The two most-overheard words in the digital marketing industry are “data” and “content.” And yet—despite claims to the contrary—few marketers use the former to power the latter. In truth, most still make content the old-fashioned way: study the demographics, spy on the competition, ask the “creative” team to come up with brilliant ideas, distribute collateral, then pray for results. SEO might guide a few word choices, and analytics and social-listening platforms reveal how many views you have (or haven’t) received. But decisions about the formats, topics and tones of the content are often arbitrary.
We think there’s a better way: find out what your audience actually wants.
Most marketers believe they do know what their audiences want. They analyze the ROI on past campaigns. They read studies about the relative efficacy of different channels. They have a gaggle of branding, social media, SEO, CRM and media-buying agencies—each with its own secret formula—promising to convert customers. But none of these agencies know whether the target audience prefers listicles or infographics, an educational tone or an inspirational tone, a vertical layout or a landscape. And none of them know which topics their audience will be interested in eight weeks from now, when the campaign finally launches. That’s because none of these specialized agencies have a complete picture of how an audience interacts with content.
We think there’s a smarter way: analyze all the content your audience is engaging with to predict their future desires.
Too many marketers are stuck in the past, continuing to make content the same way they always have. After all, It’s only human to use yesterday’s tricks to win over tomorrow’s customers. That’s why we’ve removed the human and replaced her with artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms that use real-time data and get smarter every millisecond. That’s why we trust in data instead of “big ideas” or overly complex strategies that fizzle out when the content final reaches the audience.
