To get those insights, you need to make use of the best marketing analytics tool for your goals. The features that tool needs will vary depending on what those goals are. It’s less about finding one tool with all the features listed in this article and more about seeing which of these components fit your needs.

1. A user interface you can actually use

Here’s probably the most important quality a content analytics tool should have: You can actually use it.

Some tools like GA4, the newest version of Google Analytics, offer a ton of powerful features. You can get nearly real-time insights into big-picture topics like what a typical user journey looks like or dive into granular information like how many viewers scrolled through at least 90 percent of the content on a sign-up form page.

Unfortunately for everyone who’s not an analytics expert, understanding GA4’s user interface can feel like trying to read a dead language. Luckily there are marketing analytics tools out there built with ease of use in mind — there’s been a lot of good things said about Plausible, for instance. That and similar tools make great options if you’re looking for something to tell you how your content is performing at a glance.

2. Audience analytics beyond the basics

Successful content marketing is all about crafting pieces specific to your audience’s needs, preferences, and motivations. Good luck doing that if you don’t know who your audience is, though.

That means you need a tool with a solid audience analytics component. Most website analytics tools can give you a basic overview about things like the age and gender of web visitors. If you’re using a customer relationship management platform, though, you can get extremely deep insights through tools like Salesforce’s Audience Studio. The better you design your buyer persona, the better content you can produce.

3. Info on user behavior and experience

A lot of content marketing analytics tools can show you user journeys and content funnels, letting you determine what pages your readers entered and exited. That’s important information, but trying to understand a user’s experience that way is like trying to visit a city by looking at it on a map.

You can get a user-eye view of how people engage with the content on your site by using tools with heat maps and user session recordings. Heat maps are just what they sound like – they show where users are scrolling, clicking, and engaging the most with your content. User session recordings can show you actual recordings of users navigating a certain page. That means you can see from their perspective exactly what’s working or not working with your content.

If you’re looking for website analytics tools specializing in these areas, check out Contently’s Docalytics tool. You can use it to not only optimize your case studies, white papers, or blog posts, but improve the conversion rates of your landing pages for gated content as well.

4. Competitive keyword analysis

You can’t stand out from your competitors if you don’t know what they’re doing. Some analytics tools have features letting you track how your competitors’ content is doing compared to yours based on different variables. That means you can see how they’re ranking for different keywords you’re targeting, as well as where they’re earning backlinks.

Based on this information, you can determine where the whitespace is for upcoming content, helping ensure your editorial calendar stays unique. You can also determine what battles are worth fighting when it comes to certain keywords or phrases you’re trying to rank for – some may just not be worth the effort.

5. An SEO strategy assist

The key to successful SEO content is, first and foremost, quality content. That doesn’t mean the technical side of things doesn’t matter. You’re going to need a tool that lets you see how your site is ranking for various keywords, gives you word count recommendations to make sure you’re not publishing thin content, and whether broken links are torpedoing your traffic.

The good news is you’ve got a lot of great options here. Contently offers a ton of tools for planning out your SEO keywords using cost-per-click insights, info on search volumes, and more. Most of the other big players in this space like Moz or SEMRush will let you get some basic info like keyword suggestions for free.

6. Breezy reporting capabilities

Like most of you, I’m sure, I find the most rewarding part of content marketing is making decks showing how different assets are performing. I love it so much and don’t find struggling with Powerpoint soul-crushing in the slightest.

For real, though, a lot of different content marketing tools can generate automatic reports or dashboards that are easy to understand and visually interesting. That lets you spend less time wrangling decks and more time on the valuable parts of your job.

7. Channel performance data

Audiences are scattered across so many different channels these days. LinkedIn. TikTok. X (yeah, still, I know). However, not every content marketing tool is suited for tracking how different pieces are performing on social media.

The built-in analytics available on individual social media platforms offer some info, but that can make it hard to get a consolidated view of how your content is doing across each channel. Platforms like Sprout Social or Hootsuite can help bring together multiple channels into a single view.

Wrapping it up

Finding the right content analytics tool is a process, and knowing what to look for will help you align your needs with a product’s offerings. Contently’s content optimization tools could be what you’re looking for. If so, contact us to set up a product demo.

Ask the Content Strategist: FAQs

What role do content marketing analytics play when building out individual pieces of content?

Analytics tools can do more than just give you the lowdown on what keywords to include in your copy. You can use them to develop a better understanding of your audience, which is the foundation good content is built upon. Done right, the best marketing analytics tools help you write content that people and search engines will love.

What are some actual examples of how I could use heatmaps to improve content?

Let’s say you’re looking at a heatmap and notice a bunch of people clicking on an image. This may indicate that these users are expecting that picture to be linked to a different page – and that they’re getting frustrated when their clicks do nothing. That’s exactly what we saw when using heatmaps to review content. Fixing this led to a better user experience.

Other than analytics, what are some of the best ways I can get to know my audience better?

Marketing analytics tools aren’t the be-all-end-all for developing a better understanding of your audience. Make sure you’re regularly reading reviews, conducting surveys, and monitoring social media to see who your readers are and what they’re talking about.

Are you ready to build a data-driven content strategy? Contently Analytics has you covered.

The post 7 Features the Best Marketing Analytics Tools Will Have appeared first on Contently.

While there are so, so, so many answers to this question, the top choice is pretty obvious. Most brands get in trouble by focusing too much on what they want to say, and not enough on what their audience cares about.

[Click here to watch the first episode of Content Marketing Minute.]

A great content strategy requires a deep understanding of your target audience—one that evaluates both quantitative and qualitative factors to learn what your audience wants from you. All marketers should figure this out before they create content that’s new, expensive, and potentially off the mark.

In the second episode of our new Content Marketing Minute series, I reveal the content strategy secrets to building strong relationships with a high-value audience. There are special guest appearances from Lonely Island and Drake. Check it out below, and please try to ignore the creases in my shirt.

The post Video: How to Create Content Your Audience Actually Cares About appeared first on Contently.

We’ve nailed down the top 10 takeaways from content marketers at SXSW—and how you can put their insights into action for branded content.

1. Understand your content marketing goals.

Many marketers are still just experimenting with content marketing, but that doesn’t mean that proper measurement can be put off for later. Much of the discussion at SXSW centered on how marketers need to go past shares and engagement and create smarter benchmarks to really gauge success.

The consensus? Set measurable goals from the get-go, and then funnel your resources to create content and distribution strategies that will deliver on those goals.

https://twitter.com/mharrist/status/576424315140222976

 2. And where to spend your dollars.

If you’re investing in content marketing, you already understand that traditional advertising might not deliver the impact your brand needs. But great content on its own isn’t a brand-building strategy; you need to get it in front of people. And the budget for that paid distribution can come from one key place: bloated banner spends.

"Banners have 99 problems and a click ain't one" #SXSWInteractive #SXSW #Contentmarketing

— Charlotte Steentoft (@charlottejorg) March 16, 2015

 3. Content is everywhere…

Content marketing has the potential to be anything. So if you’re putting out another old white paper or blog post, it’s time to shift your focus. Consider what your audience really wants, be it a GIF, recipe, infographic, or behind-the-scenes essay. Show what your brand is capable of.

https://twitter.com/alisonjherzog/status/576461800251633664

 4. … so make it fun…

Every time you post, ask yourself, “What does my audience gain by engaging here?” If you can’t answer that question, step away from the laptop and take a walk until you think of something worth sharing with the world.

Funny messages and personal content are key to great engagement http://t.co/l9Fnc7dV25 #contentmarketing #SXSW

— Mafer Poveda Franco (@Coplui_tri) March 17, 2015

5. … and make it applicable.

Have customers coming back to your brand for informative and useful content. It will secure your brand as a dependable resource and make you a more viable contender when customers are to convert.

https://twitter.com/findingpeace/status/576416033122197505

6. But know how to define what content means for your brand…

It’s wonderful to jump headlong into content marketing, and there’s an infinite amount to explore. That said, help your team define what content means to your brand. By laying those guidelines, teams are better able to craft great assets that tie back to real brand goals.

https://twitter.com/cabedababe/status/577502097228185600

7. … and above all else, employ strong writers.

A friendly reminder for brands everywhere: It takes a lot of good writing to cut through the clutter and make a brand narrative successful. Staff your teams accordingly.

Brands will write many of the articles that used to be written by journalists #SXSW #ContentMarketing #SXSW2015

— Franz Buchenberger (@FzBr) March 13, 2015

8. To know thyself is to know thy audience.

Many brands start producing content with specific marketing aims and expect the audience to flock. Reverse that system and you’re looking at an eager audience who provides brands the topics that organically interest them. Red Bull (extreme sports fans), GE (science nerds), and Amex (small-business owners) are all great examples of brand publishers that serve their niche brilliantly.

