As a vendor at the top of your ecosystem, one of the best activities you can engage in is marketing. Most of your partners likely have little ability to do marketing themselves, especially marketing outside of their local geographic area. So, by placing focus on marketing, you have the ability to improve your own profits while also increasing your sales partners’ appreciation for your efforts.
Chances are, you’re already engaging in some form of content marketing. However, when did you last update your strategies? Content marketing is a fast-moving field, and new techniques are proving themselves useful all the time. These are some of the newer content marketing trends which are worth investigating, to see if they’re a good fit for your brand.
1. Podcasts
Podcasting isn’t a niche content form anymore. It’s actually becoming huge. Data from Edison Research and Triton Digital shows that listenership of podcasts and other audio content are exploding, with tens of millions of people consuming it – at an average of 17 hours per week!
Two things to keep in mind here:
- Your podcast must be interesting and, most of the time, probably a bit humorous. Even if it’s a business podcast, people will be listening for entertainment.
- Secondly, be aware that there’s a good chance your audience will be “second screening,” without giving the podcast 100% of their attention. Write it assuming they’ll be somewhat distracted.
2. Targeting Micro-Influencers
More and more brands are realizing that they don’t need to have a major million-subscriber Twitter personality or YouTuber on their side – they just need influencers who are popular and relevant within their niche. An audience merely in the four or five digits is fine. Do a survey of social media accounts and YouTube content creators who are producing content which relates to your industry, and start courting them for attention. Sending them free samples or demos is almost always effective.
One note: it’s considered poor form to only target content creators who are sycophantic. In most cases, people will gain respect for you if you send your products to influencers known to speak their mind.
3. Refreshing & Republishing Old Content
Traditional wisdom was that you should always be creating brand new content but it turns out that’s not necessarily the case. Hubspot discovered that over 75% of their hits came from content which was more than a month old. They then realized they could leverage this by editing those old articles to include new information, making them more relevant to current-day visitors and increasing their Google visibility!
4. More Use Of Multiculturalism, Diversity, and Inclusion
The business world today is more diverse than ever before, and it will only become more diverse in years to come. The younger generations, in particular, are embracing multiculturalism in a way that’s been rarely seen in history. So, look to make your marketing materials as broadly inclusive as possible. Don’t assume readers are male, white, and/or Western. Create photographic and video materials with as diverse a cast as you can manage. Be positive in portrayals – encourage your audience to feel good about who they are, wherever they are, and whatever they’re doing.
After all, that sort of positivity can easily translate into a positive attitude towards buying!
Protip: Bookmark some lists of unisex baby names from around the world. Then whenever you need to talk about a hypothetical person, they can be Shannon, or Akira, or Imani. The reader will fill in their preferred gender. Bonus points if it’s a name like “Dana” which is both cross-cultural (Arabic and English) and unisex.
LogicBay Makes It Easy To Share And Collaborate On Ecosystem Marketing Materials
If you’re looking for a simple way to store your marketing materials so that they’re easy for your partners to access or contribute to, LogicBay does that and much more! Contact us directly to learn how easily LogicBay can streamline operations within your ecosystem.
