Most businesses are in the internet marketing game, however, whether or not they are executing it right is a different matter. We know that in the technology savvy world today, keeping up with the new trends in technology, platforms and satisfying the ever-growing customer expectation is beginning to be more and more difficult to achieve. From lectures, we know the importance of having the 7Cs such as community, content, context, connection etc. is essential to building a strong foundation for a company’s website. But besides these basic elements, what else contributes the success of internet marketing for businesses?

Content Marketing!

In the article which talks about Content Marketing, it tells as that statistically, marketers that are successful with their content campaigns spend twice as much than unsuccessful ones – around 39% vs. 16%. This is a cautionary sign for marketers – don’t be afraid to spend more budget! While spending money is important, where should companies focus their efforts for content marketing? Not surprisingly, the article suggest social media. “85% of companies use social media as their number one tactic” with effective companies using an average of 7 social media platforms to share their content. As in class, we looked at the significance of using social media as a place to connect and build community with customers. “Conversation” was the big take-away, because although it is something that should be pretty much common sense, we take it for granted and undervalue its weight.

Sephora Beauty Insider

In 5 Top Tips for Content Marketing Success, it reiterates and builds on how to successfully build good content marketing, which is also applicable to creating a good social media community with customers. My favourite two is: Bring the Customers Inside and Get Emotional. Similar to the first part of class, where we talked about “Paid, Owned and Earned media”, there is a slight shift toward earned media through the use of user-generated content (UCG), and this is exactly what bringing the customers in talks about. An example of this that always comes to my mind when I think about UCG is the Sephora Beauty Insider Program. Getting emotional refers to not being afraid to elicit feelings from your customers, and although each person may have different reactions, what’s important is that you are “exciting the right people, then it’s ok to let some people go”.

Keeping in mind these additional building blocks for internet marketing will ensure that companies are on the right path with their online strategy.