(Full disclosure: GE and Amex are Contently clients.)

#Contentmarketing is not about creating the most buzzworthy content, but to appeal to core demographics @homeaway #contentfix #sxsw

— Juha Frey (@juhaf) March 16, 2015

9. I.e., get on your fans’ level.

To get those topics, you need to be present where your audience is, and that’s where your big data and social listening skills need to come into play. But you still need to create content that makes sense for that platform, so don’t make things like Perrier’s bizarre party hub on Tumblr.

Brands should be where their audiences are and speak of relevant topics. Not just brand topics. #ContentMarketing #mpost #sxsw

— lukehejl (@lukehejl) March 13, 2015

10. And earn their trust.

The buzzword to keep in mind here is authenticity. All the relevant content in the world won’t convince a wary customer to ‘like’ or support your brand if content reads as contrived.

High engagement comes from ascribing to what consumers already enjoy and helping include your brand in the conversation. And it doesn’t need to be #TheDress or another timely event to start the dialog. Consider what everyday instances pique the interest of your audience and help get them talking.

"Shouldn’t we be spending our resources on trust rather than traffic?" @markwschaefer #SXSW #contentmarketing

— Michael Schmidtke (@michaschmidtke) March 16, 2015

Feel like there’s more to content marketing at SXSW? We want to hear all about it. Let us know at @contently.

The post 10 Content Marketing Takeaways From SXSW appeared first on Contently.

A new study from consumer research group CivicScience has found that consumers are ambivalent toward sponsored content; 48 percent of adults, CivicScience reports, are “very concerned” about preserving objective journalism. Forty-seven percent believe advertising is the best way to fund newspaper content, but 61 percent say sponsored content “hurts the credibility of media outlets.”

These findings are consistent with Contently’s own data from a survey last year. We discovered that 54 percent of readers don’t trust sponsored content, and that two-thirds have felt “deceived” upon learning that a piece of content was brand-sponsored. Fifty-nine percent believed that news sites lose credibility when they run content for brands.

In the meantime, spending on native ads is expected to increase by nearly 35 percent in 2015. How can brands ensure that their content will be well received by readers?

Native Ad Optimization

“A brand must provide real utility by informing, educating, and entertaining,” says Ben Young, CEO of native ad analytics platform Nudge, a product of New Zealand-based digital agency Young & Shand. But marketers can’t achieve this without first understanding their audience’s mindset. By drilling deep into what kind of sponsored content consumers prefer, publishers and brands can get the insight they need to optimize current campaigns—and inform future ones.

“We’re quite early in the industry,” says Young, “but I think [brands] are going to get to the point where they look at the numbers and evolve to embrace this as a new best practice.”

BuzzFeed has tackled this challenge by polling its readers on behalf of clients like General Electric. Partnering with Nielsen Online Brand Effect, BuzzFeed found its GE native ad campaign lifted consumers’ perception of GE as an innovative and inspiring brand. The publisher has worked with advertising measurement firm Vizu in a similar capacity.

At women’s lifestyle site Refinery29, the dedicated Brand Experiences team, which produces the company’s sponsored content, works with its sales and marketing experts to achieve the same result. “Our team is able to leverage editorial thinking [along with] incredible insights and analytics,” says Neha Gandhi, VP of editorial strategy at Refinery29. “We get to really understand our core readers and what kinds of stories resonate with them—and what kinds don’t.”

Transparency and Reader Education

In its “Native Advertising Playbook,” the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) emphasizes that native content must use language that communicates sponsorship, along with visual cues large enough to be noticed by consumers on any device. Because native ad content is specific in appearance to the site on which it runs, consistent and clear labeling has always been a stumbling block.

“Brands want effective disclosure,” says Young, because without it, brand recall is a lost cause. But native ad transparency shouldn’t be limited to labels alone. Nudge advises publishers to educate their readers—ideally when they first introduce native content on their sites—about the format and what to expect.

Young, on the other hand, thinks that an initial post often isn’t enough. “Some have written blog posts to explain it, but as a reader, why would you read a post about advertising standards?”

His recommendation is to incorporate a disclosure into the content itself, similar to the caveats publishers post when cookies are being used for tracking. “When you think about how you use a site, you land on the article and your eyes go straight to the content,” Young says. If sponsored content labeling falls outside the boundaries of the story, it can be easily missed.

In a study Nudge conducted on disclaimers in native ads, it found that disclosers within the content increased a reader’s ability to accurately identify a paid post as an ad by up to 89 percent. “Consumers are reasonable people,” Young says. “It’s about communication, and it isn’t overly hard to do.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Stephanie Losee, managing editor at Dell, which has twice run branded content in The New York Times. “Audiences don’t need or want to be tricked. Metrics show audiences click on and share great content, no matter who pays for or publishes it.”

Quality Rules

Sponsored content may not be objective reporting, but many newspapers are claiming to create “highly original and credible content.” In 2014 The New York Times, the Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal all launched content studios to produce brand stories that live within their sites, and the results have been impressive.

For these publishers, producing a quality product is paramount. At Guardian Labs (of the Guardian), brands partner with both editorial and multimedia crews. T Brand Studio (of The New York Times) staffs journalists that Sebastian Tomich, the company’s VP of advertising, says “could go and work on any editorial team.”

Not all native content is quite so polished. As we reported last fall, Gigaom has struggled to strike a balance between thoughtful sponsored posts and brand briefs that don’t deliver much in the way of value to readers. But in spite of all the setbacks, quality is proving itself to be a hallmark of successful sponsored stories.

“When a reader sees a beautiful, compelling, useful story that was produced in partnership with a brand, they really get something out of it, and so does our brand partner,” Gandhi says. She adds that Refinery29 makes it a priority to preserve the storytelling standard its site readers have come to know and love.

Paid or Owned?

Something to consider about the crusade to win over consumers is whether sponsored content is worth the trouble. Increasingly, brands are eschewing native ads for publishing projects that live on their own sites.

Instead of essentially renting newspaper audiences, which can require a hefty investment, they’re pursuing long-term consumer relationships by publishing on platforms that afford them the ability to re-engage at will.

In the paid versus owned media conundrum, Red Bull, Airbnb, GoPro, and others make a strong case for creating and hosting branded content independent of news sites. But where reaching vast and diverse audiences of engaged readers is concerned, sponsored content—on the Times, Forbes, The Atlantic, etc.—is still hard to beat.

Whichever approach brands take, it’s worth remembering that consumers are still acclimating to the modern form of sponsored content. Brands and publishers alike have some work to do before we gain their trust, but the journey has certainly begun.

The post Will Readers Ever Trust Native Advertising? appeared first on Contently.

But four years after taking on what I at first thought was a doomed project, we’re pretty much there. Through a combination of smart planning and targeting, old-fashioned technical SEO expertise, great PR, strategic partnerships, and lots of hard work, we’re now attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors per month, publishing on a schedule outstripping most trade press websites, and more than doubling the traffic of the largest small business websites in the U.K.

Our 2015 has already started with a bang: We recorded three new traffic records in the first four working days of the year, and three more record days since then.

How did we get here though? I could probably write a book on what I’ve learned plying my trade in this staid, challenging, and often bizarre industry—but for now, here are five fundamentals that I’ve relied on since day one.

Evergreen resources are your best friend

Every month, no matter how flat an experimental piece of content falls, how unengaging our new posts are or even if the entire team is killed in a freak accident, we’re guaranteed a huge chunk of traffic from our many articles, tools, and landing pages that we’ve honed over many years to rank well with extremely popular terms.

Things like our invoice templates or our business expenses guide deliver reliable, high-quality traffic week in and week out. They’re not particularly sexy, but people need them.

BuzzFeed, Upworthy and their ilk are—for my money—houses of sand. Sure, they get huge viral traffic spikes that can generate incredible returns, but I’d pick steady, reliable traffic over unknowable viral hits every day, particularly when it comes to industry blogs. It should be the cornerstone of any content marketing strategy and—especially in the early days—deserves a hefty time investment.

Lauren Pope from Brilliant Noise summarized this idea wonderfully a few years ago in her presentation “Bread and butter content.” You might also see it referred to as “the 80/20 rule” or the Pareto principle.

This doesn’t mean we don’t experiment with viral, shareable content—it just means we’re not reliant on it.

