You can view photos from the event here

Here are eight content marketing insights and takeaways from the half-day session:

1. Word of mouth-worthy content

Content marketing, when viewed as the need to post something on Facebook everyday, continues to be a concerning area. Are these meaningful messages that deepen the perception and positioning of your brand or just noise?

Delegates recognise the importance in creating brand stories that consumers could resonate with and would want to talk about when the related topic is being brought up.

These positive word of mouth endorsements can be one of the most powerful forms of advertising executed.

2. We can sell them our products/services, but they come back because of the connection built from stories

You happen to have a great product/service that sells itself, but we discussed that it was never enough.

Delivering delightful experiences and surrounding consumers with content marketing that connects positively on an emotional level could win hearts and minds, and leads to building loyalty beyond reason as pointed out by Steve Jobs’ quote “It’s not the customer’s job to know what they want’.

3. Circulating content to the right audience

The internet has enabled the distribution of content more efficiently, but some of us are still caught up at amassing views, and haven’t really been sure if the right people are consuming that piece of content.

It’s essential to understand the demographics of your targeted audience and how/where the content consumption takes place.

4. Consider developing effective evergreen content

A lot of what we see from brands today is relevant at that specific moment. But, creating content that continues to work for you after its been produced can provide a better return be on your content marketing investment.

It also helps to reduce the frequency burden of new content creation as it retains its value over time, a very valuable addition to your arsenal of content assets.

5. Majority preferred having content-related functions stay in-house rather than outsourced

Quicker turnaround times are one of the many reasons for this preference.

But, a lack of skills and limited resources have resulted in initially outsourcing these functions while internal capabilities are being developed, and possibly taken back in-house when this has been achieved.

Organisations seeing the value of outsourcing continue to do so, but these marketers increasingly want more ownership on strategy development.

They are not only briefing suppliers on their goals and what they are looking to achieve, but also specifically on how to achieve them.

6. Hyper-localisation of content from global

Multilingual websites are just the initial steps. To keep consumer engagement on the pulse, we acknowledged the significance of hyperlocal content, despite the language, cultural and resource-intensive challenges it poses.

To maximise regional or global content distribution efficiency, marketers should repurpose or cross leverage existing content when possible.

This includes adapting the content to various audience groups, making it relevant and applicable to different markets.

Here we see Coca-Cola adapting a global TVC to the local culture of Hong Kong and effectively integrating the campaign with multiple channels, maximizing its reach coverage and engagement:

7. Create content that matches the different stages consumers are at in their decision making or buying journey

  • Informative or inspiring bite size content that drums up interest and awareness.
  • Educating or ‘edutaining’ content such as demonstrations and how-to’s that addresses business problems and objectives.
  • Trials or comparison check-lists against potential competitors or substitutes to close warm leads

Read about which content marketing formats worked best in 2013 here.

8. What used to be seen as a greater challenge for B2B marketers is now perhaps becoming somewhat more attainable

The challenge remains, but B2B companies are starting to see the value that comes with engaging B2B buyers at a deeper and more connected level as they try to humanise their brands.

They are looking at marketing to individuals instead of businesses. These meaningful relationships built will put them in a position to be recalled at top of mind instances, and provide perceivably compelling enough incentives for buyers to act on.

See also our B2B Content Marketing Best Practice Guide. 

Econsultancy would also like to thank and acknowledge the following keynote presenters and moderators for their time and contributions at our roundtable event:

  • Vaasu S. Gavarasana, Head of APAC Business Marketing | Yahoo! Asia Pacific
  • Nick Fawbert, Managing Director, Asia | Brand New Media
  • Eu Gene Ang, Lead Trainer | Econsultancy Asia Pacific.

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