Communication Approach: From Communication Strategy to Content Marketing
Everyone wants content marketing these days. But what exactly is content marketing?
Good, engaging stories are at the heart of content marketing. The challenge is to take the company’s messages and develop themes that will interest different audiences and encourage them to take action in line with the company’s objectives. These ‘call-to-actions’ can include making contact, downloading content or, of course, purchasing a product or service. A subsequent content strategy will then plan the identified themes in detail. Turning these themes into a compelling story is what we call “storytelling”.
Expand Content Marketing with the .FACTUM Approach
What makes the FACTUM approach different? Firstly, we expand the concept of content marketing. Our aim is not only to use the classic marketing channels (website, social media, corporate blog) with the developed content, but also to provide the various multipliers (press, influencers, bloggers, etc.) with the created content. This means that our focus is not only on a call to action, but also on visibility, image and opinion.
Secondly, we have developed an abstract principle. An abstract consists of a company’s theme and contains all the elements of a good story in a compressed form. This means defining a problem, describing a process or development, highlighting the new/unique/innovative aspect, ideally involving different stakeholders and finally presenting a solution.Of course, we are aware that we cannot address all channels equally well with a single text. That is why we tailor abstracts to the needs of each channel and distribute them accordingly. From a single abstract, we can cost-effectively generate not only a press release, but also feature articles, blog posts, news stories or social media posts, without the need for additional briefings. Given our focus on PR, FACTUM’s core competencies lie in producing high quality copy and having experts to professionally manage the various channels. We then measure the results using appropriate tools and compare them with the pre-defined KPIs.
From Content Marketing to Content Strategy to Communication Strategy
Furthermore, the FACTUM approach can rapidly advance content marketing. Since the content framework is already planned through the abstracts, the topics are easily distributed across the main channels (press relations, online marketing, social media, events, network). Each main channel is associated with specific services, known as modules, which primarily encompass operational implementation. These modules are then arranged on a timeline, creating a clear process and action plan. Depending on the situation, they can be adjusted by adding or removing modules. This way, we can integrate new main channels for the client into the process and action plan without much effort.
With individual kick-offs for the various main channels or a workshop to develop a comprehensive action and process plan, we also have the ability to communicatively plan larger communication concepts, campaigns, or more extensive changes within the company. Additionally, we create a corresponding report for each main channel, allowing us to monitor and track goal achievement, which is also presented as a module. We have thoroughly developed detailed service descriptions for each module, and it is no problem to develop additional modules as per the client’s initial situation.
Finally, a few words about project management: In most cases, we work with Trello. This tool can be easily integrated into existing structures, and clients can decide how much they want to be involved in using it. In conclusion, the combination of kick-offs/workshops, abstracts, modules, reporting, and the project management tool results in a flexible, cost-effective, and quickly implementable communication strategy. Test our approach! We look forward to an informal introduction!