contentmarketing

Content Marketing: How are JISA providers doing it?

Laura Ruaux

Evidence strongly suggests that content marketing can be very valuable in terms of building consumer trust and reputations of expertise (Kristen, 2013). This is particularly important in financial services as consumers now demand to see evidence before trusting in financial service providers since the 2008 financial crisis sent trust levels plummeting (Johnson and Peterson, 2014).

Kristen (2013) outlines a number of factors contributing to successful creation of valuable content, and applying this to the online blogs of major players in the JISA industry provides some useful insight into competitor behaviour.

The blogs of the following JISA providers were examined: Scottish Friendly, Family Investments, Engage Mutual, Alliance Trust Savings, Sheffield Mutual and Shepherd’s Mutual.

Make Regular Contributions

While it is essential that all content is valuable to readers, the more regularly organisations are able to share good quality content the greater the visibility of their brand (Kristen, 2013).

The rate of content production among major JISA providers in the UK ranges from approximately once a week (Scottish Friendly, 2015a), to less frequently than once a month (Family Investments, 2015a). None of the providers seemed to operate on a regular schedule, providing content at regular but uneven intervals at best, suggesting that a planned schedule for more frequent and regular releases could benefit all providers (Kristen, 2013).

Make it Informative

Kristen (2013) also claims that informative and functional pieces of content are most valuable to readers and Ashley and Tuten (2014) state that the majority of social media content from organisations is designed to be just that.

However, users go to social media for both entertainment and information (Whiting and Williams, 2013), and in contrast to Kristen’s (2013) claim that the highest value stems from informative and functional content, Berger and Milkman (2012) argue that content which is entertaining will gain further traction and reach greater volumes of readers.

Of all six of the financial service providers examined only two had produced entertainment pieces in their last five content releases, and only one of these did so regularly. While the majority of providers produced functional and informative pieces, Engage Mutual (2015a) produced pieces that contained information but were largely entertaining, such as the article in Figure One below, titled ‘Top secrets to looking and feeling fabulous over 50’ (Engage Mutual, 2015b).

Figure One

Figure One: Engage Mutual ‘Top secrets to looking and feeling fabulous over 50’ (Engage Mutual, 2015b)

This is consistent with the work of Ashley and Tuten (2014) suggesting that most financial service providers may be prioritising producing valuable content over content which is more likely to be shared.

Be Specific: Know Your Audience

Kristen (2013) claims that valuable content needs to be directly relevant to the reader, and not generalised. This involves creating life stage and financial status specific content, something which it is clear that all of the JISA providers aim to do, however different products have different customer demographics and this suggests that these organisations should be splitting content by customer segment in order to provide easy to find and relevant content only.

There is little evidence of this occurring on any of the blog sites examined. Engage Mutual are the only site to segment their blog articles by topic, however this reduces ease of which articles can be viewed as multiple segments may apply to multiple demographics as these do not seem to be designed for particular customer segments, as shown in Figure Two below (Engage Mutual, 2015c).

Figure Two

Figure Two: Engage Mutual split content by topic (Engage Mutual, 2015c)

While the articles of all the providers are clearly targeting their customers, it is often unclear which customers they are specifically addressing and there is no apparent method of targeting articles to specific customer segments, something which could improve the value of total content which consumers read (Kristen, 2013).

Be Where Your Audience Are

Ashley and Tuten (2014) claim that the majority of successful social media marketers use multiple appeals through multiple channels to reach their audience. Kristen (2013) supports this action, suggesting that spreading a message through multiple channels increases an organisation’s visibility and opportunity to connect with the intended audience. This may involve, not only using different channels of social media, but enabling an organisation’s content to grace partner websites, online community sites and even non-corporate blogs that the target audience often visit (Kristen, 2013).

All six providers were examined to determine whether they shared their own content on social networking sites, Twitter and Facebook, or through third party retailers and bloggers. It appears that none of the providers share content through third party channels while every provider except for Family Investments uses some form of social media to share and promote their content. Thus reach for content produced by Family Investments will be severely limited in comparison (Kristen, 2013).

Implications for Competitors

Within the JISA providers examined, content marketing strategy appears reasonably consistent. All providers agree that content marketing in financial services is important and at least offer occasional content pieces. Providers such as Engage Mutual and Scottish Friendly seem most engaged in producing and sharing regular content and interestingly these two providers also have the largest followings on both Twitter and Facebook giving their content the greatest reach. It seems struggling content producers could learn a from their example and incorporate entertainment pieces to boost brand awareness online, however according to Kristen (2013) even these providers could improve content marketing effectiveness using greater variety of media and more specific information.

