In a digital world, content is the currency of influence. Obviously, most marketers nowadays are aware of the importance of content marketing: according to recent studies, 93% of B2B marketers use content marketing, and 60% of marketers create at least one piece of content each day.
Along with the explosion of content, marketers are challenged to make their voice heard. That’s why influencers should be a part of your content marketing strategy. Traackr Academy of Influencer Marketing recently brought us a new course, Confluence: The Meeting of Content and Influencer Marketing, to help marketers attract and convert customers by aligning influencer and content strategies.
There are three key reasons why marketers should integrate influencer and content strategy:
- Raise awareness,
- Build authority, and
- Reach a relevant audience.
In short, influencers help amplify and extend your message to new audiences and bring you the credibility to reach and engage with the relevant community.
One of the biggest misconceptions about incorporating influencers into content marketing is that it’s all about marketers reaching out to the influencers and asking for a ‘push’ after the content is being created. But influencers can be helpful in a lot of other ways besides amplifying the content. For instance, they can be an excellent resource to inform your marketing team about what your key audience cares about and what topics you should focus on for the upcoming content; supporting or co-creating content is also a great way to leverage influencers’ expertise and influence to the community.
Here’s how the academy suggests marketers to take influencer into consideration for every step of the content marketing cycle:
However, marketers should be selective about the tactics based on the relationship they’ve built with the influencers. As we’ve learned from Traackr before, influencer engagement is a journey. If your influencer is unaware of your brand, s/he may refuse your invitation to co-create content.
For more insights, detailed tactics and loads of useful templates and charts, register for the course and learn more!
At Delightful we always advise our clients to think about people, not just pixels while we help them fleshing out a content marketing strategy to beat the competition. We encourage them to incorporate influencer marketing, personal branding, and employee advocacy strategies into their current and future marketing plans.
From our experience, the results our clients have gleaned from this people-centered approach have been incredibly effective and cost-efficient.
Contact us if you need help via our content marketing or influencer marketing services!
Thanks for reading!
Bianca Hu – Digital Marketing Strategist at Delightful Communications