Last week's guest lecturer Brian Halligan, CEO & Founder of HubSpot, argued that inbound marketing is the best way to turn strangers into customers and promote one's business. His marketing funnel model looked something like this: stranger -> visitors -> leads -> customers -> promoters. Instead of using traditional online marketing methods like buying ads and email lists, Halligan and his team at HubSpot promote a philosophy of inbound marketing that focuses on creating quality content that "pulls people toward your company and product, where they naturally want to be." A major theme of this philosophy is "Content Creation" - where you create targeted content that "answers your customers basic questions and needs, and you share that content far and wide." It seems like a winning strategy. In today's online-marketing environment, brands are competing against more and more competitors to grasp the attention of their potential users. Creating a relevant, useful reason for them to interact with your brand seems like a sensible way to approach the problem.
However, one issue that many brands face when thinking about developing a content strategy is a lack of resources. Who is capable of developing the quality content? HubSpot offers some of its own creative resources but I have wondered if there are any other companies stepping onto the seen? That's where Contently comes in. The company, based here in NYC, was co-founded by Shane Snow (Chief Creative Officer), a graduate of Columbia Journalism School. Contently helps companies produce articles that appear on their own websites, are used in Native Advertising placements, and are spread through Social Media by connecting talented writers and journalists to Brands via a sophisticated software application. A David Carr piece in the NYTimes from a few weeks ago, provides a nice overview of the company and its strategy.
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