For more information on how to create high quality content read:

Kristen, H. (2013) Content Marketing Strategies to Educate and Entertain, Journal of Financial Planning, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp 18-20

or visit http://bit.ly/15r8DKG to read Ashley and Tuten’s (2014) article on branded social content.

References

Ashley, C. and Tuten, T. (2014) Creative Strategies in Social Media Marketing: An Exploration Study of Branded Social Content and Consumer Engagement, Psychology and Marketing, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp 15-27

Berger, J. and Milkman, K. (2012) What Makes Online Content Viral?, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 49, No. 2, pp 192-205

Engage Mutual (2015a) ‘Health and Wellbeing’ [Online] <https://www.engagemutual.com/the-hub/hub/health-wellbeing/> [accessed 29th April 2015]

Engage Mutual (2015b) ‘Top secrets to looking and feeling fabulous over 50’ [Online] <https://www.engagemutual.com/the-hub/top-secrets-to-looking-and-feeling-fabulous-over-50/> [accessed 29th April 2015]

Engage Mutual (2015c) ‘The Hub’ [Online] <https://www.engagemutual.com/the-hub/hub/> [accessed 29th April 2015]

Family Investments (2015a) ‘From the Blog’ [Online] <www.familyinvestments.co.uk/family-nest/blogs/> [accessed 29th April 2015]

Ho, J. and Dempsey, M. (2010) Viral marketing: Motivations to forward online content, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 63, No. 9-10, pp 1000-1006

Johnson, D. and Peterson, M. (2014) Consumer financial anxiety: US regional financial service firms’ trust building response to the financial crisis, International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 32, No. 6, pp 515-533

Kristen, H. (2013) Content Marketing Strategies to Educate and Entertain, Journal of Financial Planning, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp 18-20

Scottish Friendly (2015a) ‘Welcome to the community blog’ [Online] <www.scottishfriendly.co.uk/community/blog/> [accessed 29th April 2015]

Whiting, A. and Williams, D. (2013) Why people use social media: a uses and gratifications approach, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp 362-369

What factors determine the reach of your content?

Laura Ruaux

While a full blown viral campaign may seem unachievable for many, studying what drives the most successful viral campaigns could provide valuable insight to content marketers in terms of creating communicable marketing content.

So what are the key factors for successful traction of marketing campaigns across the web?

Triggering an Emotion

Berger and Milkman (2012) claim that content that triggers an emotional reaction is more likely to gain peer-to-peer traction than functional content. Furthermore, triggering negative emotions, specifically anger or anxiety, increases the likelihood of sharing, although promotional marketing will not often aim to associate these feelings with their own brand (Berger and Milkman, 2012).

One campaign which made good use of this type of emotions was Always’ Like A Girl campaign, which to date has reached over 50 million views on their YouTube channel.

Always: Like A Girl Video Campaign (Always YouTube, 2014)

More commonly, content containing humour is shared between individuals and groups as even positive emotions such as this are contagious (Du, Fan and Feng, 2014). Despite dealing with a very serious topic, Metro communicated a public health message with humour and to date have over 100 million views on YouTube with the Dumb Ways to Die video.

Metro: Dumb Ways to Die Campaign (Metro YouTube, 2012)

Being Specific to the Viewer

Botha and Reyneke (2013) show that when content is specific to the viewer, and they perceive it to be relevant to themselves and their circle of connections, then they will be more likely to share content. This is satisfying the spreadabililty factor of the SPIN framework which Mills (2012) has created to model user content sharing.

For example, BuzzFeed article ’21 Things All Sisters with a Three-Year Age Gap Know’ already reached ‘trending’ status less than 24 hours after being published (Buzzfeed, 2015).

Figure One

Figure One: BuzzFeed’s specifically targeted content (BuzzFeed, 2015)

Influencer Involvement

Celebrities and high profile influencers can also increase the likelihood of something spreading, for example the No-Makeup Selfie campaign which aimed to raise money for Cancer Research was supported by large numbers of female celebrities who joined the campaign by sharing their own user created content of self-portraits via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, reportedly raising £8 million for the charity (Guardian, 2014). Incentivising an appropriate influencer to share content can also significantly increase the reach of your content (Kumar and Mirchandani, 2012).

Network Characteristics

Social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook are designed to facilitate sharing by making the process as simple as possible. Mills (2012) claims that content is more likely to be shared if the channel that it is on makes sharing as simple as possible by placing the share tool close to the content and quick to complete, such as the single-click ‘retweet’ function on Twitter.

Furthermore, having content spanning multiple channels will increase the likelihood of it being shared as well as the size of the networks that it is on, which determines the number of people that the content can be shared to at once (Mills, 2012).

