A2 - Blog 2: Marketing tools

 Storytelling At the heart of content marketing is the technique of storytelling (Da Costa, 2019; Decker, 2020; Bhattacharya, 2021). Decker (2020) defines storytelling as a “process of using fact and narrative to communicate something to your audience” (para 2). The success in storytelling lies in knowing your audience so you can engage them in an authentic way (Da Costa, 2021). In content marketing, it could be in the form of a written, spoken, audio, or digitally such as video or animation (Decker, 2020). The current trend in content marketing shows video to be the most compelling medium (Bhattacharya, 2021). By leveraging storytelling as a marketing technique, marketers will be able to better connect with an audience to share the value of a company, product, or service.

Visual imagery

Visual imagery in content marketing includes images, videos, infographics, memes, presentations, and screenshots (Patel, 2021). Louie (2018) states that “communication coupled with imagery – photographs or video – is easier to process and more entertaining than words on a blank canvas” (para 2). Using compelling visuals in conjunction with text can help deliver a clearer and stronger message. Harris (2020) highlights a few best practices such as keeping to current brand colours and values, avoiding stock photos, and tailoring the visuals to the delivery platform. Through the careful choice and design of the visual, businesses can create more engaging posts or ads that are highly shareable and palatable for a target audience. 

Sendinblue

Email marketing is defined by Sendinblue (2020) as sending a “commercial email message to your ‘email subscribers’ — contacts who have signed up to your email list and given express permission to receive email communications from you...to inform, drive sales, and build a community around your brand” (para 1). According to Campaign Monitor (2020), email marketing continues to be the best ROI tool in a marketer's toolbox. Alongside this, there are trends within email marketing such as automation, personalisation, and elements of user integration and generated content that are crucial to keeping email marketing campaigns successful (Kakovkina, 2021). Sendinblue is a platform that allows you to manage and automate email and text campaigns to communicate with, personalise for, and convert customers (Sendinblue, 2021). For content marketers, this is a direct way to get content to an audience to generate and nurture leads. Another popular email tool is Mailchimp, however, this proves a more expensive option than Sendinblue (Phillips, 2021). 

Trello

Content marketing projects and campaigns often will require collaboration with other people to complete. Trello is a “collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards” (Trello, 2021). Moorehead (2020) editor in chief at Impact online digital marketing describes using Trello to organise pathways of production for content, create labels, templates and communicate with team members. Trello also has a number of ‘power-ups’ which include integrations with other platforms such as MailChimp and has a free and paid version. An alternative to Trello is Monday.com but Long (2021) concludes that “Monday.com emerges victorious over Trello thanks to its advanced features, reporting, and analytics, and customer support but Trello could still be your best choice if you're new to project management, have simpler workflows, or don't need all of the bells and whistles” (para 12). The Trello tool allows for marketing managers to keep all projects organised and transparent to others in the team. This will help ensure smooth management, allocation, and completion of projects. 

Google Analytics

Brenner (2020) states that “content marketers should embrace data to improve the performance of content” (para 2). Google Analytics is a free tool that allows users to measure and track advertising campaigns and social networking sites and applications (Google, 2021). The key data to analyse using Google Analytics is organic traffic and landing page metrics, keyword rankings, bounce rates, page views, and referral visits (Marchi, 2020). All of which will help target and improve content marketing strategy. Weber (2021) discusses the downside to Google Analytics by highlighting that it “can also be hard to use, and a little invasive” (para 1). Other alternative tools suggested by Weber (2021) are SE Ranking and Matomo. Whichever tool is chosen, analytics can provide valuable insights to a content marketer to adapt and accelerate strategy and goals. 

_________________________________________________________________________________

References 

Bhattacharya, J. (2021). 7 examples of storytelling content you can use in your marketing campaign. Retrieved from https://www.singlegrain.com/content-marketing-3/7-examples-of-storytelling-content-you-can-use-in-your-marketing-campaigns/

Brenner, M. (2020). The ultimate guide to Google Analytics for content marketing. Retrieved from https://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/the-ultimate-guide-to-google-analytics-for-content-marketing/

Campaign Monitor. (2020). What is email marketing? 7 reasons to use email. Retrieved from https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/why-email/

Da Costa, D. (2019). 3 reasons why brand storytelling is the future of marketing. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/celinnedacosta/2019/01/31/3-reasons-why-brand-storytelling-is-the-future-of-marketing

Decker. A. (2020). The ultimate guide to marketing. Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/storytelling

Google. (2021). Analytics overview. Retrieved from https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/

Harris, J. (2020). How to create visual content that’s worth a thousand Shares. Retrieved from https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2020/03/visual-content-best-practices-examples/

Kakovkina, V. (2021). Hot or not: email marketing trends for 2021. Retrieved from https://nethunt.com/blog/email-marketing-trends/

Long, M. R. (2021). Trello vs. Monday.com: which Is better for your small business? Retrieved from https://www.fool.com/the-blueprint/trello-vs-monday/

Louie, S. (2018). The power of imagery in content marketing. Retrieved from https://www.jeffbullas.com/power-imagery-in-content-marketing/

Marchi, C. (2021). Why Google Analytics is best for data-driven content marketing. Retrieved from https://www.mirabelsmarketingmanager.com/blog/why-google-analytics-is-best-for-data-driven-content-marketing

Moorehead, L. (2020). How to use Trello for your business content strategy. Retrieved from https://www.impactplus.com/blog/how-to-use-trello-content-marketing-strategy

Patel, N. (2021). 6 types of visual content you need to use in your marketing campaigns. Retrieved from https://neilpatel.com/blog/visual-content-you-need-to-use-in-your-marketing-campaign/

Phillips, R. (2021). Sendinblue vs Mailchimp – our complete comparison guide. Retrieved from https://www.emailtooltester.com/en/blog/sendinblue-vs-mailchimp/

Sendinblue. (2020). What is email marketing and how does it work? Definition and best practices. Retrieved from https://www.sendinblue.com/blog/what-is-email-marketing/

Sendinblue. (2021). About. Retrieved from https://www.sendinblue.com/about/

Trello. (2021). What is Trello? Retrieved from https://help.trello.com/article/708-what-is-trello

Weber, I. 7 interesting Google analytics alternatives to consider. Retrieved from https://mention.com/en/blog/google-analytics-alternatives/