What sparked the surge in media marketing?
Within the past few years, there has been an explosion in brands using online channels to promote their services and products to potential customers. With media platforms being so heavily saturated, businesses must battle their competitors for the attention of their target audience by publishing quality content. To compete with the constant stream of informative videos, educational content and captivating images and videos, every company needs to start thinking and acting like a media company.
A traditional TV ad may resonate with many people, but it will only keep their attention for the duration of the ad and in order to reach those people again, another TV ad would have to be created and launched – this being both time consuming and expensive. This traditional form of marketing and advertising is far less effective than the more modern media marketing which can reach a vast audience across millions of media platforms and venues, on a consistent and continuous basis.
Can quality content increase consumer consumption?
It can and it does.
With shrinking attention spans and mounting distractions, businesses are challenged with creating strong content that resonates with audiences and can be viewed across any device. Most have shifted their focus from written content and embraced a more visual approach to communicating with their audiences using video series, podcasts, blogs that incorporate video and/or audio elements. People simply want to see and hear more from brands and connect on their own terms.
Some larger consumer companies are focusing their business models on subscriptions that include a variety of media. For example, Amazon offers a bundle that includes music, streaming TV, photo storage and shopping. Nike is building a membership product that includes virtual workout and training plans. This continuous connection between company and audience is key. When people are interested in the content enough to follow the company’s social media accounts, they will have a stream of constant exposure to that business and its’ products. A sure-fire way of enticing people into spending more than they might have done in the past with only TV and editorial advertising.
With fewer resources, companies are trying to find creative ways to reach new customers without relying on paid channels. Brands are starting to see the value in marketing like a media company?—?creating binge-worthy content across multiple formats and driving audiences to a central, controlled location to consume content.
This shift to a media mindset is really designed to help brands own their audience. Many companies have relied heavily on third-parties like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and now TikTok to share great content and acquire followers. It sounds ideal but the problem is that those platforms technically own that audience. So brands have no way of communicating directly with those followers.
Social media platforms can be powerful tools to reach and communicate with new audiences. However, leveraging the platforms to build your own subscriber base is key to building and captivating a long-term client base.
Create a well-balanced content strategy
The goal with any marketing is to increase consumer spend but for the purpose of media marketing, this needs to be put aside with the focus being on quality, regular content. People must be treated as audiences coming back for the next instalment of a story rather than one off consumers. A well-balanced content strategy will enable people to connect with the business, encouraging both interaction and loyalty, and will certainly keep them around for the journey of the business.
