Shafqat Islam, CEO and co-founder of NewsCred, discusses how the fastest growing brands focus on connecting with customers through content marketing. He argues that a company's product is really the customer experience and value provided to the world through knowledge, community, and inspiration. Content has become the new currency as consumers engage with many pieces of content before making purchases. However, creating great content at scale across channels is challenging due to fragmentation. NewsCred aims to help companies by providing a comprehensive content marketing platform to power the customer experience.
23. …and it directly influences purchase decisions.
Consumers engage with 11.4 pieces of content prior
to making a purchase.11.4
85% of consumers regularly seek out trusted expert
content when considering a purchase.85%
Nielsen 2014, Forrester 2015
By a factor of 3 to 1, B2B buyers want to self-
educate themselves by going to sellers’ websites to
learn about offerings and make purchase
decisions.
3:1
26. The challenge:
Fragmentation – across channels,
platforms, markets, people.
Operations – executing in a
digitally-transformed world.
27. The challenge:
Fragmentation – across
channels, platforms, markets,
people.
Operations – executing in a
digitally-transformed world.
Creation – telling the stories that
matter, and doing it at scale.
29. NewsCred is here to help.
We’re the most comprehensive
content marketing platform.
30. We give brands the
technology and content
they need to power the
entire customer
experience.
31. Break the status quo.
Think big and disrupt.
Lead with purpose.
Inspire a new way of working.
Be more creative, more agile.
Redefine the rules entirely.
Notes de l'éditeur
Jeremy to update the logo
JIM STENGEL RESEARCH
I want you to think about some of the fastest growing companies today….
Facebook, Uber, Instacart, WhatsApp
There’s one thing that these brands have in common.
They have ignored existing companies in their marketplace. They’ve built a NEW way of working and doing.
They think bigger and more creatively.
Act faster and more collaboratively.
They lead with purpose, adding real value to people’s lives.
BUT THERE IS SOMETHING ELSE THAT WE FOUND
For these companies… their products are not what you think they are.
Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles.
Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content.
Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory.
And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate.
(credit Havas techcrunch article)
It is incredibly easy to come out with the next THING… but if you focus on the thing you sell, you WILL inevitably be displaced.
As Clay Christensen put it in Innovator’s Dilemma…
delivering on a future need, providing future value…. That’s disruptive innovation.
Bottom line: your product is NOT the thing you sell. Your Marketing may be your product.
At its peak, Kodak captured 90% of the US film market and was one of the world’s most valuable brands.
And..it actually invented the first digital camera in 1975.
But the company had the nearsighted view that it was in the film business instead of the story telling business. What they needed was a new business model for an environment in which people do not ‘preserve memories’ but ‘share experiences’
Companies have to adapt to the requirements of the market, even if that means competing with themselves. In this environment, marketers should strive for entrepreneurial greatness and innovation, not to just determine preference among existing options.
Marketing is not the art of selling products, as Kodak thought. Smart marketing is about providing a company’s customer base value satisfaction.
While Kodak may have lost sight of its purpose, there is a company in California doing a pretty damn good job. The word camera only appears twice on their website body. They talk about capturing and sharing experiences.
The world’s most versatile cameras are what we make.
Enabling you to share your life through incredible photos and videos is what we do.
TECHNOLOGY IS JUST THE TOOL THAT ENABLES YOU TO DELIVER THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.
In every culture, knowledge is the most important “thing.” It’s a universal, human value that marketers can tap into and build an everlasting business upon. If you’re in financial services, you’re not selling home loans, you’re teaching people how to invest in their future.
It’s the opportunity (and responsibility) of marketers to educate the world. To help people do better and live better.
LinkedIn made the ultimate move by buying an education company. There is no better way to show that you care about delivering real value and care about educating the world than ponying up 1.5B to do it!
Access to information and knowledge can be used to make professionals more productive and successful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdhWhgA8Y0A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdhWhgA8Y0A
This is why traditional advertising doesn’t work. Consumers get no value.
If you give knowledge, education, inspiration, empowerment….. People will give you attention. And they will give you dollars.
IN A DIGITALLY TRANSFORMED WORLD……Content is the best means to deliver value to people.
TALK ABOUT THE KODAK THING AGAIN.
IN TODAY’S WORLD, CONTENT IS HOW BRANDS DELIVER VALUE. SHARING KNOWLEDGE = VALUE.
DAY IN. DAY OUT.
WITH EVERYTHING YOU DO.
EVERYWHERE YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE.