real-time content marketing by mariah moultrie

REAL-TIMECONTENT MARKETING

PRESENTED BYMARLY MOULTRIE*

In the year 2015, fashion marketing strategies have transitioned from the traditional medium of print to relying on digital

means to establish brand identity. With the constant issue of trying to be differentiated from thousands of brands in retail fashion eCommerce, a new era of marketing has emerged: Real time content marketing (also known as content marketing). No longer are brands just trying to advertise what they have, they also have to make their company more personable to their customer base. Many of the eCommerce fashion retail brands such as Nike and Free People, have embraced content marketing, building an identity and lifestyle through social media profiles, becoming more transparent and personable, and even blogging to further push their brand. The purpose of this paper is to define what real-time content is, examine and deconstruct content, and identify what components are within content for it to further promote the brand. With these elements we can explore how it can be used in visual advertising to create a very brand cohesive campaign. We will also explore the dangers and concerns with becoming more personable through real-time content in fashion ecommerce retail.

The first step in this process is to define what real-time marketing is. Real-time content marketing has been defined as a strategic marketing approach that is created for giving valuable, constant and relevant information. This strategy is to gain attention and/or persuade the minds of a brand’s demographics, with hopes of raising the brand’s overall reputation up and profits up, while also giving them the ability to “own” their image and give them a control and connect that has never been reached before (Steimle). The Association of National Advertiser’s President and CEO, Bob Liodice, says succinctly, “...Content marketing allows the advertisers to truly be creative and in a way that is not expected” (“Bob Liodice”).

1 | REAL-TIME CONTENT MARKETING

MARIAH MOULTRIE | SENIOR THESIS

There are numerous examples of content marketing:

» “User generated content” such as chat rooms and reviews

» “Tagging,” which is a digital means of using user-facing keywords to define or explain something

» “Social search,” like Twitter and hashtag searches

» “Search engines” like Google and Bing » “Crowd-sourced results” » “Social media” like Facebook statuses

(Garner)

With content marketing defined, a struggle is brought up by Paul Wendlant, Chief Client Development Officer at Elateral, “The biggest challenge in the marketing industry will continue to be the ability to create highly relevant contextual content” (“Paul Wendlant”). Due to the massive amounts of advertising, especially online, the constant challenge of being able to produce something new and refreshing will forever be on a marketer’s priority list. However, there are always some elements that one must implement within content marketing for it to accomplish anything. For instance, content that is created without some consistency and relevancy will be lost in a social media black hole. Those who implement the key elements of content marketing within their own brand strategy will be able to create relevancy, brand cohesion, and eventually a more engaged

It is important to understand what digital assets can be created and used that can enhance the marketing research one has obtained through keyword research. There are 4 major categories to this subject that all incorporate your living language of relevant keywords, they are: Images, Infographics, videos and context. “Text based context will be a foundation in your content strategy, no matter what vertical your business is in” (Garner). Whether it is 140 character tweet or a paragraph long company blog post, everything that is used within content will have some sort of textual element thus making the importance of implementing keyword research within your text crucial to one’s marketing strategy. Infographics are a great way to use a graphic and a textual element to draw the consumer’s attention, all while optimizing your demographic’s living language. “...Useful and unique infographics attracts direct traffic, social sharing and valuable backlinks that help push up your visibility in a search engine.” (Garner).

Another incredibly efficient and fun way of content marketing is the use of videos. Videos can be extremely time consuming to produce but may end up being well worth your time, effort and management. Videos can be used with keywords in many different ways: title, description, within the video, or in the meta-data when you render out the video (Garner). Lastly, graphic or photography imagery is extremely valuable when it comes to content marketing. Images bring large amounts of traffic, SEO and overall entertainment to your content. Imagery also offers a brand the ability to create a visual lifestyle and brand affirmation in their content by addressing the consumer and showing how the brand can become a part of a consumer’s day to day life.

With research and digital assets in mind, the second element in content marketing, content

REAL-TIME CONTENT MARKETING | 2


strategy, is brought up in an interview with Calvin Klein’s VP of Global Marketing, Thomas Burkhardt, who asserts, “Biggest trends in 2015? That would be creation of content and the delivery of content. How and when it can be delivered for it to be effective.” (“Thomas Burkhardt”)

