content marketing Archives

Why brand strategy drives Content Marketing

April 22, 2014 in Blogging

Recently we’ve noticed just how ingrained a bottom up strategy led by a desire to drive SEO signals seems to run. Overcoming this is one of the biggest challenges brands face. Many are struggling to come to terms with the fact that digital now is not just a sales channel but a place where brand awareness and engagement can take place to great effect.

Above the line and brand marketers have long known the importance of awareness and engagement. However, they’ve rarely been able to offer the depth of engagement that digital offers; its combination of owned media (websites and social media) with strong awareness campaigns (earned media) is the essence of content marketing and what’s more a consumer can stay in the same place to make a purchase, truly end to end. However many marketers and agencies in this space are only interested in the sale and being in the right place at the right time. That’s fine and works, but how do you grow beyond this?

Until very recently, the need to address search optimization has prevented direct response digital marketers from thinking about real human customers in any real depth. What’s more there’s been a failure to focus their campaigns on really engaging with the people who will buy their products and services, i.e. who they really should be speaking to.

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by Lola Olson

SEO-Based approaches are marketing snake oil

April 8, 2014 in Content , SEO

Snake-oil Despite about the dangers of guest blogging with links, many companies are still interested in using this form of content marketing to boost SEO. It does make sense. It’s always been difficult to measure ROI on marketing. Just because a certain amount of people see a billboard or an advert doesn’t guarantee you’ll see a boost in sales.

SEO provides a result. It’s easier to measure in terms of a number, a position on a Google search or an improvement in a keyword. But the reality is that using only SEO as a measure of ROI is the equivalent of marketing snake oil.

It’s great if you’re on the top ten Google results for a certain search term. That does put you in the face of a lot of customers who wouldn’t otherwise know about you. But it’s not everything. It’s not building an audience. It’s not building a brand. What we encourage our clients to understand is that they don’t just need to focus on boosting their ranks in search engines, but building an audience behind their brand.

Generating a boost in search engine results is no guarantee that there’s an audience out there that knows enough about you to buy. SEO is one part of building a better website that educates potential consumers effectively – but it is not marketing in and of itself.

An effective digital marketing agency must first and foremost be about building audiences, not just the raw data of a search engine ranking. You don’t just want raw visitors to your website, you want awareness. That can’t always be measured with precise numbers. Any marketer that is focused purely on SEO might be able to show results in the form of a boost in your ranks for keywords, but are they really influencing purchasing decisions?

If audience building is what you’re after, have a chat with us. Call Quad at or send us an email at . Feel free to tweet us as well @QuadDigital.

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by Lola Olson

April 2, 2014 in Content Creation

Yesterday, April Fool’s Day, released a YouTube video announcing a competition to find Pokémon. Each person who sought out a hidden Pokémon in a real world location could become a Pokémon Master. Even though the augmented reality was part of the prank, you can participate in the Google Pokemon Challenge on Google Maps in real world locations until this evening.

There’s a lot of reasons this prank works in Google’s favour, but here are the three major content marketing lessons to take away from the search giant’s Pokémon Challenge:

Tags: content marketing

by Ben Dickens

Promotion and using influencers to build your audience. The ASA speaks.

March 19, 2014 in Blogging , Content , Content Marketing , Quad

A key aspect of the work we do at Quad is driving awareness of our clients’ content and brands. After all, we can publish the best content in the world on their websites and promote it on their social but that’s often seen by just a small section of the potential audience.

That’s where our digital communication and promotion arm comes into play. Quad’s team-within-a-team is dedicated to helping our stories reach as wide an audience as possible, so we can engage more people and bring them to our clients’ owned media. Think of them as a mad hybrid of media buyer, planner, PR person and promotional expert working on the myriad digital platforms that exist.

But that’s all marketing speak.

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by Toby Bourne

Five questions that say yes to content marketing

March 18, 2014 in Blogging , Content , SEO

I’ve been taking a good look at Eric Enge’s pieces on Search Engine Watch recently. They make it absolutely clear why content marketing is such a compelling proposition for brands and why older link building practices have become a genuine liability.

Matt Cutts, Google’s head of webspam and the public face of its search quality team – the SEO police if you like – said this recently when asked by Enge what the best link building strategy was:

“ Make a fantastic website that people love and tell their friends about and link to and want to experience. As a result, your website starts to become stronger and stronger in the rankings.”

The same is true of all your online content.

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by Ben Dickens

Rise of the growth hacker

March 11, 2014 in Content , Content Marketing , Editor's Picks

In my last post I referred to a survey that highlighted a skills gap in digital marketing . And while it was commissioned by a recruitment company (presumably in the hope of generating business) it also raised a big question that many brands encounter, certainly the ones we speak to: how do we structure our marketing departments and what skillsets do we need?

Today there are so many platforms, marketing automation tools and strategies – not to mention traditional media and PR – the list is getting longer and longer. Read the rest of this entry →

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by Ben Dickens

What is ‘content marketing’ anyway?