Rethink your remit

Accounting is quite a narrow topic to write about, right? Wrong. Go up a few layers of abstraction and accountancy encompasses almost everything to do with finance and running a business. In fact, the accountants I work with every day say they spend more time advising business owners on a huge range of issues than doing traditional accountancy work with calculators and spreadsheets.

So while the obvious thing to do when running an accountancy blog is to talk about balance sheets, corporation tax, and form-filling, we’ve allowed ourselves to write about almost anything we like—provided there is a tenuous link to finance or business.

One of our former writers, Josh, took this to its logical extreme with a vast exploratory post about the economic impact of the liquidation of Smaug’s wealth at the end of The Hobbit. Its publication resulted in confused mutters around the office as to why our small editorial department was being paid to write economic fan-fiction.

We were vindicated when the post was picked up on the Tolkien subreddit and duly debated and dissected through various economic conspiracy-theory lenses. It doubled our traffic for the week and generated a handful of new clients.

Ignore the incumbents

Accounting has a hard-earned reputation for excessive cost, monotony, and opaqueness. Many accountants are trying to tackle this stereotype head-on by marketing themselves as “not your average firm” or as “plain English speaking.”

Most fail to deliver on this promise because, frankly, and with apologies to my colleagues, they’re accountants. A perfect example: “Plain-speaking accountant without a grey suit!” proclaims the Twitter bio of British Accountancy Award winner Paul Donno—just beneath a lovely picture of Paul in a grey suit.

The editorial shortcomings in our market can be tidily summed up by the backlash from accountants against the U.K. government’s new Gov.uk website. Gov.uk was designed from the ground up to be accessible and usable by anyone and everyone. They have strict (and award-winning) style guides which dictate everything from user interaction to writing style.

For some accounting subjects, Gov.uk sacrificed absolute technical accuracy to ensure the material was understandable by everyone. Every metric showed the site was being used more, and was easier to use, than its predecessor. Tear it down, the accountants said.

While I won’t claim our publication comes close to the pristine output of Gov.uk, we’ve embraced the same principles: accessibility and engagement over bafflingly fastidious accuracy. We’re writing for our audience, not our competition.

PR, SEO, and Content Marketing are all different sides of the same coin

We haven’t accumulated such a large audience without help. We have external PR and SEO agencies (Fugu and We Are All Connected, if you’re wondering—they’re both great), who work together with us to make sure we’re maximizing absolutely everything.

Our site is regularly audited to identify technical tweaks which can increase speed, conversion rates, and search rankings. Our SEO agency works with our PRs so they know best linking practices, and to make our monthly fees go that much further.

When you tie everything together like this, nice things start to happen. One piece of coverage leads to another. Some opportunities for coverage might not pan out, but they build relationships with journalists who remembers us next time. Our CEO, Darren, is offered out as an industry expert on the back of an op-ed published on our blog, which then results in more coverage and organic links back to us.

It’s all about squeezing every ounce of value from every opportunity, and every result. Content, SEO and PR all contribute to, and enhance, one another.

Don’t give up

Every industry has hopped on, or will soon be hopping on, the content marketing bandwagon. When we started it was a relatively new discipline, but now it’s an incredibly crowded marketplace. Being heard is difficult. Building an audience which you can parlay into paying customers is nigh-on impossible. The road to content marketing nirvana is littered with the bodies of those who gave up along the way.

And you’ll want to give up.

After getting hit with a manual Google penalty a few years ago due to our old SEO agency operating beyond their remit, we considered packing it in and putting our content marketing budget into something else.

But we didn’t, and now we’ve recovered and we’re in the best shape we’ve ever been. We even branched out into interactive content and video this year. (Subscribe to us on YouTube here to make our video guy Gavin very happy.)

We, and other businesses that are are enjoying success in content marketing in traditionally dull industries, are the exception rather than the norm. As a result, we’re growing faster than our competition—and a growing business is a healthy business.

And most satisfyingly for me, we’ve proven that accounting can be more than meaningless marketing slogans—we speak in plain English and we’re definitely “not your average accountant.”

A good content strategy can work in any industry, provided it’s the right strategy. Examine your competitors in a vacuum: Are they interesting? Are they useful? Are they technically proficiency? If you answer “no” to any of these questions, there’s a huge opportunity. With some good ideas and a lot of hard work, you may well find yourself speeding past them on the road to content marketing nirvana.

The post 5 Golden Rules for Building an Audience in a Boring Industry appeared first on Contently.

All of which is not a tragedy—our technology-enhanced ability to track and process events has helped solve some big, and previously unsolvable, problems. But in our efforts to understand the world around us via data points we collect, we tend to oversimplify, assigning numerical value to things that don’t necessarily exist in the confines of numbers.

This causes problems for many brands trying to create content, because they enter with skewed expectations—where’s the magic algorithm or KPIs from past campaigns to provide the perfect solution off the bat? Sure, we can measure traffic and engagement and see that a piece did well after publication, but trying to use metrics to determine what to publish in the first place can be a red herring. At best, you risk continually duplicating what’s worked in the past. At worst, you wind up wasting time and resources on content that pleases no one.

This isn’t to say that metrics are useless. Brands can—and should—do their due diligence with them. But successful content creators recognize the need to rely on the qualitative judgment and talents of human beings. Just ask an editor at Random House trying to guess which manuscript on his desk will be the next Da Vinci Code, or an exec at NBC trying to guess which pilot will turn into the new Scandal. The intangibles of creativity, and storytelling quality, remain outside the realm of predictive data.

Like publishing, marketing has never been an exact science. Perfect KPIs and metrics are near impossible when you’re measuring the overall pluses and minuses of co-sponsoring an event, or buying a billboard on I-95. And so, for CMOs creating strategies for content marketing and asking, “How do I know what’s going to work before I put time and money into trying it?” the answer is, “You don’t.”

Yes, we can measure trends, A/B test headlines, and build algorithms that spit out quantitative values for every piece of content your brand publishes. But there will always be that qualitative gap that all the data points still can’t illuminate.

So what’s the answer? Rod Kurtz, a New York-based media strategist who works with Fortune 500 companies and startups, put it thusly: “You can look at the numbers after a campaign, but you also want to ask, ‘Did we tell the story as best we could?’ It’s like magazine editors putting a certain person on the cover, because they think it’ll sell copies. They take action based on their instincts, then they see how many copies sold.”

In short, make the best pre-publication predictions you can, using the best experts you can find. Then rely on both content metrics and the talent on your team to optimize your storytelling, watch for trends, iterate when necessary, and continuously improve. Use data to your advantage, but don’t let it blind you from your team’s greatest value: their creative instincts.

Melissa Lafsky Wall (@Lafsky) is the founder of Brick Wall Media.

The post Don’t Let Data Idolatry Kill Your Content Marketing appeared first on Contently.

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.”

— Macbeth, act 5, scene 5, 19–28

The Super Bowl used to be the big time for brands with amazing stories to tell. It was the one place that brands could go to make an immediate impact on popular culture. Information and media was so scarce, and moved so slowly that these impacts were felt for a good amount of time.

Now it’s pretty depressing.

The advertising economy is built upon scarcity, and in this economy, nothing is as scarce as the coveted “Super Bowl ad.” But these days, it’s not ad inventory that’s scarce; synchronous reach and attention are. The Super Bowl ad is supposed to be a solution for both. Instead, it’s become the tax brands pay for not being relevant to people’s lives the rest of the year.

There are only a handful of reasons for brands to buy a national spot during the Super Bowl anymore. Here are a few, but numbers 3–6 are sad truths:

1. The brand has a major investment in becoming synonymous with the Super Bowl or the NFL.

2. The brand is doing something incredibly significant, and needs America to know.

3 The brand is a category leader, but with declining market share trying to recapture former glory.

4. The brand wants to be featured in news stories about Super Bowl commercials, and social media “buzz.”

5. The brand wants to be able to brag about how many online views its TV commercial got, or how often its hashtag was used.

6. The brand has not found any meaningful ways to connect with the customers it has, or the consumers it wants to reach.

The stories that most brands tell in their 30 to 90 seconds of expensive Super Bowl glory have had to become so ridiculous, so over-the-top, that they are most likely too far away from the products they are meant to advertise to provide any meaningful depth. They become sponsored carnival sideshows and stunts, signifying nothing of meaning, value or purpose to the people they are trying to appeal to.

For brands, being relevant to today’s consumer means a lot more than an insertion into a popular cultural moment. It means providing a user experience that goes beyond the experience of simply using the product. It means building a relatable personality. It means investing in customers as much as investing in reaching the ones the brand doesn’t have yet. It means being there on every screen, not just the big one. It means building a good reputation. It means persistence. It means boldly committing to a story, owning a point of view, and aligning with the values of its customers.

