Using content to build engagement & consumer trust

We know brands are investing in content now more than ever. As referenced in the Harvard Business Review article, '10 Truths About Marketing After the Pandemic', marketers are having to adapt their approach to a new set of rules. In a B2B and B2C context consumers now expect a more personalised, anticipatory, relevant experience. This requires organisations to use more data, deep learning and AI to ensure the communications and advertising efforts are relevant and meaningful.

With an acceleration in digital advertising channels, it is important that CMOs recognise that whilst performance marketing has its place, it can be intrusive and only mildly relevant - if at all - as advertisements are either based on keywords or search history. These advertisements may be a customer's first experience of a brand and they have the potential to result in negative connotations, rather than drive any ad-click propensity.

It is no surprise that attracting and nurturing consumers requires content and an effective, agile, content strategy can build engagement and consumer trust. Post-pandemic, the importance of brand values is influencing consumer choice. Whether its factors such as sustainability, trust, ethical sourcing or social responsibility, a brand's positioning and marketing is now a differentiator alongside quality, convenience and price. Reports show that 68% of consumers expect brands to be clear about their values and take a stand on them.

As a result, advertising needs to be hyper-contextually relevant and evolve from an algorithm-reliant method to one that uses best practices for creating meaningful material that  - via the use of technology - grows engagement, affinity and ultimately trust among consumers.

According to Forbes, 66% of consumers say content that isn’t personalised would stop them from making a purchase, whilst 67% of consumers say it’s important for brands to automatically adjust content based on their current context for a real-time personalised experience. This needs to take place at all stages of customer engagement.

As technology continues to transform how brands connect with consumers, content will be the centrepiece of those interactions. However, it will be the savvy marketers who elevate their content beyond the realms of their first-party data and align it with relevant editorial content on the world’s leading, trusted publisher sites. Reaching new audiences at the exact moment they are expressing an interest in a particular topic; that is contextually relevant to owned branded content featuring alongside in a standard advertisement format. No reliance on keywords, cookies or search data. A powerful mechanism to promote, not only product information but the all important brand values.

The collision between new media, technology and brand marketing helped facilitate consumer distrust. Wise marketers have the power to make those same three elements a solution to the problem.