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The team from Zest Media’s parenting title Absolutely Mama have been promoting the brand far and wide and were delighted to attend the Kind + Jugend show in Cologne in Germany last week. This show is the leading international trade fair for children, toddler and baby equipment in Europe, possibly the world. With the motto “Learn from children and stay curious” the fair takes place once a year at the fair grounds of Messe Köln, a vast space equivalent to 10 x the size of (for the benefit of UK readers) Alexandra Palace – so that is big! Since being founded in1960,  the show is famous for offering a wide range of child-centric products across the board in categories such as toys, clothing, car seats, strollers, toiletries and children’s furniture. As the fair is show-casing the world’s broadest range of baby and children equipment it really is the essential event to see the latest innovations, pioneering trends and revenue-generating opportunities.

The great thing about Kind + Jugend is that International market leaders exhibit here as well as promising newcomers. In the forums and break out areas the latest trends and innovations are discussed and debated giving those in the industry knowledge, research findings and intelligence to help with their business plans and strategies. The awards for young designers, the most outstanding innovation and top consumer product of the year are all hotly contested and one of the highlights of the show. Many of these innovative new products will appear in the ‘Absolutely Loves’ section of Absolutely Mama as the magazine and its sister website Absolutely.Mama-co.uk cover new products launches every month. This and the ‘Absolutely Essentials’ section of the magazine are the ‘go to’ pages of the title for Mums and prospective Mums keen to see the latest products and recommendations from the knowledgeable Mama team.  If you would like to subscribe to the magazine simply email [email protected] or for advertising opportunities contact [email protected]

To find out more about Zest Media‘s range of ‘life stage’ magazines and web sites contact us here.

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The Kind + Jugend  show next year will take place from the 20th -23rd September 2018 in Cologne.

 

How To Make Your Content Work

To ensure your content is reaching the right people on the best forums, you’ll need to strategise effectively. From the awareness to the decision stage, people will be digesting content in a variety of ways. We take you through the key stages your potential customer will traverse on their way from stranger to active business promoter.

Attract

At the attraction stage, a customer may not yet be aware of your brand. Your job now is to alert them to what you offer. Below are some of the best types of content to utilise at the attraction stages:

• Blogs

Blogs are a great way to attract new customers. By creating informative content you’ll be providing your potential customers with guidance and answers to their questions, and, at the same time will build your brand awareness.

• SEO
By ensuring you are using focus keywords, meta descriptions and so forth effectively, you’ll be building your SEO levels and climbing up the Google search pages.

Convert

By the time you’ve reached the convert stage, the potential customer will be aware of your brand. The job here is to collect information about your potential customer in order to build your database and convert them into leads. Below are some of the best types of content to utilise at the convert stages:

• Whitepapers
Offer educational, consultative, downloadable content such as whitepapers to your client that requires them to enter information before the content is released. You get contact details; they receive the information they need.

• Landing pages
Ensure you’re sending potential customers to the correct landing page through calls to action.

Close

Once you’ve got your potential customer’s attention and contact details, it’s time to close the deal. Below are some of the best devices to utilise at the close stages:

•Email
One of the best ways to keep in contact with your new client is by sending them informative emails. By regularly staying in touch with relevant content, you’ll be able to close the deal when they are ready to make the purchase.

• CRM
Use your CRM system to monitor the customer information you have, and make sure you are tailoring the content to the right client. 

Delight

After you’ve won their business, your next goal is customer retention. If you provide your client with top-level service, you’ll ensure repeat business and turn them into business promoters as they recommend you to friends and colleagues. Try sending them surveys and calls to action, to ensure you’re getting feedback and keeping in touch.

Get in touch to learn more about Zest’s content services.

By strategizing a bespoke content strategy, you are pinpointing exactly whom you are targeting, at what stage in the buyer journey you’re targeting them, and the method you’re utilising to successfully reach them.

Below are some key steps you must incorporate when strategizing your content plan in order to make sure that your marketing output is working.

First up, define your goals. These may be the following:

Marketing goals

You may be looking to increase your website traffic, or the number of leads coming in, or you may be seeking less tangible goals such as building your brand awareness or establishing yourself as a thought leader within your market.

Business goals

You may have clear cut business goals, where you’re looking to grow your revenue or client retention levels.

Other goals

It may be something else entirely, like strengthening your output by increasing the quality and volume of your content marketing.

Secondly, identify your personas (the semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer). Do this by researching the following:

Who they are

This will be their demographics, including their gender, age, location and ambitions.

