This gets so frustrating.  We bang the drum to get brands to start making content, which they do.  But then I guess not enough of us emphasized how important it was that the content be good.  The results of a study by Beckon shocked CEO Jennifer Zeszut and company.  They looked at the performance of $16B in marketing spend and wowzers, branded content creation is up 300% from last year.  Good, right?  No.  Because the vast majority of that content sucked.  Engagement was totally flat.  You know how much of it was good?  5%.  Stewart Rogers writes 5% of branded content got 90% of the engagement.  I’ll say it again and you brands keep not listening.  You don’t need more managers and marketers, you need entertainers and journalists.  And IF you get them, stop making them do ads you call content.  I’d drop my mic but it’s expensive.

 

No one’s gonna buy the house if the curb appeal is lousy.  That’s another way of saying your great blog post or video won’t get seen if you aren’t good at writing headlines.  So here we go with Christopher Jan Benitez tips from BloggingTips.com.  KISSmetrics says readers absorb the first and last 3 words, so make those count.  Use power words like “life-changing” and “hack”, but don’t overuse.  Use lists, big lists so the reader will think they’re bound to learn something.  Put a statistic in for immediate credibility.  And spark discussion by dealing with topics people want to debate about.  So my apologies, I should have headlined this story 87 Orgasmic Headline Tips That Will Make 64% of You Weak-Kneed.

 

I know what you’ve been worrying about, don’t think I don’t know.  You’re worried that there’s still one small spot in the digital landscape you can’t use to market your brand.  Well you can go back to sleeping like a baby, because a startup called Emogi is launching Wink.  The Wall Street Journal’s Alexandra Bruell reports Wink can get you into the text field of messaging apps.  Well, one anyway.  You can get branded emoji and GIF options onto Kik.  Let’s say you’re messaging a friend about needing a doughnut, the word “doughnut” will trigger some doughnut-brand sticker options so you can pick one.  Kik’s cool with it because it gets a cut of the ad revenue.  And yes, CEO Travis Montaque and company are in talks with other messaging apps.  eMarketer says the time US adults spend on mobile messaging apps will go up to 9 minutes a day in 2017, that’s 4 minutes more than this year.  You want a doughnut now don’t you?

 

If your boss is saying yes to all kinds of online advertising but no to branded content, ask them if they can step aside for someone smarter.  An annual study from Forbes and IPG MediaLab shows branded content is outperforming other online ad methods in all kinds of ways.  Christopher Heine writes that bam, brand recall is 59% higher than native or display ads.  And it’s growing, up 17% since 2013.  People are 14% more likely to seek out more content from a brand after just one branded content impression.  So should we all get drunk and crazy and ditch our display ads?  Forbes Chief Revenue Officer Mark Howard doesn’t seem to think so.  He says Forbes’ clients get a 9% lift if and when branded content is teamed up with display.

 

Look at us, out there trying to build relationships with our content, which in turn might get people to trust our brands.  But that must not be a big concern of the media, because the public’s trust in traditional media has plunged to the lowest point this year, and media brands don’t seem to be terribly interested in doing anything about it.  Gallup asked people how much they trust the mass media, and 68% said “not very much” or “not at all.”  Rande Price writes that decline of trust has been going on over 10 years but is speeding up, especially with young and middle-aged adults.  Several theories as to why; too many options, too much competition which leads to overhype and junk food journalism.  Who knew that brands would be in a better position to win people’s trust than journalists.  Well…former journalists.

 

Well it hasn’t exactly happened overnight, or even a little fast, but a Curata study shows marketing executives are starting to take real responsibility for content marketing strategy.  But that doesn’t mean most content marketing teams are big operations.  Curata’s own content marketing director Mitchell Hall says that in 2015, 49% of companies thought they’d have a content marketing executive by the end of the year.  Today, it’s still down at 42%.  Patrick Gorman writes for Fierce CMO that 68% of companies that do have a content marketing team have 3 or fewer people on it.  21% have 4 to 6, 6% have 7 to 10, and 5% have 10 or more.  How’d your team stack up?

 

You know, it really is sweet the way you put up a Facebook Page for your business and you still think you can get organic reach based on the strength of your great content.  But your relationship with Facebook changed a long time ago, and you’ve got to pay if you want a good time.  Just leave the money on the dresser.  Ken Yeung reports that yes there are a lot of businesses putting up Pages, Facebook says over 60M, which is 33% more than last year.  But when it comes to who’s ponying up for Facebook advertising, that number stands at 4M, and over 70% of that is outside the US.  The other 56M must be counting on lightning to strike.

 

Do you spend your weekends rolling around in a white van, following people while you watch them with binoculars?  Sounds creepy right?  But companies love to do this and the public is taking notice.  A survey by Michael Nicholas and Kantar TNS learned 34% of users feel stalked by online advertising.  And here are the countries who have started actively ignoring branded content because of it.  Sweden and Denmark are the most creeped out at 57%, Britons want no part of it at 40%, South Africa at 26%, and 24% of China ignores stuff from brands.  Your best shot is Saudi Arabia and Brazil, they’re pretty tolerant.  Katie Grant writes in inews your other best bet is to get Kim Kardashian to like your brand, because 40% of 16-24 year-olds trust what others say online more than “official” sources.

 

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