Many have said that the quality of a brand is the premium someone is willing to pay for a product. Unfortunately, the Super Bowl ad is too often the premium brands are willing to pay to make up for their irrelevance.

Don’t be jealous of the brands that can afford to run a Super Bowl TV spot. Instead, focus on ways to resonate with people the other 364 days of the year. You’ll save money, and build a better brand.

And probably get a promotion.

This post originally appeared on Medium.

Ian Schafer, CEO and founder of Deep Focus (a part of Engine USA), is one of advertising’s most influential voices in interactive marketing and social media. An avid technologist, Ian blogs at ianshafer.com and can be followed on Twitter @ischafer.

The post The Super Bowl Ad Irrelevance Tax: Examining the Price Brands Pay for 364 Days of Not Mattering appeared first on Contently.

When it comes to real-time engagement, Twitter is often thought of as top dog—in large part because brands, publishers, and celebrities can have more of a public impact on the platform. Look no further than Oreo’s Twitter hijacking of the social conversation around the great blackout of Super Bowl XLVII, which is often cited as the greatest real-time marketing move of the digital age. (Though it may also be a giant waste of money.)

Facebook’s interactions, meanwhile, tend to be confined to a person-to-person scale, unlike the kind of global conversation Twitter can foster. But with Facebook’s new Super Bowl hub, it looks like the social network is hoping to consolidate their already huge event audience onto one public platform.

To do this, Facebook is offering a robust hub that fits anyone’s social TV needs. A live scoreboard and play-by-play updates help anyone actually following the game, while a live feed featuring posts about the game from professional news outlets and friends allows anyone to easily join the global conversation in real time.

“We have been the second-screen, real-time audience,” Dan Reed, head of global sports partnerships at Facebook, told the Associated Press. “This Trending Super Bowl is part of a broader effort to better surface the great conversations happening in real time around live sporting events.”

Twitter users have always been able to follow trending topics via hashtags and keyword searched, and the company made a huge stride in their “Trend Page” initiative back in 2012 by partnering with NBC to create an event page for the London Olympic Games. Facebook, meanwhile, has never had a designated place to easily find real-time updates from both friends and strangers about specific events.

And now that Facebook is getting in on the action, it seems they have a bigger motivation than just stimulating conversation: They have ads to sell.

According to Reuters, Facebook is now allowing advertisers to target users based on what they are discussing in real time, which, as Wired notes, is a strategy Twitter has already been using.

Further stoking the fires of competition between Facebook and Twitter, Crowdtap’s recent survey of 6,000 consumers found that 65 percent of respondents are likely to interact with brands on social media while watching to find Super Bowl-related content, and almost 74 percent are likely to take action on social media if a Super Bowl TV ad asks them to. And how will they engage with those brands? Sixty-one percent said they’d update their Facebook status, while only 37 percent said they’d send out a tweet.

It looks like Super Bowl XLIX could be anyone’s game—and I’m not talking about the Seahawks and Patriots.

The post Facebook’s Launching a Super Bowl Content Hub. Will It Work? appeared first on Contently.

Though the strength of Obama’s initial campaign came from a self-created social networking site and a somewhat primitive use of Facebook (at least by today’s standards), his team has since proved itself adept at creating and distributing compelling content across our fractured media landscape.

For evidence of the White House’s talents for content marketing, look no further than the administration’s online ownership of Tuesday’s State of the Union address, which generated 2.6 million tweets and was discussed by nearly 6 million Facebook users.

Before, during, and after the speech, the Obama team pushed content to Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to reiterate the president’s legislative goals and keep citizens engaged.

The White House’s multi-pronged attack serves as a great example of how content marketers can, and should, capitalize on the opportunities presented by web 2.0.

Here are five tips we can take from the Obama administration’s content strategy.

1. Dominate the second screen

According a report issued by Nielsen last year, 84 percent of smartphone and tablet owners use their devices while they watch television. This gives brands the opportunity to use social media either to reinforce the messages they are sending on television or to reel in attention they otherwise would not have gotten.

In the case of the State of the Union, the White House used its Twitter account to underscore important quotes from the speech, aided by photographs or presentation slides when appropriate.

"If you truly believe you could work full-time & support a family on less than $15,000 a year, try it." —Obama pic.twitter.com/MsHkVdUnhM

— White House Archived (@ObamaWhiteHouse) January 21, 2015

On WhiteHouse.gov, the administration aired what it called an “enhanced” broadcast of the speech, in which a live feed of the event was supplemented by visual aides that provided facts and figures on issues like climate change and international trade.

The team then pushed three-minute video chunks of the enhanced broadcast to its 3 million Facebook fans, and posted the videos to the White House YouTube channel, as well.

All of this helped the administration capture viewers’ attention throughout the speech, regardless of whether they were looking at the television in front of them or at the mobile device in their hands.

2. Be accessible

One way to keep people coming back to your brand is to make them feel like your interactions are part of a conversation rather than a monologue.

In the hours leading up to the speech, the White House made an appeal to transparency by releasing the president’s prepared remarks on Medium. This gave regular folks the sense that Obama was communicating his message to them directly, rather than leaving them with the feeling that he was speaking only to members of Congress.

Today, he will continue the conversation by doing an interview with YouTube stars Bethany Mota, GloZell Green, and Hank Green, during which the popular creators will be able to ask him questions submitted by their fans.

Finally, the White House has encouraged citizens to share their feedback on the president’s legislative agenda on social media using the hashtag #SOTU.

3. Give people something to snack on

With a nearly infinite number of entertainment and information options available on the web, there’s no guarantee that you will have someone’s attention for an extended period of time.

That’s why it’s important to feed your audience a steady diet of shortform content they can consume in whatever time they happen to have available, whether they’re browsing Tumblr during a short break at work or checking their Facebook feeds while on line at the grocery store.

The White House regularly updates its social media feeds with photos and short videos—like this nine-second clip promoting an upcoming event with West Wing star Martin Sheen—that remind people of the issues at hand without requiring them to burrow into a 5,000-word policy document.

4. Collaborate with people your audience cares about

From the very beginning of his first presidential campaign, Obama has burnished his image by receiving endorsements from a wide array of celebrities. In the process, he’s provided one of the few obvious answers to the question, “What do Philip Roth and Hulk Hogan have in common?”

During the 2012 election, he teamed up with Girls creator Lena Dunham for a humorous, polarizing YouTube video endorsing his candidacy. Later, the president himself would appear opposite Zach Galifianakis on an episode of the Funny or Die video series “Between Two Ferns” to tell people how they could sign up for health care under the Affordable Care Act.

In both cases, Obama’s team worked with influential people to deliver the president’s message to the celebrity’s fans, rather than hoping those fans would come to WhiteHouse.gov on their own.

While your brand might not have its choice of A-listers willing to pitch in, partnering with a celebrity your target demographic cares about is a great way to expand your audience.

5. Understand that no two platforms are exactly alike

Anyone looking to be successful creating content for the web needs to grasp how people look for different things when they visit different platforms.

For instance, a series of artsy photographs people would appreciate on Instagram wouldn’t play nearly as well on career-focused LinkedIn.

To that end, the Obama administration has always been smart about creating content that is native to the platform it is being distributed on. When he did a Q&A on Reddit, he won over the forum’s potentially hostile community members by closing with a reference to one of their most popular inside jokes.

And while the White House primarily posts photos and videos on its Facebook and Twitter feeds, its Tumblr account is peppered with the GIFs that are popular on the platform. Meanwhile, the administration’s LinkedIn presence is all business, featuring brass tacks policy analysis from senior advisor Valerie Jarrett.

No matter what your message is, it’s important to tailor your execution to the platform you are delivering it on. The Obama administration gets it, and content marketers should take notes no matter their political persuasion.

The post 5 Ways the White House Kills It at Content Marketing appeared first on Contently.

Late last year, Neil Patel, founder of marketing consultancy Quick Sprout and co-founder of analytics companies KISSmetrics and Crazy Egg, conducted an experiment based on a straightforward theory: that commenting on other people’s blogs can increase the flow of traffic to your own.

To test his hunch he left 249 comments on various third-party blogs during the month of October. Patel found that if he commented on a blog post within an hour of it being published, thereby ensuring that his remark appeared near the top of the comments section, the effort drove thousands of visits to his site. Furthermore, when he commented on his own posts—articles he wrote as a guest contributor to such sites as Forbes.com and HubSpot—he could actually generate leads.

