Content Marketing Is A Growing Trend In Chicago
Flashy banners and animated ads are facing some competition in the way of content marketing. Web browsers may be noticing that there is a rise in content marketing over blatant "buy me" and "click me" ads, and marketing executives are banking on these trends.
In a recent Forbes report, advertorial, sponsored content and brand content were confirmed to be more popular and effective. This is good news for copywriters and digital writers who are trying to figure out how to transition their skill set from a declining print audience to online readers.
"Advertising interrupts people by pushing a message out," said Andy Crestodina, the co-founder and strategic director of web design company Orbit Media Studios. "Content educates people, pulling them in toward a brand."
Crestodina used his certification in teaching as a way to help connect the dots between an online audience and digital marketing. Outside of being the owner of a web design company, he teaches everyone from high schoolers to CEOs about marketing.
"The best marketers are all teachers," he said. "Consumers are all trying to educate themselves so they can make an informed buying decision. A smart marketer attracts them by putting out this educational information, answering the top questions and publishing useful information. The marketer who can out-teach the competition wins in search engines, social media, and in email marketing."
On average, career and technical education teachers make almost $52,000 annually, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This group teaches highly detailed content, such as auto repair, healthcare, business, culinary arts and technical topics, to students.
However, marketing research analysts and marketing specialists make over $67,000 to create marketing campaigns for products and brands. Marketing manager rates skyrocket to over $115,000.
"Marketing is about both empathy — deeply understanding your audience, and analytics — measuring the impact of your actions," said Crestodina. "Teachers would find the business of marketing very familiar."
While Crestodina believes teachers may be an ideal group for content marketing, for writers or marketing representatives who have not studied pedagogy, The Guardian has a few tips to narrow down how content marketing representatives would need to succeed: don't be afraid of experimentation, think like a reader, understand search engine optimization, use a journalistic ability to pull the "story" out of the content, keep an eye on social media and be able to motivate an audience.
Shamontiel L. Vaughn is a professional journalist who has work featured in AXS, Yahoo!, Chicago Defender and Chicago Tribune. She's been an Examiner since 2009 and currently writes about 10 categories on Examiner.com.
