INSIGHT
an ongoing basis and share it with your audience on various media.
Creating and sharing this content will lead to continued engagement from your most interested targets. Links to operators anchored within this content will allow you to naturally and seamlessly push users to your partners, while at the same time providing these users with information they need to become better( read: longer term)
players. An added benefit to this strategy is the fact that it highlights your own expertise in the field.
In the case of instructional content, you’ re providing value by walking your audience through the necessary steps to taking some sort of action. That could be anything from analysing the odds of a given wager to hedging bets in such a way that you maximise your potential earnings and mitigate potential losses. Whatever the case, this is a content strategy that once again showcases your expertise, builds trust with your audience by giving them a form of insider information, and drives continued engagement through the sustainable value of the instructions you’ re providing.
Lastly, you have inspirational content. In this case, the use of the term inspirational doesn’ t relate to motivational phrases, but rather content that is inspirational in terms of the elicited actions. You can inspire your audience to try something new and different, and the best way to do this is to provide tips and tricks that might not be particularly obvious when you share, say, the standard instructions involved in a particular act. Again, this is a content type that drives repeat engagement and provides your audience with value.
Make it personal Personalising the content you share to Millennial audience segments is a two-step process. The first involves segmenting your audience of Millennials using one or several of many( often free) tools that are available to marketers. While this process could easily be a series of articles on its own( and a process that I cover in fairly extensive detail in my upcoming book, Marketing to Millennials for Dummies), in this case you could conduct this segmentation process by using Facebook’ s Audience Analysis tool on your email lists to identify segments based on interests and behaviours. In this segmentation process, one of the important factors to look out for is the expressed( or implied, based on likes and engagement with other brands on Facebook) interests your audience possesses. These interests will allow you to get a better understanding of what makes your Millennial audience segments tick, which will allow for extensive
“ There are three stages of an initial content strategy: education, differentiation and motivation”
customisation of your messaging. Customisation of your content is an important strategy because of the almost overwhelming amount of noise that exists online. Your audience can simply be too easily distracted by something else in a timeline or news feed to pay attention to your generic content. It needs to speak to your Millennial audience on a personal level, which will accomplish a number of objectives. First, personalised content will catch your audience’ s initial attention. Once you have that, the more personalised the message, the longer your audience will be willing to stick around. The average attention span of online adults is only a handful of seconds. If you want to extend that, think customisation first. Lastly,
personalised content will lead to faster relationship development and nurturing. The closer you can get to your Millennials, as noted in the previous strategy, the more loyal they will be and the greater their lifetime value becomes.
Rich and digestible Rich and easily digestible are two qualities that may not necessarily go together well in the world of dining, but when it comes to marketing, the more your content possesses these two qualities, the more successful it will be at driving your Millennial relationships forward. Rich media are pieces of content that leverage delivery methods beyond standard text. So, for example, an image or a video are forms of rich media. These are the types of content your Millennial audience will be most attracted to, and that will most effectively and rapidly deliver your message.
To make your content more digestible, the key is simplicity. You want your brand experience( or buyer journey) to be fluid and clear, and you want your messaging to be short, to the point and genuine. Authenticity( discussed in the final strategy) is key to the digestibility of your content. If Millennials come across content presented in a way that makes it simple, eye-catching and conversational( also covered in the next strategy) then the likelihood they will engage with it is increased significantly. That is especially true if you’ ve followed the previously outlined strategy of making the content personalised to the audience segment.
By using rich media and developing a simple enough message that your content can be digested easily by Millennial consumers, you increase the chances that ongoing engagement can be derived from a particular segment of your audience. That ongoing engagement is crucial in the nurturing and strengthening of your Millennial relationships.
Conversational Your content should entice your Millennial audience to participate in a conversation. This doesn’ t mean that you need to avoid your sales pitch at all costs; you simply need to be smart about when and how it is integrated into your messaging. Millennials will spend money, despite what you
“ Customisation of your content is an important strategy because of the almost overwhelming amount of noise that exists online” might have read, but they will spend it at their own discretion. This means that the aggressive sales tactic of new media will not only fall flat( leading you to spend marketing dollars that lead nowhere) but it also means that your brand will leave no lasting impression on your targeted Millennial audience. Instead of building relationships and loyalty, you’ ll need to run ongoing brand awareness campaigns that target the same audiences, and this is simply a waste of resources in the long run. Conversational, authentic content is the remedy for this problem.
There are three stages of an initial content strategy: education, differentiation and motivation. In the education stage, you’ re teaching your audience about the industry you’ re in and the products or services that are available( some of which you might offer). This provides value to your audience( the first strategy
46 iGB Affiliate Issue 62 APR / MAY 2017