All told, Patel’s test resulted in 3,973 blog visitors and six consulting leads. One of them, he says, precipitated a corporate speaking engagement worth $25,000.

Patel took two decidedly different approaches to his informal experiment. Comments that he categorizes as “basic,” such as a word or two of praise for the blog post in question, generated an average of 3.2 visitors per comment. He left very few of these—just 25 in all. Instead, he focused on fleshing out his responses to create comments that were 4 to 17 sentences.

With every comment Patel left he included the URL for his consulting site. Though they took a few extra minutes to produce, his 224 thoughtful comments drove 3,891 visitors to that site—an average of 17.3 visitors per comment.

A secondary finding from the experiment was that commenting on larger, more mainstream blogs like the Huffington Post didn’t yield as many conversions.

Still, Patel believes that his technique can work for both B2B and B2C brands. “You just have to leave very valuable comments,” he says, noting the importance of selecting blogs specific to your business and area of expertise. “Don’t focus on building a brand. Focus on helping people through comments.”

At the root of Patel’s comment strategy is the idea that blogs have evolved from online journals to public conversations. One of the original forms of social media, blogging has been around since the early 1990s. Online comments followed in 1998 when Open Diary, widely considered to be both the world’s first blogging community and one of the first social networking sites, launched with reader comments.

For many modern brands, blogging remains the keystone of their content marketing strategy: 80 percent of B2B marketers still invest in blogs. Apart from demonstrating thought leadership and industry expertise, blog posts can go a long way towards humanizing brands.

The question remains, however, on whether brands have any business commenting on the blogs of others. Anti-spam service Akismet, which helps brands filter comment spam from their blogs, reportedly tackles 7.5 million incidents of spam per hour. Patel says that because comments like his were “good comments on relevant sites” that included nofollow links, he wasn’t at risk of being penalized for spamming by search engines like Google. But could comments made by marketers read as spam to the customers brands are hoping to engross?

“It depends on what they’re commenting on,” says Maria Lopez-Knowles, chief marketing officer with California-based Pulpo Media, a digital marketing agency specializing in the Hispanic market. Lopez-Knowles believes that the quality of the comments is paramount to success. “If [the subject] is something a brand is considered an expert in, such as food, and they’re commenting on improving a recipe … it might not be too intrusive. But I think a fine line needs to be walked.” She adds that the comments need to feel organic. Sticking to topics about which a brand is a known authority can help them evade a backlash.

Sean O’Neal, president of social media buying agency Adaptly, warns of the dangers associated with throwaway comments. “If the marketing has no connection to the underlying content, contributes nothing to the conversation that is taking place, and disrupts the natural flow of an authentic discussion, then it’s not likely to reflect well on the brand.”

When a marketer comments on another’s blog as a way to promote their own products, the stakes are even higher. “Great marketing is relevant. It’s contextual. It adds value,” O’Neal says. “And while ‘blog marketing’ might be an easy way to get some free media, reputable marketers will be weary of the risks around negative reader response.”

The takeaway from Patel’s blog traffic game plan is that blogging alone isn’t enough. If a brand hopes to woo audiences and ingratiate itself with potential customers, it must go a step beyond posting to show audiences it’s ready and willing to engage. Brands, after all, employ interesting people who are experts in their field.

They might as well show it.

The post Should You Drive Traffic by Commenting on Other People’s Blogs? appeared first on Contently.

In a survey of 1,000 paid respondents, the content analytics firm found that people who spent more than a minute reading an opinion article more clearly understood its thesis, and more successfully recalled facts from the piece, than those who spent fewer than 15 seconds reading it.

The piece in question was an op-ed in support of the United States working with Iran to launch air strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

When asked a series of multiple-choice questions, 81 percent of respondents who were engaged with the article for more than a minute were able to correctly identify the article’s overarching point, compared with just 42 percent of readers who spent fewer than 15 seconds reading it.

The group that read the op-ed for more than a minute also had greater success answering questions about factual details included at the beginning and the end of the piece.

Charts via Chartbeat

While it is not necessarily shocking that people who spent more time reading an article came away with a better understanding of its contents, Chartbeat’s latest study adds to a growing body of research supporting the use of attention time—also known as engaged time—as a measure of branded content’s success.

Previously, Chartbeat had found that readers who spent more time on an article during their first visit to a website were more likely to return the following week, while a Yahoo study found that more engaged readers had a better chance of remembering the brand associated with a sponsored story.

All of this serves to validate the decisions made by publishers like Forbes, Medium, and Upworthy to use attention time in how they evaluate and sell sponsored content on their sites.

Meanwhile, brands that publish content to their own platforms, like Coca-Cola and General Electric, can see the results of Chartbeat’s latest study as a reminder that it is not enough to merely drive people to a website or get them to look at a magazine. Both of those brand publishers, to their credit, use attention time as a key metric for measuring the success of their branded content.

(Full disclosure: Coca-Cola and GE are Contently clients.)

Indeed, once visitors arrive at a website or open a print publication, it is crucial that they are greeted with stories that are truly worth spending time on. Otherwise the content will not have the lasting impact brands need to build strong customer relationships and drive sales.

Speaking of lasting impact, Chartbeat also found that readers who spent more time engaged with the op-ed were likelier to agree with the author’s opinion that the U.S. should work with Iran to combat ISIS.

While it’s possible that people continued reading specifically because they agreed with the author’s opinion (or stopped reading because they disagreed), these results are nonetheless something to consider for brands hoping to use content to persuade readers to adopt a certain perspective on an issue.

This is especially true for B2B and financial services brands, which frequently analyze complex ideas that readers may have difficulty understanding.

While there is still room for further research—we’d love to see a study charting whether readers with higher engagement times were more likely to adopt a different opinion on a topic from their previous position—it seems more clear than ever that the ability to hold people’s attention is an important component of successful branded content.

The post New Study Further Indicates Attention Time Could Be the Key to Branded Content’s Success appeared first on Contently.

“I’ve seen significant drops in CPCs already, across the board on all campaigns,” Contently Studios Manager Amanda Weatherhead says. “Since the very end of December, CPCs have dropped anywhere from 10 to 17 percent.”

Why? It’s simple. Towards the end of each year, most companies push out a great deal of campaigns to close the year strong. B2C marketers are scrambling to engage consumers with holiday-themed content; B2B marketers are trying to drive their last round of conversions for the year. Everyone’s trying to burn through the rest of their budget while getting maximum results. That creates a competitive market—and inflated CPCs—that drop dramatically when January hits and the spending slows dramatically at a time when many brands’ paid media plans still not in place.

“Q4 will see significantly higher CPCs [than in Q1], and it is definitely much more competitive,” explained Asaf Hochman, senior director of product marketing at Outbrain, a leading paid content distribution platform. “In general, as the year progresses we often see CPCs increasing,” says Hochman.

(Full disclosure: Outbrain is a Contently partner.)

For example, Hochman notes that healthcare companies overload their content in Q4 because of flu season, and retail companies up their distribution to drive sales during the holidays.

Weatherhead also reports that CPCs went up throughout the year, meaning you’ll never find a time to buy cheaper content placements than in January. Specifically, as many brand publishers work to gain footing for their content operations in 2015, marketers are still putting their efforts into building an engaged audience around their brands. In fact, for many, 2015 is the year when higher-ups aren’t going to approve of content marketers simply creating content and throwing it against a wall (or Twitter feed) to see what sticks. They’re going to want to results and ROI. For nascent brand publishers that have yet to build a robust audience, paid distribution provides a relatively inexpensive way to get eyeballs on their content. Then, they can figure out what’s working best and optimize accordingly.

“If a brand doesn’t have a seasonal preference for when its audience discovers its content, it might make economic sense to front load an Outbrain media buy in the first half of the year,” says Hochman.

As Weatherhead urges, “Now is the time to start gaining momentum, growing your audience, and driving up engagement.”

For more on paid social distribution, refer to our series of playbooks on the best Twitter campaigns for your marketing needs, hyper-targeting with sponsored Facebook posts, boosting your thought leadership on LinkedIn, and how to grow an audience through Outbrain—one of the least expensive and most popular options out there, and, evidently, never cheaper to use than right now.

The post The CPC for Paid Content Distribution Is Cheapest in Q1. Here’s Why appeared first on Contently.

When the president of your company says that, you know things have gotten bad. But the just-appointed president of Discovery Channel, Rich Ross, had to make that statement last week during the Television Critics Association press tour to let viewers and critics know that, under his leadership, the educational cable channel will stop producing misleading programming and deceptive mockumentaries. Specifically, Discovery will stop trying to feed a conservationist to an anaconda—but I’ll return to that in a minute.