A strong example of a successful multimedia marketing campaign is John Lewis’ ‘Monty the Penguin’ campaign which spanned Youtube, television, paid search, email and Twitter (Ashford, 2015) and lead to a 19% increase in online purchases over the Christmas period on the previous year for John Lewis (Agg, 2015).

Figure Two

Figure Two: Monty The Penguin Twitter (Monty the Penguin Twitter, 2015)

Overall, these successful campaigns which gained high levels of traction online strongly support the work of Berger and Milkman (2012), Botha and Reyneke (2013), Du, Fan and Feng (2014) and Mills (2012). These common themes can be abstracted from viral campaigns and applied to the creation and sharing of content created to boost brand awareness and customer engagement so it’s important to incorporate network and content design specifics such as these into your content marketing strategy and planning processes for success.

For more information on what makes content go viral visit http://bit.ly/1J9NClW to read Mills’ (2012) SPIN framework and http://bit.ly/1zqiYov to read Botha and Reyneke’s (2013) article on motivation for sharing on social media.

References

Agg, S. (2015) Logistics industry this Christmas, Motor Transport, 26 January 2015, No. 1, pg 14

Ashford, Z. (2015) ‘Mobile Marketing’ [Lecture Notes] Brighton: University of Brighton Business School, Unpublished

Always YouTube (2014) ‘Like A Girl’ [Online] <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs> [accessed 29th April 2015]

Berger, J. and Milkman, K. (2012) What Makes Online Content Viral?, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 49, No. 2, pp 192-205

Botha, E. and Reyneke, M. (2013) To share or not to share: the role of content and emotion in viral marketing, Journal of Public Affairs, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp 160-171

BuzzFeed (2015) ’21 Things All Sisters With A Three-Year Age Gap Know’ [Online] <http://www.buzzfeed.com/tabathaleggett/things-sisters-with-a-3-year-age-gap-just-know#.my5y5nQv3> [accessed 29th April 2015]

Du, J., Fan, X. and Feng, T. (2014) Group Emotional Contagion and Complaint Intentions in Group Service Failure,  Journal of Service Research, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp 326-338

Guardian (2014) No-makeup selfies raise £8m for Cancer Research UK in six days, Guardian 25th March 2014 [Online] <http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/mar/25/no-makeup-selfies-cancer-charity> [accessed 29th April 2015]

Ho, J. and Dempsey, M. (2010) Viral marketing: motivations to forward online content, Hournal of Business Research, Vol. 63, No. 9-10, pp 1000-1006

Kumar, V. and Mirchandani, R. (2012) Increasing the ROI of Social Media Marketing, MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol. 54, No. 1, pp 55-61

Metro YouTube (2012) ‘Dumb Ways to Die’ [Online] <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw> [accessed 29th April 2015]

Mills, A. (2012) Virality in social media: the SPIN framework; Journal of Public Affairs, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp 162-169

Monty The Penguin Twitter (2015) ‘Monty the Penguin’ [Online] <https://twitter.com/MontyThePenguin> [accessed 29th April 2015]

Five reasons why SMEs should adopt a content marketing strategy

Laura Ruaux

Content marketing is marketing through the creation and distribution of content that is valuable for readers (Kristen, 2013). It aims to create a conversation with consumers by providing informational or entertaining content (Wu, Kao and Lin, 2013). But with so many different marketing strategies available to SMEs, why should content marketing be adopted?

Builds Brand Awareness

Ho et al (2015) define brand awareness as a consumer’s level of readiness to recall attributes related to a particular product or brand. While brand awareness is not an end goal, it facilitates SMEs in positioning themselves as viable options for potential customers (Ho et al, 2015). Increased brand awareness improves an organisation’s likelihood of being selected by a potential customer and leads consumers to actively seek out product or service information from them.

Good content is often shared via social media, news websites, bloggers and sellers, carrying your brand name to new circles of consumers and linking back to your website and other items of content (Whiting and Williams, 2013). For example, IBM shared their blog article about their research scientists’ progress towards building the first practical quantum computer and 28 people had shared this article with their own circles within an hour (IBM Twitter, 2015), while multiple bloggers and news sites shared the information and linked back to the IBM website.

Figure One

 

Figure One: IBM share their blog article on Twitter (IBM Twitter, 2015)

Figure Two

Figure Two: Market Business News share blog with link back to site (Nordqvist, 2015)

Integrates Multiple Channels

This example with IBM also demonstrates that content can span multiple channels, which improves the likelihood of content being shared (Mills, 2012). With the rise of social media and web 2.0 the barriers to entry for content creation and sharing are gone, and anyone with internet can contribute (Pulizzi, 2012). This means that the costs of content creation are lower than ever and consumers are more capable and willing to participate in two-way communication with brands (Pulizzi, 2012).