What they want

These will be their goals – what they want to achieve – and their challenges – the obstacles in their way.

Why they want the product

This will be their objectives – how they make buying decisions and their requirements – and their conflicts, what their frustrations with providers are.

How best to appeal to them

You’ll be working out the marketing message they respond to and the best way to pitch to them buy thinking about where they go for information, what type of content they read and what platforms they engage with.

At this stage, you should be ready to start mapping out your content. Using your knowledge of where your personas digest their content, utilize paid for, owned and earned for online and offline channels to push out your content.

At Zest Media, we brainstorm highly targeted content ideas that incorporate personas and life cycle stages, so the content is reaching your ideal audience on the channels they use, at the times they use them.

Remember, if you don’t strategize, you aren’t sending the right content to the correct customer, meaning your content is failing.

To find out more about honing your strategy skills or to say hello, get in touch.

At Zest Media we were delighted to see our friends at New Scientist Live 2016 pick up the award for Event of the Year at last week’s British Media Awards.

Having worked closely with the team, we understand the hard work and long hours that go into planning an event, and know that this award is thoroughly well deserved.

We are proud to have contributed to New Scientist Live’s success by providing the event’s show guide. The show at ExCel played host to over 22,000 people across four days, so it was crucial that a clear and engaging guide was distributed.

As well as producing the print guide, we also created a digital version that was emailed out to the show’s database. By doing so, we built the New Scientist Live’s brand visibility and provided advertisers with extra exposure.

In order to successfully deliver an own brand publication for a client, we devise and implement a content strategy, create all design elements, organise production and generate revenue through advertising sales. We take pride in our content creation and design skills that enable us to provide engaging event guides tailored to select audiences.

Having worked with a vast range of clients, from luxury hotel groups to London’s biggest outdoor events, we have ample experience fulfilling various commercial briefs and delivering expected content on time and in budget.

We are always excited to create new publications according to a client’s brief and need. Contact us now; we’d love to hear from you!

Delivering The Right Content During The Buyer Journey

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The Buyer Journey is the process a potential customer goes through from the initial realisation stage, to the decision stage where they make the purchase. It’s imperative for content marketers to understand the Buyer Journey as only then will they truly be able to understand their customer’s approach, needs and values. To help you appeal to your ideal customer, we take you through the step-by-step process a buyer will go through on their journey.

AWARENESS STAGE

At the awareness stage, the potential buyer will be coming to the realisation that they are in need of a certain product by experiencing and expressing symptoms of a problem or opportunity.

The customer will be undertaking educational research to more clearly understand, frame and put a name to what they need, whether they view it as a problem or opportunity.

The content types that work best during the awareness stage include educational content, such as white papers.

CONSIDERATION STAGE

At the consideration stage, the potential buyer has defined and named their problem or opportunity. They are starting to research and understand the various available approaches and methods to help solve their problem or opportunity.

The content type that works best at the consideration stage includes expert guides and videos.

DECISION STAGE

At the decision stage, the potential buyer has decided what their strategy will be and has compiled a list of all available vendors and products. They’ll be continuing to research each of these vendors and products before ultimately making the final purchase decision.

The content types that appeal at the decision stage include case studies and product literature.

 

 

To find out more about Zest’s content services, get in touch with our dedicated team.

Content Marketing and Positivity – What’s the Connection?  

Although we love what we do on an ongoing basis, the positive energy at Zest is higher than usual as we lead up to the long holiday weekend and leave work behind for a few days. But how can content marketing harness this upbeat mood? And what is the connection between positivity and content marketing?

According to Yahoo’s recent Receptivity of Emotions study, which is based on respondents from the UK, US, Germany and Canada, reaching consumers when they’re in the right mood could increase the impact of content marketing by 28%. Other key findings found that this upbeat mood kicks in around lunchtime, so it’s best to reach your audience between 11am and 12pm.  Moreover, according to this study, here in the UK consumers are ‘upbeat’ 46% of the time.

Knowing your audience and providing them with relevant and valuable content to your target market is the key to delivering a successful content strategy. Is the content in your blog posts what your audience want to read about, or are they just what you want to write?  Statistics show us that over its lifetime one compounding blog creates as much traffic as six decaying posts. Make your content marketing work, keep your audience happy!

Zest Media’s dedicated and happy house team produces over 250,000 unique content pieces each year.  How can we help with YOURS? Contact us here.