The vision
To become a publisher, content creator and the “CNN” of your business. The strategy should focus on positioning your business as a thought leader and trusted source of content. The goal will be to create and curate the most relevant content in our industry and use it to engage quality discussions with stakeholders. This approach will allow you to develop proprietary media channels that can be modified on a campaign-by-campaign basis.
The value gained by becoming the source and owning the media channel vs. Paying for it is the ability to expand reach, increase market share, and build brand loyalty.
This will allow you to communicate more effectively with stakeholders. Engaged stakeholder communications can be monitored, measured, and optimized to meet your pre-defined success metric.
Taking a publisher approach
The goal of a publisher is to create content that is relevant to a target audience. The more credible and authoritative the publisher, the more likely people are to read and share. The publisher’s mindset focuses on both quality and frequency. The basic structure of a publishing process is to create or curate content (a news story, for example) and then engage people with specific means of sharing it. As part of the content marketing strategy, the publisher will operate from a “digital newsroom” and will have a specific set of digital tools that can be used to create, curate, or distribute content. The digital newsroom will serve as a content factory. It will be where content is added and distributed. This can be categorized as “owned media” and will provide a way to “earn” audience participation.
The digital newsroom will have a dual purpose:
1. It will allow us to increase organic (earned) search engine visits.
2. It will allow interested parties and potential customers to opt in for content upgrades (lead generation).
Each component of the newsroom will have their own success metric. Make sure you have analytics installed to help track behavior. Examples of success metrics can be defined as (but not limited to) increased website visits, downloads, views, followers, and shares. The data collected will allow you to make informed decisions on how to best allocate resources while optimizing labor and maximizing budget.
Audience Development
To build an audience, you must first research and map the appropriate digital channel with the appropriate audience/demographics. The first step is to identify and monitor trends in media consumption among the various levels of stakeholders. By recognizing and respecting the specific communication preferences of stakeholders, you will gain credibility and increase the size of your audience. By monitoring audience engagement, you will be able to respond much faster, leading to additional communication opportunities. This will create a cyclical process that reminds people of the channels they can access to communicate with your business, 1 on 1. This will help position your business as transparent and accessible. There is also an element of customization that happens within this stage. Personalization happens within the one-on-one conversations that take place between your business and stakeholders. By promoting a dialogue, rather than a cold and sterile online experience, you can cultivate a human component that has not yet been capitalized on within your specific competitive space. This integrated approach to one-on-one communication will set you apart from competing service providers.