IBM also shared their content on Facebook, where it gained 27 ‘shares’, 162 ‘likes’ and 3 comments within the first hour.

Figure Three

Figure Three: IBM share their content on Facebook (IBM Facebook, 2015)

Retains customers

Social media users seek information and content that they can share to increase their feeling of belonging (Whiting and Williams, 2013). Providing conversational content that is either informational or entertaining encourages existing customers to engage with the organisation, something which is key to customer retention, particularly in financial services (Seigyoung et al, 2007). However Sashi (2012) highlights that interaction is not sufficient and customers must feel satisfied by the interaction in order to become loyal customers.

Increases customer engagement

The interaction and satisfaction that Sashi (2012) describes can be managed long term to create brand advocates, who will not only share the organisation’s content but also actively promote a brand to their circles. The more influence a customer has the greater the value of their advocacy and influencers can also be targeted to share and co-create content in order to increase return on investment (Kumar, and Mirchandani, 2012).

Facilitates acquiring new customers

Boosting brand awareness and producing positive peer reviews and brand advocates decreases the consumer’s perceived risk of engaging in transactional business, particularly for online retailers (Easlick and Lotz, 2014, Hajli, 2013). Functional and informational content boost trust in an organisation by allowing consumers to see demonstrations of expertise (Ho et al, 2015; Kristen, 2013). As growth through retention alone is limited by existing customer base factors such as size and need for repeat custom, acquisition can be a valuable source of business growth for SMEs (Reibe et al, 2013).

Limitations

As with any marketing approach, content marketing has its limitations. Many SMEs struggle to find the time and resources to create bespoke and valuable content and outsourcing this can be expensive. However, using social media to create microblog content can be an effective and inexpensive method of content creation allowing for easy consumer participation on a low budget (Okazaki and Taylor, 2013).

Overall, the case for content marketing with support from social media is highly compelling for organisations of all budget sizes. Acquiring new customers and retaining existing customers can both be achieved with good quality content sparking two-way communication and sharing of your organisation’s messages to new consumer circles. So if your organisation relies on word of mouth and customer engagement, you’d better get together a content creation plan.

For more information on content creation as a marketing strategy read Ho et al (2015) at http://bit.ly/1eWwA0F.

References

Eastlick, M. and Lotz, S. (2011) Cognitive and institutional predictors of trust toward an online retailer, International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, Vol. 39, No. 4, pp 234-255

Hajli, M. (2013) A research framework for social commerce adoption, Information Management and Computer Security, Vol. 21, No. 3, pp 144-154

Ho, C., Chiu, K., Chen, H. and Papazafeiropoulou, A. (2015) Can internet blogs be used as an effective advertising tool? The role of product blog type and brand awareness, Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp 346-362

IBM Facebook (2015) ‘IBM’ [Online] <https://www.facebook.com/IBM?fref=ts> [accessed 29th April 2015]

IBM Twitter (2015) ‘@IBMResearch scientists achieve critical steps to building first practical quantum computer’ [Online] <https://twitter.com/IBM/status/593457347495927808> [accessed 29th April 2014]

Kristen, H. (2013) Content Marketing Strategies to Educate and Entertain, Journal of Financial Planning, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp 18-20

Kumar, V. and Mirchandani, R. (2012) Increasing the ROI of Social Media Marketing, MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol. 54, No. 1, pp 55-61

Mills, A. (2012) Virality in social media: the SPIN framework; Journal of Public Affairs, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp 162-169

Nordqvist, C. (2015) ‘Practical quantum computer a step closer, say IBM scientists’, Market Business News, 29th April 2015 [Online] <https://marketbusinessnews.com/practical-quantum-computer-a-step-closer-say-ibm-scientists/58585> [accessed 29th April 2015]

Okazaki, S. and Taylor, C. (2013) Social media and international advertising: theoretical challenges and future directions, International Marketing Review, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp 56-71

Pulizzi, J. (2012) The Rise of Storytelling as the New Marketing, Publishing Research Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp 116-123

Reibe, E., Wright, M., Stern, P. and Sharp, B. (2013) How to grow a brand: Retain or acquire customers?, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 67, No. 5, pp 990-997

Sashi, C. (2012) Customer engagement, buyer-seller relationships, and social media, Journal of Management History, Vol. 50, No. 2, pp 253-272

Seigyoung, A., Bell, S., McLeod, C. and Shih, E. (2007) Co-production and customer loyalty in financial services, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 83, No. 3, pp 359-370

Whiting, A. and Williams, D. (2013) Why people use social media: a uses and gratifications approach, Qualitative Market Research, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp 362-369