The global pandemic has brought major changes to people’s lives. It has impacted everything from the way we structure our lives at home, to how we shop, and how we work.
Tech organizations have also faced change, having to make quick decisions to pivot the way they operate, and align with current trends (and needs) in the digital space. The organizations that have adapted to our changing world fast have been able to not only survive the uncertainty of a pandemic, but flourish.
Christiana Marouchos, Senior Director of Digital Marketing at StackAdapt, recently sat down with Bobby Narang, Co-Founder of Opensense and the host of the Growth Marketing Camp podcast, to chat about how her team has embraced a content marketing strategy to support the ongoing growth of the company. Read on to learn three content marketing tips that Christiana shared, or listen to the full episode, here.
Great Content Starts With a Great Team
Christiana started working at StackAdapt in 2018. At that time, StackAdapters used in-person communications to build relationships with potential clients as well as existing ones. This approach helped to build a positive and trustworthy reputation for StackAdapt through a strategy that relied on in-person experiences like events.
This strategy shifted when the pandemic hit in 2020 because suddenly, in-person events and meetings were restricted by pandemic response measures. As a result, the StackAdapt team knew that they would have to rethink their strategy if they wanted to continue expanding their digital marketing presence. The biggest opportunity that StackAdapt found was the need for resources related to not just the StackAdapt platform, but digital marketing in general.
To start developing educational content, they would have to grow the marketing team. As a result, the team has quickly grown to over 20 marketers across 3 different countries who collaborate together to create engaging resources for digital advertisers. Christiana now oversees all of StackAdapt’s content, campaigns, communications, and overall marketing strategy.
Create Content That Educates and Builds Authority
Once building out the team was in motion, it was time to start developing the content. The StackAdapt marketing team started by reviewing trends in digital marketing. Then, they started brainstorming the type of questions that their audience often ask directly, or search engines. The team made sure that the topics they planned to cover were relevant both to their audience, and to the StackAdapt platform. After brainstorming within the marketing team, as well as with members of other StackAdapt teams, they had tons of ideas that they could craft content around.
As an organization, StackAdapt has been heavily focused on vertical solutions, and the marketing team carried that forward into the content strategy. For example, they took a vertical-focused approach for a series of blogs that would recommend creative strategies and messaging tactics to leverage during the pandemic. This strategy applied not just to blogs, but to long form content as well. Writing vertical specific content was one way that StackAdapt could guide marketers through the specific shifts that different verticals were experiencing as the pandemic progressed.
According to Christiana there should be a goal behind writing a blog, ebook, 1-pager, or other type of content. She says, “A reader should always find value in what they’ve read. My team has found that blogs, eBooks, 1-pagers, and other types of content that have a defined goal and value do a better job of educating readers, and building authority around a topic.”
Leverage Content in Your Broader Digital Marketing Strategy
Leaning into a content strategy has helped to broaden the reach of the StackAdapt brand, and it’s opened up a world of opportunities. But, Christiana says it’s important to think about how content fits into your broader digital strategy, too. Leveraging content in tandem with other marketing activities like paid media will strengthen your overall results.
Two years after pivoting to a digital content strategy, pandemic restrictions are easing. With business travel and in-person events bouncing back, there’s a “new normal” to explore, which is a hybrid of virtual opportunities and more traditional face-to-face opportunities for marketing and outreach. StackAdapt has learned that the best way to navigate this new normal is to balance the strategies that you know work well, with innovative, fresh ideas.
The digital landscape is continuing to quickly evolve, and this means that content should too. Christiana warns that content you released a year ago might not be relevant anymore. One year in tech is almost a lifetime! Given this, it’s important to make refreshing content a part of your content strategy. Going back to update older content while developing content that is on top of current industry trends will help ensure your resources are relevant to the audience you’d like to reach.
Want to hear more of Christiana’s insights? Listen to her discussion with Bobby Narang on the Growth Marketing Camp podcast, here.