Those sorts of attention-seeking stunts, long plaguing hallowed ground like the channel’s popular Shark Week, won’t fly now, and that’s the best news out of Discovery for years. After several highly publicized, highly criticized content missteps, Discovery is pivoting to regain trust with its viewers and re-prioritizing long-term relationships over short-term viewership numbers.

Discovery Channel’s most visible audience troubles stem from its Shark Week in August 2013, when it ran a documentary, Megalodon: The Monster Shark That Lives, about an extinct species of shark nearly 60 feet long, to kick off a week of shark-themed programming. Shark Week is the channel’s personal Super Bowl, with average primetime viewership during that 2013 period of 2.12 million people. The Megalodon special nabbed 5 million people, making it the most-watched program in the channel’s 30-year history. Shark Week is especially popular with the prized demographic of men ages 18 to 49, according to Deadline, and it was that week’s highest-rated franchise for the group.

This past summer, Discovery’s average audience during Shark Week was 2.48 million people, tops among all networks with men under 50. According to Variety, that was Discovery’s best week ever with women ages 18 to 49, boosted by the documentary Shark of Darkness: Wrath of Submarine, which had 3.83 million viewers.

The problem? Both Megalodon and Shark of Darkness were complete fabrications. More SyFy Channel than anything, these docufictions had almost no disclaimers to let viewers know that they were headed into nonsensical territory. They didn’t just fall short of journalism, but also of viewers’ expectations. For that, Discovery needed to repent.

A still image from Discovery Channel’s 2014 Shark of Darkness mockumentary.

It’s worth mentioning that Shark Week has not, for the past decade or so, been particularly scientific. Many members of the conservationist and marine biology communities continue to talk out against Shark Week’s devolution from real, thoughtful exploration into speculation and, even more harmful, negative portrayals of the very animals they’ve set out to honor. By focusing on sharks’ supposedly “man-eater” potential, Discovery Channel has injured both the physical bodies and reputations of the fish, setting back work by educators and conservationists to protect and revive its dwindling populations. In that sense, Discovery has lost the trust of the experts it should be courting to help support truly educational content.

The flat-out lies of the mockumentaries, however, did the most damage. Viewers expressed their outrage on social media and called for a boycott. “Same bullshit, new Shark Week,” Gawker exclaimed. But Discovery must have thought the record-level numbers were worth the griping, because they initially backed up their content decision with not only a defense of the first mockumentary but with that follow-up mockumentary the next year.

“With a whole week of Shark Week programming ahead of us, we wanted to explore the possibilities of Megalodon,” Michael Sorensen, Shark Week’s executive producer, said in a statement to Fox News in 2013. “It’s one of the most debated shark discussions of all time: Can Megalodon exist today? It’s [the] ultimate Shark Week fantasy. The stories have been out there for years and with 95 percent of the ocean unexplored, who really knows?”

Discovery wanted its viewers to believe that raising questions is part of its mission— “satisfying curiosity, engaging and entertaining viewers with high-quality content,” according to its website. But uncritically entertaining myths even less popular than Sasquatch (which has gotten plenty of attention on sister channel Animal Planet) are far from high-quality content, and certainly didn’t satisfy viewers—let alone respect their intelligence. With proper fiction labeling and skeptical couching, perhaps, Discovery could have gotten away with some “fantasy” fun. But it chose to fool its audience instead.

From Discovery’s “Eaten Alive” special, via Vox.

It’s a devil’s deal for a media company, brand, or anyone else creating content for public consumption: Should it trade its soul for an inflated reach? What companies like Discovery sometimes fail to consider when creating content is that their soul is everything. One or two big audience grabs are not worth the inevitable fallout from a brand making a move that endangers the trust of its core viewers and fans. As everyone in the media world is starting to realize, raw audience numbers don’t matter nearly as much as the strength, depth, and trust of the relationship with your viewers and readers.

Luckily, Discovery pulled back before they reached the point of no return. The last straw, as Rich Ross addressed, was this past December’s poorly labeled and executed Eaten Alive special, in which Paul Rosolie sought to experience being eaten whole by an anaconda. It didn’t work. The staged stunt, as Vox explains, began with a sketchily certified “expert,” continued with sensational storytelling that failed to stand up to scrutiny by the many herpetologists who tuned in, and ended with nobody actually being eaten alive.

This guy had one job. Literally one fucking job to get eaten alive and he fucked it up

— Jess (@itsjesstucker) December 8, 2014

So it’s a relief that the new leader of Discovery is pledging to move the channel away from these spectacles. “They’ve done very well, some of them, but it’s something that I don’t think is right for us,” Ross said. By this time next year, Ross pledged, Discovery as a brand will have taken its throne in the kingdom of authenticity and, hopefully, will have left the fake sharks and carnage to Sharknado.

Image via SyFy Channel.

The post Discovery Is Going to Stop Feeding People to Snakes, and There’s a Lesson in That for Content Marketers appeared first on Contently.

Research by the Radicati Group has shown that by 2016, there will be over 4.3 billion email accounts in the world. And a Yesmail Email Marketing Compass report reported that subscriptions to email content have grown by 9 percent year over year in the past five years. Despite this growth, the rate of overall emails opened has dropped 3 percent.

Even though these statistics are giving marketers mixed messages, email marketing is far from dead. There are simply more variables to consider when trying to reach your audience. For example, the majority of consumers still prefer email for permission-based marketing communications, as opposed to social media or text messaging. And more importantly, the average ROI for email marketing is higher than search engine marketing and display advertising.

With that in mind, there’s little doubt email should remain a high priority for content marketers. But there’s still one big question: How do you get your content to stand out in increasingly crowded inboxes?

Humanize your marketing with personalization

Applying some common courtesy to your messages can go a long way. Thanks to Gmail’s filtering system, which separates promotional emails from primary inboxes, marketers need to do more than simply copy and click send. By addressing users individually and referencing previous behaviors and actions, your brand will see an increase in open and transaction rates. Personalized emails have been reported to multiply transaction rates (up to 6x!) when executed skillfully.

Let’s look at an example: Amazon has used customer data to create an incredibly targeted email marketing program. The company does not randomly select products to advertise. It uses the user data from searches, clicks, and purchases to recommend related products via email.

Of course, it’s all not about data-based targeting. The voice of your brand and the content you provide consumers matters too. For starters, make sure your email is well-written and engaging. And past that, be sure you’re providing readers with informative and entertaining stories, not just business pitches. In the long run, doing so will help you build long-term relationships with readers.

Don’t sell, tell a story

A great narrative is a crucial ingredient to outstanding content. Emails are no longer just transactional reminders and calls to action. There’s nothing wrong with conducting business through email, it’s just that the person sitting at a desk during a coffee break probably would prefer not to be approached in a hey-click-here-to-buy-some-shirts kind of way. It’s irritating.

Just as email marketing should be personalized, it should also be creative. People are naturally drawn to stories. Stories can be compelling, lighthearted, visual, inspiring, and memorable. More often than not, a good story can stick in a potential customer’s mind. Brands that apply storytelling to their email marketing will be able to acquire and retain more customers. As author and VaynerMedia founder Gary Vaynerchuk said, “Storytelling is by far the most underrated skill in business.”

Not every email needs to be measured in sales. Sometimes brand loyalty can be of equal value. For example, Betty Crocker occasionally emails subscribers recipe tips related to their product, poll results, and an “Ask Betty” feature that encourages organic engagement.

Similarly, with a great touch of personalization, Eloqua strengthened their relationship with the reader by customizing the hero image in their email to reflect the name of the reader’s company.

Simplify Your Call to Action

If you’re promoting a sale, event, or limited-time offering, keep the email copy short and sweet. Readers don’t want to search for a link at the bottom of the page. They want instant gratification, or they’ll move on to the next thing. And for large retail companies thinking of running multiple sales simultaneously, this can lead to a cluttered call to action that confuses consumers.

More links and buttons do not equal more clicks. To demonstrate this, Whirlpool conducted a case study and discovered when a brand reduced the call to action from four buttons to one button in their email, they received a 42 percent increase in engagement.

Consistent UX Between Web and Email

Generally, people subscribe to email newsletters because they’ve enjoyed your original product, platform, and content. With that being the case, it is important to keep the user experience seamless between email, website, and social media.

Pinterest has done this extremely well. The image-based website sends digest emails regularly to their users with a layout design identical to the one on the website.

