Content providers of the future are not just writers. They are brand strategists. They know any great stuff is driven by strategy, so they are immersed in a balanced mix of trend, innovation, globalization, social media, pop-culture, ‘scut-job’, brand strategy and business technology.
They understand visuals, motions and texts, everything in between; and how they work. They know the importance of riding on technology to deliver brand objectives.
They don’t just provide content to entertain or ‘hold the space’, they do to meet objective (s) – Engage? Convert? Retain? Or to trigger conversation and generate talkability? Whichever.
They have a good understanding of their target: where they are, what they want, where they go, their plans, what drives them and what snobs them. And because of this deep-seated understanding, they know the kind of content that will hook them. Then, they go ahead and create it. Yes, by themselves, and hence, bypassing the traditional role of passing briefs to agencies.
They also have the analytic tools to help track and measure the impact of conversation, and hence deploy resources to the ‘hot and lucrative zones’ to attract conversion. These dudes understand the flip-flop transitional relationship between the offline and online, and they know how to establish almost a perfect balance. They know what the traditional marketing managers know, and even more.
Content managers of the future won’t need all the theoretical aspect or the ‘principles of marketing to drive brands. They understand marketing as engagement and conversion; as experiential drives where targets are made to see, feel and use.
As conversation becomes social currency and brand engagement takes the centrestage, how deep and creative you’re able to drive brands will depend on your understanding of the content universe (not marketing); and how to adapt them to various brand use – engagement – conversion – retaining…
The core of marketing communication will then shift to how interactive a content is, and how it is helping to trigger conversation and equity.
This is a silent revolution the world is quietly embracing especially the startup ecosystem and future-focused running engines. So, startups of the future will not have any office of marketing manager because their content managers have been fully immersed in ‘the new understanding of marketing’.
In the days ahead, content managers will not be called up to execute strategy or just ‘write’, they will be at the heart of the strategy, and will become the new face of marketing; hence quietly edging out marketing managers – who are trained to get engrossed in volumes and figures, and less of engagement. Remember ‘engagement and conversation’ will always come before ‘volumes and figures’. Who else drives the former? Content managers, sweetheart!
So does that mean marketing managers have no more roles to play again?
Hell No!
They will still play a very vital role, but will be moved to focus on what they are wired to do: volumes and figures. With this traditional role, they tilt to ‘sales’ rather than ‘marketing’. This new arrangement will see the traditional marketing managers pushed behind content managers, as content takes the creative roles.
“With our core role in transforming a business’s digital presence – we are in the unique position to reinvent their brand for a more digitally focused world through design, content and interaction. The new signifiers of a modern digital brand – are user interface, integrated branded content and interaction”.