Content marketing means much more than producing videos, blogs, and other content. It also means having the means to measure the results of that content, distribute that content to the right audience, and identify who that audience is in the first place. Good thing content marketing technology comes in many forms and tools.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, there are around 75 categories for content marketing technology, and nearly 5,000 different tools available. The technology can help you with everything from content creation to metrics, and from overall project management to social media management.
What Can Content Marketing Technology Do for You?
When used correctly, content marketing technology can make your job as a content marketer a lot easier. That said, technology isn’t a replacement for having a strong content marketing strategy. Instead, it should help you implement your strategy, not replace it.
Content marketing technology can help in several areas:
- Identifying and defining your audience
- Automating content distribution
- Identifying content needs and gaps
- Identifying and organizing content
- Enhancing content
- Measuring content’s performance
What Types of Content Marketing Technology Are Available?
As technology evolves, the options for content marketing technology are increasing. These days, tech that used to seem like science fiction is becoming increasing common.
AI Content Marketing Technology
For example, certain tools now use artificial intelligence (AI) to customize an audience or user’s experience, or to make the process of sifting through lots of content simpler. It can help with the content creation process and improve ways your content engages with customers.
One key use of AI is in personalization of content. According to Evergage’s 2017 Trends in Personalization report, the vast majority (96 percent) of respondents believe that personalizing content to a user improves relationships. On the consumer side, the majority (88 percent) have come to expect a personalized content experience.
AI can personalize a user’s content experience by mining the content he or she has engaged with in the past and using that data to recommend relevant content to him or her for the future.
Along with mining content to make better, more relevant recommendations to an audience, AI can help marketers sift through or mine content to find videos or other types of visual content to share with a relevant audience.
Content Mining Technology
Content mining technology assesses visual content created by an influencer or a brand itself using computer vision technology and machine learning to recognize specific objects (such as animals) or logos. The technology can also be used to analyze text.
Content Marketing Personas
Although technology for content marketing is become ever more advanced, sometimes the simplest tools are still helpful and effective. If your brand needs help identifying its audience or creating personas to better understand who you’re marketing to and what their journey might be like, a buyer persona tool such as MakeMyPersona might be what you need.
Content Marketing Analytics
When it comes to measuring content results, tools that have been around for ages, such as Google Analytics, can be particularly useful. Analytics tools give you an idea of how many people are viewing your content, who’s engaging with it, what the response on social media has been like, and so on.
What to Look for When Choosing Content Marketing Technology
When picking out content marketing technology tools to use for your brand or content marketing campaign, the most important question to ask yourself is, “What do you hope to accomplish?”
Think of the goals or objectives you created when putting together your content marketing strategy. If you haven’t created a strategy just yet, it’s a good idea to go back and do so. Technology should serve your strategy. You don’t want to create a strategy that serves the technology, or a strategy that’s built up around a particular tech tool, as you will only end up frustrated.
Next, think of what you need the technology to do for you.
Here are a few things to consider:
- Do you already have existing content that needs to be sorted and organized?
- Do you have existing content that you want to distribute, or that you hope will reach a bigger audience?
- Are you back at square one, trying to figure out who your audience is?
- Do you know your audience, but need to craft better content to help them on their journeys?
- Are you looking for ways to add more visual content to your content marketing campaign?
Technology changes rapidly, meaning that there might be a new piece of content marketing technology tomorrow that doesn’t exist today. Before you decide to try content marketing technology, make sure you have a clear idea of why you’re using it. Also know how the tech will help you reach your goals.
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