How your corporate content will finally generate sales in 2023
Companies will face growing challenges in 2023. Above all, there is increasing cost pressure - clearly, with the threat of recession, the pressure on marketing in particular to implement more effective and business-generating campaigns is growing. Although many communication managers still expect marketing budgets to grow slightly, uncertainty remains high and short-term cuts cannot be ruled out. Added to this is inflation, which is putting a strain on existing resources. At the same time, the demands on brand and digital marketing are also growing, as it is becoming increasingly important to link digital campaigns more closely to sales in order to achieve the desired results with the available marketing funds without placing a strain on the brand's budget. A vicious circle.
Modern companies have also started to integrate their employees into their marketing activities as ambassadors. In this way, they are focussing more on authenticity and are more approachable for potential new customers. BUT - this often results in complex communication landscapes that are coordinated and managed centrally and should actually be an important part of a holistic strategy.
Finally, the possibilities in the MarTech sector and AI technologies such as Chat GPT are opening up new opportunities for companies. However, in order to capitalise on these, they need to restructure their own content strategy and adapt existing newsroom and content hub activities to the current situation. This is because the requirements for content have changed fundamentally in 2023 and new approaches are needed to generate business with corporate content today. As a multi-award-winning communications consultancy and full-service agency, the Evernine Group therefore shows companies five approaches in this article that will enable them to survive in this new age and develop their optimal content roadmap that will help them achieve measurable success.
High cost pressure? 💰
Losses in (insufficient) co-operation between departments?
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Do you recognise yourself here?
corporate communication, which we call one-voice marketing 🚀
New definition of the marketing plan
So what exactly does this look like in practice? In order to target their own content to the relevant target groups, generate a real understanding of the brand among consumers and build long-term relationships, companies should critically scrutinise their own marketing plan and redefine it if necessary. Ideally, a total of five to six overarching themes should be defined that summarise the company's own services in the best possible way. Of these, one or two should be ‘brand loyalty’ topics, another two or three ‘thought leadership’ topics and then two or three product topics that are very suitable for digital campaigns.
Now it's time to define different funnels for these topics and organise them into a content structure that is geared towards the new buyer groups on the market. Looking at your current topics, you will certainly realise that not all of them are up to date and may need to be reorganised and adapted. And many companies have a lot of catching up to do, particularly in the area of brand loyalty.
For some companies, this can mean a significant reduction to the most important core topics - for others, a new thematic understanding for a marketing plan that focuses specifically on content and matching services. The decisive factor here is differently designed content that addresses the desired customers precisely at the right point in their individual customer journey.
Target persons who are far out in the funnel, for example, can be reached with painpoint-orientated, general content, while groups further in the funnel should be addressed directly and in a USP-orientated manner, focusing precisely on their challenges.
Employees as an additional key to success
A successful content strategy also depends on the willingness and commitment of a company's own employees to participate in corporate communication as authentic communicators. This also requires employees to be aware of their own presence in social networks. Evernine summarises this under the terms ‘Digital Me’ and ‘Digital Us’. A look at the CEO-LinkedIndex, in which the LinkedIn activities of all CEOs from the DAX, MDAX and TecDAX were analysed over the course of a year, clearly shows that the communicative performance of stakeholders and managers from the company has significantly more reach than the company account itself.
Many modern companies are already doing this - the main thing here is to rethink employees, allowing them to communicate and act in a way that allows them to pursue their individual interests on the one hand (Digital Me) and represent the interests of the company on the other (Digital Us) and create a common WE. This approach must be harmonized within the framework of an ambassador strategy.
It is essential to promote the intrinsic motivation of employees - i.e. the individual motivation of employees to participate in the company's digital communication and to distribute the content from the new marketing plan and clearly define their individual participation in the activities with them in advance.
The right structure is crucial
Many companies already have newsrooms, for example in the form of a company blog, and use them as an important tool for their corporate communications. They are therefore particularly suitable for presenting corporate communication in a comprehensive and brand-orientated way. However, they are not always sufficient for a comprehensive content strategy. Ideally, they should be supplemented by a company's own content hub.
As a content and technological basis, content hubs form the foundation for unique marketing and post-PR activities. At the same time, well-positioned content hubs are crucial for companies to be able to take advantage of the new developments in the AI sector, keyword Chat GPT. This is because the benefits of quick and easy content creation using AI programs only have a positive impact if the content can also be distributed effectively. This means that new paths can be taken in the digital world and innovative content formats such as scrollytelling, podcasts or videos can be quickly and easily integrated into the overall concept. This means that content hubs are also able to react to new trends in an agile manner and at short notice. In this article, you can also read about the other advantages that companies have by using content hubs.
The right use of AI
Companies should be aware that AI is not yet capable of actually writing texts. But it is now indispensable for the operation of the content hub - for example for news creation or for researching topics in advance.
With a content hub architecture and the technological environment, companies can take advantage of the benefits offered by AI programs such as Chat GPT. This is because they facilitate both research and the creation of articles, thereby simplifying the editorial operation of their own content hubs.
This opens up new opportunities for companies to react agilely to current topics and market developments. However, they should pay strict attention to acting in accordance with the previously defined content strategy.
Agile project management as the key to success
In order to make corporate content truly successful, all the steps you have taken so far should be constantly scrutinized. Agility is the keyword here. Without agile project management and the constant safeguarding of content, you can no longer manage in today's content environment.
Modern tracking measures, for example, enable companies to work in an agile manner. By using them, project managers can keep an eye on the performance of their content environments at all times. Pre-defined KPIs such as dwell time, lead volumes, click-through rates (CTRs) and visitor sources help them to do this. This allows them to evaluate the use of different content formats and optimize them on an ongoing basis. Based on the figures and performance monitoring, companies can also test new content formats such as videos in the right places and thus profitably expand their existing content strategy.
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