Amid a rapidly changing landscape where internet users have become more cynical and attention spans are shrinking, content marketing is finding itself into the limelight.
“Building out content that really resonates, that is organic within the platform that it is served on and that adds real value is something many marketers are focused on at this point in time,” said Tammy Cash, head of marketing at Toronto-based Horizons ETF, which manages 90 exchange traded funds and has more than $10 billion in assets under management.
Cash points to the key ingredients to a successful content marketing campaign, which include data, technology and personality. On data, she explains the importance of “understanding it, mining it and using it appropriately for the specific audience segment”, while personality entails “ensuring you can provide a level of education around an asset class or a type of product and doing so in a way that can resonate humor as well and to a broader audience.”
Cash also emphasizes the need to have the right team members to create content marketing campaigns at financial services firms. “I’ve built the marketing team with a publishing concept, which I think is happening more and more in the world of marketing,” she said. “Hiring increasingly from the worlds of journalism has been a real opportunity to get people on board who are used to work in a deadline-driven world, used to think about marketing from an organized, strategic, calendar perspective.”
It entails building core requirements as it relates to publishing and production, including videos, podcasts and infographics. “It’s experts in the world of content production and distribution in every aspect of marketing, from social media, from videos, you name it,” she said.
What does the future of content marketing world look like in Cash’s view?
More shorter-form videos such as 15-second clips that lead into longer content, and a greater emphasis on artificial intelligence and marketing automation. Videos will not only be shorter, they will also be more personalized.
Ultimately, Cash believes that all marketing will be content marketing. “It is all content,” she said. “It’s about serving the right message to the right audience at the right time.”
