At the occasion of the Content Marketing Conference Europe 2014, keynote speaker Lee Odden was kind enough to make an eBook with some quotes of speakers and panelists (check it out below).
In a foreword (edited and shortened for the eBook) I wanted to share some views on what a customer-centric and contextual content marketing approach, revolving around experiences, can be if you make it, using “an image” I’ve been using for years (can’t tell when/where I picked it up anymore), when urging marketers and organizations to become more customer-oriented. That of Copernicus or better – the Copernican revolution.
It revolves around the theme of the conference and what we’ve always stood for, really: creating business value through customer value by putting the customer in the broadest sense of the word, back in the centre.
When content becomes value
Imagine this: For over 1500 years, people believed Earth was at the center of the universe. Then along comes a fellow named Copernicus who says it’s wrong. It takes many more years before his ideas catch on.
Fast forward to the center of today’s business universe. Where many organizations are still structured based on the idea that the world turns around them (and that it will ultimately adapt).
Content marketing is one of several great opportunities to reverse that view for communicators and business leaders. Using content across channels, tactics and divisions. Revolving around human experiences.
True, content as such is useless. Great content “happens” when it becomes information, usefulness, interaction, a story, an answer, a smile, a meaning, anything revolving around that human experience – Copernican content, revolving around the area where experiences and mutual value occur.
Copernican content connects
Such content connects customers and brands. It connects people. It even unites different tactics and divisions. If you – strategically and culturally – MAKE it. Great content indeed does not just happen. It requires commitment. Integration. Evolution. Innovation. Consistency. Strategy. Vision. Guts. Fun. And relevance. Your customers at the very least deserve that much.
Take these three scenarios: 1) PR pitching a story to an influential voice, 2) Brand marketing striving for a “Wow” effect, mesmerizing their fans, 3) Data-driven marketers providing the right content the right way across the buyer’s journey.
Each scenario has one thing in common: to succeed it needs understanding the experiences the different audiences demand before allowing us in their hearts, minds and wallets.
The Copernicans in the eBook know that it’s our job as marketers to adapt to those experiences and not the other way around. Their weapons: empathy, content, connecting, truly listening and acting.
Thanks to Lee Odden, the contributors and the crew at TopRank Online Marketing.