One would need a content strategy to determine and implement the most effective types of content at the right time. The first step in this element is creating a plan or putting a calendar together, so one would know when something should be published. This can be tricky because as it was previously stated, your consumer’s language is living and consistently changing. Events may happen that you did not predict, so always allow yourself some room and time to research and prepare for unexpected events when those happen. that one cannot predict, so always allow yourself some room and time to research and prepare for when those happen; however, there will always be events (especially in fashion) that are planned or are known months in advanced for example. Valentines day is Feb 14th, and in the fashion industry, dress sales predictably goes up around that time. Having content ready about the trendiest dresses to wear on date night will drive consumers to the content and potentially to one’s retail. More things to consider in having a calendar or plan for publishing content are what asset types (image, text, video, a combo of some, etc.) will work with your demographic, and what you are trying to say; where you want to publish (Facebook, blogs, website, etc.); the frequency of when you will be publishing; and, of course, how much time and research you can allocate to those trending content keywords. Using this guide with your work will help provide a clear path and idea for one’s work and help provide a more comfortable way of creating trending content in a moment’s notice (Garner).








With massive amounts of research, a game plan and trending topics, one might forget about also making their content strategy brand cohesive. It’s more than just placing the logo and claiming the content; having a style guide will help set the rules for how a brand goes about content. In the style guide for content marketing, one should consider 3 things: “1. trademarks, 2. tone and voice, 3. style and grammar” (Garner). These are just three things to consider; a style guide is very in depth and will require a lot of thought and time; however, with this properly built out, you can achieve consistency throughout all of your content

When it comes to applying your marketing research to your content, implementing your keywords into your digital assets is essential, of course, but the headliner of one’s content can make or break a piece of content. When writing a headline, the goal is to be exciting and en-gaging without being deceptive. By the brand’s demographics and potential consumers alike, while still having a sense of excitement. Having a special custom meta description (tagging) for each piece of content will also allow consumers and search engines to see what else is in your content (Garner).

After evaluating the first 2 key elements in re-al-time content marketing, you can move on to individual strategies and plans for social plat-forms. With social media platforms, there are 4 distinctive platforms every brand should be aware of, and it is highly recommended that the brands participate in each of the “Big Four.”

Google+ was introduced in 2011 and is consid-ered to be a gold mine for keyword searching and SEO alike. A lot of companies are not fully on board with Google+ quite yet, but because of the popularity and immense presence of Goo-gle’s search engines, it is definitely going to be a necessity in the future. Think of Google+ as an extra way to get a brand higher up on Google’s

search results (Garner). Google+ is a great way to be a part of like minded communities. Pub-lishing your content to gain views and +1’s can increase a brand’s audience views of the brand’s content and website

Twitter revolutionized the way everyone views and defines real-time content. Not only does twitter give the ability to see what consumers are talking about down to the seconds that it’s trending, but also has the ability to search a particular keyword as well. Twitter definitely affects the way brands and individuals are seen and viewed on Bing and Google, so it is import-ant to have a good standing on Twitter with your content, as well as being frequent and relevant by implementing a trending and relevant key-word in a tweet. A keyword or “hashtag” is what is going to connect you and your audience, but overdoing it can make a brand look amateur and unprofessional, so be sure to control your voice and tone (Garner).

Facebook is the social media giant in the world of social networking. Most companies, if not all, have a page to reach out to the consumers that are on Facebook every single day, if not every hour. Being a part of Facebook will enable you to be more searchable through Facebook’s search engine as well as Bing. Their algorithms are quite simple; the more engagement you have through your Facebook post, the more like-ly you will be seen in feeds and be easier to find when searching (Garner). Facebook gives you the ability to post all sorts of digital assets on their platform. Facebook only offers tagging as a way to “categorize” your content. So again, it is important to optimize one’s digital assets and content effectively before using Facebook.

The last “Big Four” platform that is highly effective when it comes to content marketing is LinkedIn. Although it is not as “social” as its fellow social platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, as a business or retailer, it’s important to participate and post your content on LinkedIn regularly as well. LinkedIn offers businesses to be a part of group networks, and those networks subscribed to that group’s email. When a brand posts their relevant content to a similar group, not only will it be in LinkedIn’s feed but it also is sent via email, giving that brand an even higher conversion rate (Garner). LinkedIn is also business to business, so a brand has an opportunity to keep a direct eye on the competition and also participate in discussions about business or even trending marketing that might affect a brand later on.

Of course, there are many other social media platforms that may be just as important and popular to a particular brand’s demographic as the “Big Four.”. Instagram, Snapchat, and Youtube are just examples of platforms that could be used. Knowing where your demographics are is going to be key to what platform you use and what digital asset you put in them. For example, Nike uses different content in different platforms for specific targets of their demographics. Nike has multiple accounts on Instagram and posts imagery of their shoes, lifestyle shots, and even sometimes reposts consumer imagery on their account. While on Facebook, they post direct links with imagery and textual descriptions about a launch of their new shoes, only occasionally using lifestyle imagery to re-affirm their brand. Nike does this well, knowing what demographic is on which platform and understanding what that specific demographic wants, and then delivering it.

