Creating branded content that stands the test of time isn’t just a creative strategy, it’s a long-term investment.
Content marketing is the realm of creating owned, quality content and disseminating it in a way that creates value for leads, or prospective customers, and brings authority to your brand. The ROI (return on investment) on this type of content is often difficult to calculate, so how can we go about making sure we’re getting the most out of our owned assets?
A highly-regarded analytics firm specializing in marketing ROI recently released a “recession-proofing” report. From the results of their analysis, there’s a lot we can learn about how to approach our branded content—whether owned, paid, or a mix of both.
How do you optimize your ROI?
Like our CVO Diana Brooks always reminds us, poor marketing decisions are an epidemic among brand owners.
But, based on a recent report by analytic partners, focusing on these 3 parameters can make all the difference. While content with immediate impact often provides more immediate results, the trend shows that long-term, branded content consistently outperforms its short-term counterpart.
As your company faces the nearing recession, follow these 3 recommendations to recession-proof your marketing strategy.
1. Invest: both money and time
A recession looms, and the instinct as a business owner is to cut costs. And where can we afford to spend less? Marketing—right?
Wrong.
When recessions are abound, consider your competitors. If you’re cutting your marketing spend as they maintain or increase their own, what effect will this have on your business?
On average, a brand will lose nearly 15% of its market if a “similarly-sized competitor doubles its marketing investments” during an economic down cycle.
2. Create high-quality, branded assets
We often gravitate towards product or service driven advertisements and organic content—but is this the best move? It may offer immediate results for a quick campaign, but this form of media doesn’t do much for your brand in the long-run. And in times of crisis, we must prioritize longevity.
So which creative assets stand the test of time?
High-quality, branded assets—especially video.
Aim to own video assets that can be leveraged for both paid and organic campaigns.
Branded assets and the halo effect
In marketing and advertising, the halo effect denotes the “positive impact that advertising for a specific product has on other products within the portfolio or brand franchise.”
Basically, branding your assets makes a difference.
Create a brand that people visually recognize and associate with certain consistent messaging and emotions. And imbue that brand’s identity into each of your owned assets. This way, each new ad benefits from the recognition garnered by previous campaign strategies.
3. Diversify & optimize your Channels
In 2022, media entails more than it ever did. As marketers, we must use this to our advantage. In the digital world, where does your audience live? In which channels do they spend the most time?
Channels feed into one another, together creating the totality of your online presence. Performing well on one channel provides a boost to the others, and so on. At The 3rd Eye, we call this culmination of channels your brand’s digital ecosystem.
Online search is a prime example of this.
Despite our waves of data points from channel analytics, we often only see “the end point in a much more complex journey.”
With this in mind, it’s key that we optimize each step on that journey.
Pick 3 or 4 focus channels, and individually optimize your strategy & content for each.
Whether it’s LinkedIn, search, or TikTok, every platform has its own set of best practices. And though your audience has commonalities across platforms, the iterations of that audience will also differ in each one.
So while your branding should be consistent, it is equally as important to identify the differences in expectations for content from each channel—and tailor your media to those preferences.
Long-term thinking to future-proof against challenging times
Ultimately, our recommendation for marketers during a recession aligns with that of the report:
“Play the long game for the best odds at success”
Creating high-quality content with a consistent brand identity doesn’t just require investment, it requires time. We need to have the patience and consistency to see the results of our efforts.
But it’s worth it. Users will resonate with media that defines your brand—rather than simply presenting the benefits that come with your products and services.
As we mentioned at the start: branded content that stands the test of time isn’t just a creative strategy, it’s a long-term investment.
Need help optimizing your Content Marketing ROI? Send us an email to get started.