February 18, 2014 in Content Creation , Quad

Confused The perennial question that most of the brands we meet ask: “So, what is content marketing anyway?” Agencies are now entering a space that confuses brands because of the ubiquitous nature of the name. Content marketing is essentially about how consumers behave, particularly online, but the majority of content marketers are sticking to their historical approach.

What does content marketing mean to us? Content marketing is a hybrid of disciplines, optimised to deliver the best results for a client depending on their priorities. Brand awareness and conversions are the foremost measure of success. We create strategic, brand-centric, buyer-focused, search optimized, technically sound, creative, and results-driven content. A lot goes into one simple term.

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by Lola Olson

Three content marketing lessons from the 2014 Super Bowl ads

February 4, 2014 in Blogging , Content , Editor's Picks , Video

It says a lot about the power of content marketing that the adverts that run during the Super Bowl are just as popular, and sometimes more popular (especially in the UK) than the game itself. The stakes are high. Brands only get a small amount of time to convey a message about their product. Quality content is paramount.

Hulu, an American-based subscription service, not only hosted the Super Bowl Ads but provided a platform for Americans to vote on their favourites. What can the three most popular ads teach us about quality content?

Budweiser Puppy Love

Budweiser – Puppy Love and the power of cute

They tell actors to never work with children or animals for a reason. But is it possible for businesses to harness the power of cute? On the outside, if someone told you they were going to make a Budweiser advert with a puppy in it, you might roll your eyes and think that it’s a hokey, maybe even cringe-worthy connection. Puppies and beer put together could spell a potential lawsuit. But what this ad proves is that, if done well, even beer companies can work with the cute factor to create something that appeals to wider audiences.

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by Lola Olson

Optimizing Webspace: Why you should care about bloggers

January 29, 2014 in Blogging , Content Marketing , PR

In our second post on optimizing webspace , we’ll explore earned media and how third party publishers, or bloggers, are a valuable element that can be an aid to your marketing campaign. Before digital marketing , there were two ways to get your brand seen – advertising and PR. The online revolution had given us a third; bloggers. Ignore them at your peril.

Often amateur – at least at the outset – these writers, critics and reviewers are making careers from what were once hobby blogs. Whether using wit, authority, well-crafted prose or all three, many bloggers have grown their readership to such a level that brands and advertisers having to sit up and take notice. (Click the image below for the full infographic).

From humble beginnings, Peter Robinson’s very funny Popjustice has founded a record label, released branded compilations, held branded tours and broken pop news stories. Charlie Lynne’s film blog Ultra Culture has been hailed the UK’s foremost film blog by reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and hosted the national premiere of Spring Breakers. And Jack Monroe, the budget food blogger behind recipe site A Girl Called Jack has earned worldwide media interest and become the face of Sainsbury’s new ad campaign. How’s that for the power of blogging?

When we worked with specialist travel operator Thompson Lakes and Mountains, we saw an opportunity to feed content to not one but two blog audiences. By creating a guide to the company’s most popular destinations inspired by the maps often found in fantasy novels, we reached travel bloggers and the fans of dramas such as The Hobbit and Game of Thrones. In doing this, we spread word of Thompson Lakes and Mountains across multiple channels.

Next in series on optimizing webspace, we’ll discuss the importance of paid media and what piece they are in the overall puzzle and be sure to check out our previous blog in this series on brand blogging . f you’d like to discuss with us how you can expand your reach into earned media, get in touch. Talk to Quad

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by Lola Olson

Useful Content Drives Sharing

January 16, 2014 in Blogging , Content Creation , Content Marketing , Infographics

When our clients commission us to create content for them, our first goal is to create useful content that provides value to the viewer. Last year, IBM demonstrated this idea by creating adverts that doubled as benches in urban areas .

The best approach in content marketing is one that keeps in mind not only the objectives of the brand who wants potential customers to know about them, but also one that takes the viewer into consideration. Sometimes companies are so concerned with ‘viral’ content that they forget what makes content go viral in the first place.

A by Chadwick Martin Bailey found that 72% of the people they polled shared content because they found it interesting or entertaining. But does it really take a genius to sort out that thought-provoking or entertaining (and sometimes both) content motivates people to share? The key then is combining the two.

What’s so successful about IBM’s approach is that they are not only changing the typical interaction that happens between an advert and its viewer, but they’re also providing something of value to the viewer. Sure, it’s just a bench. But it’s enough that it gets individuals interacting with it.

That’s the approach that Quad consistently takes with content. We seek to combine entertaining with thought-provoking or usefulness to create content with value. During our campaign with PropertyWide, we utilised their expertise to create an engaging infographic that compared the average rent prices in cities across the UK:

Both The Independent and Economic Voice, among many other publishers, found the content useful for their audiences, and the information appealed to multiple audiences from finance blogs like Savvy Scott to student publications like TopUniverse.com.

Experience has taught us that the best rule for creating content that effectively spreads your brand message is to understand what makes people share. Highly effective content marketing involves making either thought-provoking or entertaining content. And if you can combine both, you have the best both worlds.

We’re a London based content marketing agency that can help you optimise your webspace . If you’re interested, get in touch !

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