Blogging is something that has been around since the beginning of the internet and just



in the past couple of years has made quite an incredible comeback. Blogs really push that ability to create and influence lifestyle, all while integrating effective marketing, relevancy, and research all into one. “RSS feeds push out blog content in real-time directly to readers and content consumers as it is published....blog posts and articles can be shared in real-time via links, likes, retweets, +1’s and LinkedIn shares, among many other types of shares” (Garner). This being said, blogging can be a pretty incredible tool for a brand to really get their name out there, build their image and become integrated into a consumer’s life. Alongside digital assets such as imagery, videos, and textual content, a blog can become a haven of good information to a consumer, and perhaps they will like that post or even share it. A blog that is shared a lot can create a mass amount of traffic to a blog, in which one can convert even more potential customers into loyal brand ambassadors (Garner).

One brand that blogs amazingly well is Free People’s company blog, “Blding. 25”. When you enter the blog, you immediately get the “Free People” bohemian, festival, hippie vibe the company has been producing for years (achieved through a strict style guide). The content on the blog is excellent, well titled, time sensitive, and offers large amounts of engagement. Their posts have a variety of content including their new look books, behind the scenes stories of a their numerous bohemian styled photo shoots, make-up tips, and even gift ideas during the holidays. They have multiple contributors that all have similar voices, but distinctive styles which combine into Free People’s overall lifestyle, building a following and a consistent culture of people who almost live and breathe this brand. Looking through the blog, you can see how well they use keywords, titles, digital assets of photography, videos, text, and infographics to keep their audience interested and engaged.








The final element in real-time content is social media management. Your brand, has the content, the asset and what platform you would like to use, but now you have to manage it.This will help determine how your brand becomes a living brand -- but how do you respond to engagements, and how do you continue to engage from there. “The new communication model is a dialogue, sender to message to receiver and the back to sender...a living brand is a pattern of behavior, not a stylistic veneer” (Neumeier). When you moderate your brand’s presence online, be mindful that you keep consistent with your tone and protect your brand’s image. Social media can be a dangerous place if your content is not efficiently managed. Poor representation can really make or destroy a company. A prime example of poor social media management is an event that occurred to Abercrombie & Fitch. Video content was posted on Twitter and Facebook of an interview from the CEO a few years back. Immediately a direct quote from the CEO which was interpreted as only cool, skinny kids could wear Abercrombie and Fitch was pulled from the video and posted on Facebook. Stories were shared and reposted on social media and numerous boycotts against the brand arose until it reached a point where it was such a PR nightmare the company had no choice but to back down and rebrand. even more to the point where it was such a PR nightmare, the company had no choice but to back down and rebrand. To this day, the clothing giant is not the same as it was in the early 2000s, and even now the company still gets heat from the comment.This example goes to show how important it is to moderate your content and be aware of what exactly is going out to your audience before negative comments spread into wildfire on social media.

In conclusion, real-time content marketing is defined as a useful tool for delivering useful information to a consumer in ways that have

never been tried before. Applying the 4 key elements of content marketing: 1. Marketing research, 2. Content strategy, 3. Social media strategies, and 4. Social media management to a brand’s own marketing will allow you to reach out and connect with one’s demographics in ways you have never been able to before.

CITATIONS“Paul Wendlant, Chief Client Development Officer at Elateral.” Vertic Nyc. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

“Bob Liodice, President and CEO at Association of National Advertisers.” Vertic Nyc. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

“Thomas Burkhardt, Vice President at Global Marketing at Calvin Klein.” Vertic Nyc. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

“Stan Rapp, CFO of Rapp Agency.” Vertic Nyc. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

Garner, Rob. Search and Social: The Definitive Guide to Real-Time Content Marketing. 1st ed. Sybex, 2012. Print.

Neumeier, Marty. The Brand Gap: How to Bridge the Distance between Business Strategy and Design : A Whiteboard Overview. Rev. ed. Berkeley, CA: New Riders, 2006. Print.

Steimle, Joshua. “What Is Content Marketing?” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 1 Sept. 2014. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/2014/09/19/what-is-content-marketing/>.

Mitchell, Sarah. “Brand Storytelling: Casual Fans to Passionate Followers.” Content Marketing Institute. Z Squared Media LLC. 7 Sept. 2014. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. <http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2014/09/brand-storytelling-casual-fans-to-passionate-followers/>.



real-time content marketing by mariah moultrie

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