Create a Membership Club

Once you have a sizable mailing list, you can keep in touch with your contacts through a membership club. With this new communication channel, your brand would have a reason to constantly keep in touch with members. Users can also congregate and connect with each other.

There are many examples in the entertainment industry of successful membership clubs. For example, Grammy-nominated musician Ryan Leslie connects with his fans directly through his #Renegades membership club and offers a store and exclusive content that’s only accessible to members who pay a small fee. Leslie uses this direct connection to thank fans for their patronage and give early previews to his content.

Pearl Jam also has a membership club and charges annual membership fees. Members get priority ticketing, monthly newsletters, and annual vinyl singles.

Although many brands have attempted to from a loyalty perspective (e.g., Coca-Cola with their now-retired iCoke rewards program), creating a community that involves other members would also help you stand out in the inbox.

Coca-Cola is now working with white-label social platform Backplane to create the 1886 Club, a group for Coca-Cola collectors. American Express built their now-famous OPEN Forum. And Bomgar built a community for their insiders to enhance customer education.

Closing Thoughts

Your brand should find a way to reward consumers who have shown interest and loyalty by subscribing. To see an increase in engagement, personalize emails, tell interesting stories, leave clear calls to action, use images, and keep the design consistent. Also, try to introduce some exclusivity into your email marketing strategy. Inboxes will continue to be crowded, but there are ways for you to get the clicks you need for steady growth.

Which brands send the best emails? Let us know by tweeting @Contently.

The post How to Stand Out in Crowded Inboxes appeared first on Contently.

While Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated new movie Interstellar hopes to provide a preview of the future of space travel, Facebook’s Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus are bringing the future of virtual reality to the present.

Trust me, I’ve experienced it firsthand.

I recently attended an exhibit, created by visual effects wunderkinds Framestore, that seemed more science fiction than reality: a tour through Interstellar‘s Endurance spacecraft that included moments of zero gravity and a climactic warp through a worm hole. All of this was brought to life on the screen of the 14-ounce Oculus Rift Developer Kit 2, which was strapped to the face of an often slack-jawed viewer.

Since its initial Kickstarter campaign back in 2012, the Oculus Rift has been turning heads—both figuratively and literally. Many hope it will fulfill the long-anticipated, yet so far unsatisfied, promise of a virtual reality headset that allows for deep immersion and interactivity—two holy grails of audience engagement.

For the uninitiated, the Oculus Rift is a high-resolution headset that goes over the eyes and tracks head movements, creating a feedback-driven experience in which the user can look around in a 3D environment in the same way they would in the real world. Want to look over your shoulder to follow that pen floating past you in zero gravity? You can do that. Want to lean forward to peak around the corner of the glowing hallway ahead? You can do that too.

All in all, the exhibit was a glimpse of the fantastical possibilities of our tech-driven future. As the Oculus Rift nears its anticipated commercial release date sometime next summer, let’s take a peek into what virtual reality means for the future of storytelling.

I, controller: Virtual reality and the future of gaming

The Oculus Rift’s original raison d’être was for gaming, and virtual reality’s greatest promise, at least at this point in time, still lies in the increasingly mainstream video game industry. Immersion is one of gaming’s biggest charms: Anyone who has spent an extended period of time in a game’s universe (whether that be Zelda or Farmville) knows just how enthralling and impactful a video game can be.

Virtual reality has the potential to take video games to the next level by creating ​​profoundly affecting experiences that engage both body and mind by ​​​tricking our eyes and brains into believing that we are in a “real” environment. Some games can provoke such intense physiological reactions that the tool has prompted some to wonder just how far game designers should go when creating purposefully disturbing experiences.

Surprisingly, it is not the Oculus Rift that is today leading the charge in virtual reality gaming, despite its initial commitment to transforming video games with its headeset. Instead, after the Rift’s controversial Facebook acquisition, it appears that Sony’s VR machine Project Morpheus has taken the mantle.

The reason is simple: player input and control. One of the main problems with the Rift throughout its existence, including in the Interstellar demo, is that every experience was forced to be “on rails.” With no dedicated way to control the experience, the user is forced to simply sit there and take it all in. While a great story can be told without user input, the tease of head movement and being placed in a virtual reality environmental makes for a disappointing experience once you realize your freedom to explore the virtual world is limited to your immediate scope of vision.

While an Xbox controller is often used with the Rift, the analog controller seems entirely old-fashioned when paired with a VR headset. To combat this user input problem, Sony’s Project Morpheus is bringing back a technology that was left for dead after the initial success of the Nintendo Wii: the wand-like Move.

With the Move, gamers are given one-to-one input that an analog controller can’t possibly match. This complementary input system is key for making virtual reality something more than a simple tech demo to impress your grandma. By combining with a motion-sensing controller, the headsets become just one part of a system of reality-constructive devices, allowing developers to create a more effective simulation experience that engages your mind and body on a variety of sensory levels.

Without a dedicated input device, the headsets are limited to games like A Night at the Roculus: a hilarious but ultimately shallow experience in which game interaction is limited to neck-cramping head movements. With Move, Sony can create genuinely interactive experiences, like in this (admittedly rough) demo for The Castle. Being able to swing a sword with one-to-one movement from a true first-person view is the dream of geeks everywhere, myself included, and is just one early example of how virtual reality could empower video games to deliver even more compelling stories and experiences than ever before.

The screen to rule all screens: What virtual reality means for TV and movies

One of the reasons virtual reality is so tailor-made for video games is that the camera in a game world is, of course, virtual itself. In a game, developers can program the camera to do basically whatever they want. The same is not true for filmmakers. So far the Rift and other VR devices are limited to being portable IMAX screens that you strap on your face—which, while valuable in its own way, is nowhere near where virtual reality can take storytelling. Even with this limitation, there is little doubt that the Rift’s immersive effect, especially when it comes to first-person filmed experiences such as in this ingenious and mildly NSFW art exhibit, could provide a unique tool for technophiles and creative filmmakers such as Alfonso Cuarόn and James Cameron.

Yet what these headsets need to truly revolutionize the concept of what film can be is a complimentary camera to take advantage of virtual reality’s unique possibilities for user interaction. Luckily, that camera is in the works. Multiple companies, including Geonaute and Condition One, have produced prototypes for the 360-degree cameras that just might change the way filmed stories are told.

These cameras will allow the user to interact with a film like never before, allow for a unique, personalized experience for each viewer and indeed each view. The creative possibilities that these tools provide will undoubtedly push many filmmakers to their imaginative limits, and the potential revolution in film has industry experts foaming at the mouth.

Films like Cameron’s Avatar would be excellent beneficiaries of this innovative new filmmaking style. Instead of being limited to seeing a singular point of view in one of the many battlefield scenes, viewers could instead explore the entire raging conflict around them. They could follow their favorite character or simply go where the most impressive explosions are happening. While this wouldn’t work for all movies, especially ones that rely on a singular and focused perspective, it’s difficult not to see creative filmmakers being able to find artistic and inventive uses for virtual reality.

Virtual reality isn’t necessarily limited to the cinema. In fact, perhaps some of the most practical initial applications of these cameras lie in event television such as sports. Imagine one of these cameras hanging at the rim of a hockey rink, the user able to follow the action as if they were really there—or check away from the puck to see if your team’s goalie is slacking off. You could be onstage at the Academy Awards as you follow your favorite movie stars across the stage, or check out the reactions of the stars in the front row—it’s up to you.

While we may not be at the space exploration period taking center stage in Interstellar, our imagined sci-fi future has come one step close with Interstellar‘s Oculus Rift demo. Entertainment has constantly evolved to bring the consumer closer to the action, to bring the “real experience” into the comfort of your own home; the Oculus Rift promises all this and more. Virtual reality’s boundless possibilities are so far little more than speculation, but don’t be surprised if this small step in technology may turn out to be one giant leap for storytellers everywhere.

The post I Explored ‘Interstellar’ Using Oculus Rift. What I Found Was the Future of Storytelling appeared first on Contently.

My accidental friendship with Rob began with a “holy shit” moment while sitting on my couch years ago. Like many viewers of his second runaway hit, Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory—which depicts day-to-day life at his 25,000-square-foot super-office and counts as one of MTV’s longest-running and most successful shows—I watched mostly because I thought he was hilarious. But not long into the show’s first season, I began to look past Rob’s antics, like getting attacked by sharks and constructing the world’s largest skateboard, and realized he was a super savvy entrepreneur. He was marketing to the most coveted demographic, 22 minutes of balls-to-the-wall storytelling at a time. What’s more, his legions of 18-to-34 fans had no idea they were being marketed to because he integrated brands so naturally.

