A Digital Marketing Must-Have for Content Marketing
By: Kimberly Grant
Digital media doesn’t sleep. It’s always on. Social media doesn’t take naps. YouTube is available around the clock; even for when you need sleep sounds.
These days, there is no such thing as content not being available. The advent of streaming services means that you can watch your favorite CW television series (read: The Flash) at any time on any day on Netflix. This always-on media translates into a marketing must-have.
Defining “On”
In always-on marketing, content via paid, owned, and earned media marketing efforts is available to engage consumers via search, social media, and various publisher sites. That’s a fancy way of saying, you can market to a consumer at 3 AM while they’re scrolling through Instagram looking at other people’s home renovation projects. This opens up a whole new way of marketing communications. This also allows marketers to reach people who aren’t consuming content during normal waking hours.
It used to be that the only ads you saw at 3 AM were the cheesy infomercial ads. You know, the ones where people can’t adequately use a broom due to it being “back-breaking” work, but they can bend down to press buttons on a Roomba to do the sweeping for them. Those usually crack me up.
Planning “On”
When planning a digital marketing campaign, always-on marketing is definitely a given. Some basics of always-on marketing are:
- Persistent and personal dialogue with customers
- Short-form content that goes a long way (multiple channels)
- Focuses on a content calendar to tell the brand story
- Communicating in a way that will get your customer’s attention
- It never rests
- It’s personalized because it’s digital
Always-on marketing means your customers are more likely to see your marketing efforts in multiple places. This multi-visual approach helps with brand recognition and brand recall. Always-on marketing is such a staple of digital marketing, that it’s hard to have a successful campaign without this type of approach.
Example “On”
It’s not a real scenario, unless there’s a real example, right? As I mentioned in my previous post, “Reaching for Relevant Content”, Amazon is good with always-on marketing. For Reacher, Amazon used multiple channels to increase brand awareness of the series right before it was released on Prime Video. The Reacher content included videos of actor Alan Ritchson being interviewed about his role, trailers for the series, and static display ads on various websites. The channels Amazon used included YouTube, Imdb.com, Prime Video mobile app, email marketing to their CRM (customer relationship management database), social media ads, and even Spotify for the series’ audio trailers.
With that much ambitious content creation, anyone who was mildly curious about the latest iteration of Reacher could simply go on to their Prime Video feed or scroll on their social media; provided they showed an affinity for action movies. Personally, I am a part of the affinity audience for action films for obvious reasons. Alas, I was not interested in seeing this version of Reacher because it doesn’t look interesting. However, with the various content that I was served through my Prime Video app, via my email, on YouTube, and on Spotify, I thought I might check it out.
Bonus “On”
Now, the scenario above is an example of a successful marketing effort. As a bonus, Amazon’s marketing efforts earned itself offline marketing, as well. Two days after the series was released on Amazon Prime, my best friend Lola mentioned binge-watching the series during our phone conversation. Her critique of the cast of characters being engaging and interesting is an example of good word-of-mouth or consumer-to-consumer offline marketing.
In plain English, Amazon’s always-on digital marketing efforts for Reacher worked so well, that the series achieved organic, unpaid marketing. Organic, unpaid is considered a gold standard of marketing, because it’s free publicity. That kind of bonus marketing has made this skeptic a believer in Reacher and always-on marketing.
Interested in more marketing tips? You can read my take on website flow here.
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