yourself the art of measuring your return on investment for your digital marketing campaigns.

Here is why it’s extremely important: if you can’t measure, you will never know what’s working and what’s not working for you.

You might end up losing more money than you intend.

Read the first part of Ian Hetri’s series here.

Ian Hetri is a digital marketer and the co-founder of Growthsquid.