Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

C5: NewsCred tackles the meta-task of marketing to marketers. What’s the biggest challenge you face in communicating with that audience?

 

AB: Most marketers today know that content is the key to truly connecting with their audience. However, it’s sometimes difficult to justify why brands should allocate more of their budget to content marketing, especially when this budget is being borrowed from elsewhere.Content marketing is not a short-term game – it’s a long-term strategy with long-term results. Investing in content requires an entirely different mindset than what traditional marketers are used to. It requires CMOs to move away from the crutch of traditional digital advertising, and instead move toward a more customer-centric, value-led approach to marketing.

 

For us, that means constantly proving the business case of content marketing. In 2013, banner ads were clicked a mere 0.1%, and that was before the abundance of ad-blocking technology. Today’s consumers are far too smart to click on a banner ad or watch a pre-roll advertisement. They know what to ignore, and it’s our job to help our customers cut through the noise and deliver actionable information that their audiences want.

 

The good news is that there is a compounding effect of content marketing, and we frequently use our own data to prove this. For example, at NewsCred the marketing team drives 40% of our revenue on a first-touch basis, and influences 100% of deals. And the best news is that content marketing is our most cost-efficient channel! For every $1 we put in, we get $14 out....