I eventually profiled him for Inc., and we became fast friends, collaborating on a number of projects since. What’s so impressive about Rob’s approach to media is that it’s almost Trojan Horse-esque—methodically capture people’s attention with one-of-a-kind narratives that organically weave in marketing messages. Fans love it, and Madison Avenue clamors for it.

In other words, this guy’s been doing branded content since long before the term was en vogue.

Dyrdek Enterprises, which abides by his mantra of “Relentlessly Manufacturing Amazing,” has become a media empire: three MTV shows starring and produced by Rob (Rob & Big, Fantasy Factory, Ridiculousness); new shows created by his production company, Superjacket (Snack-Off); a major broadcast deal with Fox Sports 1 (for his pro skateboarding league, Street League Skateboarding); an animated series on Nicktoons (Wild Grinders, based on his toy line of the same name); viral web videos (Rob famously got a full-back “tattoo” of the Monster Energy logo), and partnerships with Chevy and Kraft (for whom he “kickflips” cars and produces an exclusive online series, respectively). Today, he reaches more than 100 million unique viewers on TV and nearly 30 million more through social media.

Days after he inked a multiyear deal that’s reported to be the biggest in MTV history, I sat down with Rob to discuss death-defying stunts, the reality of reality TV, and what it takes for a brand to become “irresistibly shareable.”

How would you describe your approach to media?

It’s a lot more methodical than in the past. It’s understanding what you’re creating and who you’re creating it for and how and where it’s going to be distributed, regardless of what that is—whether it’s a TV show, social-media post, or website. It’s the first step in creating quality media.

You’ve been doing this for years now, and your instincts seem very natural. How did a skateboarder get good at this?

I think I was always a natural storyteller. Initially, it would be just living life’s adventures and crafting the story of those adventures. But as I evolved and really began to have experience in media, it’s been understanding the power of reach that comes with creating the right story. With the original “Rob & Big” sketch for DC Shoes, rather than creating just a traditional skate video, I told a great story around the idea of having a security guard to help me deal with security guards—that scaled its way into a documentary, which scaled its way into a television show. It comes with understanding what has worked and how. But it still all starts with telling a great story.

So what makes for a good story?

I think the best stories are naturally viral. And by viral, I mean it’s a must-share. Take that DC video. At the time, everybody in the entire sport of skateboarding dealt with security guards every time they skated. So the idea resonated so deeply and personally with everyone inside that market. Ultimately, it became this immense “Did you see that?” It became something to talk about, something to share. When a story is truly great, they call it “irresistibly shareable.”

Anyone can go viral once. How do you replicate that consistently?

There are so many different varieties. For me and how I approach creating content, it’s looking at proven successful styles of stories and giving them a twist. I often like to look at things that have worked, things that have inspired me—and make them my own.

Take something like Ken Block’s “Gymkhana Two” video. Seeing the success he had, I asked myself, “How could I do one with him that was unique, but still had the same broad reach?” So I made an exact mini version of his car. That thing did, like, 14 million views.

For years, your biggest storytelling vehicle has been Fantasy Factory. A lot of people watch you facing down a tiger or jumping a car backwards and think, “Oh, cool.” But there’s a very calculated approach to your “reality.”

I’ve developed what I call a reality sitcom. We’ve created a process and format by which to create ideas inside. It starts first with a big idea. “OK, I’m going to break the world record for jumping a car backwards.” And you have this big Chevy integration deal that will be across multiple platforms—social/viral and big distribution with Viacom by integrating with the TV series. We know the ending is jumping the car backwards and breaking the record.

It’s scripted situational comedy—for me. The difference, what makes it “reality,” is that the cast is reacting to me. They’re reacting to me when I’m practicing and crashing. It’s all real. These guys are in the practice car with me crashing. And, of course, in the end, I really did have to go 50 miles per hour in a car and jump it backwards 90 feet. It’s a real world record that I get to keep.

If you tell a great story with the right branded integration, you never question whether the brand is involved because the brand is essential to getting the story done. Viewers don’t think a brand was just stuck in there. They realize that without that brand this story wouldn’t be possible.

What does “content marketing” mean to you?

I would almost equate it to anything else that’s trendy. It’s a matter of quality. Just because you’re doing it doesn’t mean it’s going to work or that you hired the right person. You can set off to create something “more authentic” or “naturally integrated,” but it’s hit or miss. Without the right people and the right story, it’ll just fall on deaf ears.

What makes for an effective branded campaign, whether it’s a corporate or a personal one?

I create almost all the ideas around my own personal brand, which allows me to live within established brand guidelines. Everything I do is ultimately fun, funny, inspirational, or cool. When it’s at its best, it’s all four. And when it’s absolute magic, there’s a little bit of a twist to it. So, since I’ve kind of established those four key pillars, when I set out to create something, it’s about creating around that naturally. But it’s very easy, even when it’s yourself, to drift out of your own exact rules as a brand.

Where do you think brands go wrong?

If you don’t have sound core values and the mission of your brand established—so that no matter what you create or how you create it, it still ultimately ties back to your mission, your vision, your why—it can very easily and very quickly feel like content to be content. What you’re trying to do gets lost. The great ideas will always connect back to what the brand is about.

You draw millions of viewers on TV and reach millions more online. How do the two platforms compare?

To me, ultimately, the value and advantage of television is the quality of content and the scale of the reach. It’s still very difficult to put 22 minutes of content online. As the screens all sort of merge, that’s certainly changing, with the emergence of, say, Netflix coming in and doing big branded content. Even for me, I’m doing a big scripted show with Xbox. But right now, TV continues to be the premium, broad, mainstream distribution point. It will slowly merge into “it’s just a matter of which screen.” But TV is still king, especially in longform.

So it still helps to have a mainstream partner like MTV?

Without a doubt. These brands have been around for 30 or 40 years. You could almost look at a TV network as a digital network of websites, where if your network is aimed at a specific demo, all of your content is directed at that specific demo. So when they tune in, you’re driving them to your other content, other programming. A network is relentlessly promoting its products through its successful products. It’s a pretty simple, fundamental concept that’s now applied to just about everything.

Brands, digital platforms like Vice and Complex and BuzzFeed, they’re all using the same principles that traditional network television does—creating content for an individual and using all its platforms to drive to other platforms. The same way big companies spin off multiple brands, so that you have Pepsi in Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.

It’s great to have a network at your disposal and reach 100-plus million people like you do, but how can a brand—especially a smaller one—grow organically?

It starts with product. I don’t care what it is, it has to be a great product. People often overlook the idea of what they’re creating and who is it for and how is it different and why is it needed. The right ideas, people can find. But the best ideas are the ones that move first, identify a space, identify a consumer inside a space that’s underserved, and make an attempt to redefine that space.

Then, ultimately, at the lowest level, it has to become viral, it has to become irresistibly shareable, so the idea can begin to build it’s own momentum. That’s as hard as it gets, but it’s the easiest way to find success.

How does social media play into this?

Social media is a much more difficult thing to manage and do the right way than most people would think. It’s understanding engagement: Are you putting up stuff that people even care about and engaging with them? Are you telling the right story out there?

I fall victim to this, from a lack of time and resources, where your social has limited consistency and it becomes about driving and promoting different things that you’re working on as a brand, as opposed to delivering on a voice and concept about who your brand is and what your brand stands for. Despite that great reach, I’m still not consistently giving people what I stand for and showing them how I personally live it. That’s really important and that’s the reason why random people with amazingly simple ideas can scale in social media with massive followings, because who they are and what they’re creating is, again, irresistibly shareable.

What are your predictions for this space?

Telling great stories, reaching people, and getting people talking is all media is about. Whether it’s a site, social, TV show, movie—it’s about how you’re getting to people and how many you’re getting to. Branded content is just advertising evolved, with great storytelling as the principle. But make no mistake—you don’t need to create great branded content if you have an amazingly sound brand with amazing storytelling advertising.

Branded content is just advertising evolved, with great storytelling as the principle.

Look at Old Spice, who, instead of trying to integrate themselves in something, went out to create refreshing content around their brand that is immensely viral and shareable. Dos Equis is another amazing concept that scales way beyond even what the brand is itself. So when it comes to media and reach, the idea and product will always lead the way. You can make a great viral video, but if you’ve got a crappy product, it’ll never work.

Photography by Julian Berman for Contently.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

The post Manufacturing Amazing: MTV Star Rob Dyrdek Reveals How Brands Can Become ‘Irresistibly Shareable’ appeared first on Contently.