What You Need to Know About Context Marketing

In a society where we are exposed to up to 5,000 advertisements per day, it is understandable that some brands are losing their footing. To succeed in the marketplace, it is essential to stand out amongst the “noise”. Content marketing gained massive momentum in recent years, but as with many trends, it is now making way for a new and improved strategy.

Context marketing is all about delivering the right content, to the right people, at the right time, to ensure more effective results. Rather than simply publishing content and hoping the appropriate audience will find it, context marketing uses reliable tactics to guarantee they do. In fact, many experts believe that context marketing is surpassing its predecessor in value.

Consumers are bombarded with content every day, much of it ignored or brushed off as unimportant. That which is effective succeeds because it creates a deeper connection. So how do you use context to your advantage?

Stick with the following two factors; relevance and importance. A few examples; a child’s toy isn’t relevant to a bachelor like it would be to a parent or the child itself. The need to buy children’s presents feels urgent/important in the lead up to Christmas or a birthday. Therefore, an ad for a toy sale in November is both important and relevant to the present-buying parent market.

It is essential to know your target market “inside out”. Not just demographics – but understand what they love, where they seek inspiration, how they spend their money and their leisure time. Which of their needs does your product fulfil? What social media platforms do they use? What are their dislikes? Knowing these facts will help you:

• Share your content via the right platform (or in the right place) at the right time
• Tailor it to the needs, wants and/or interests of the market

The great thing about context marketing is that because the consumer connects the dots so effortlessly, they are less likely to feel like they are being targeted. Their attraction or interest in the product or brand will be natural – it will simply make sense, rather than feel forced. Put yourselves in the shoes of your desired customer. Though you may not consciously realise it, you want engaging content that offers real value to you. You may even want advertisements to feel individual, personal and/or relatable.

Hitting your target with content at the correct time can have a hugely positive effect. For example, a take-away chicken chain may target busy working parents listening to the radio between 3:30-6pm – while they are picking up the kids from school or driving home from work to greet a hungry family.

In the digital sphere, there are generic statistics to show what time of day is busiest for a particular social media network. However, a successful ‘context’ marketer will break down these stats even further to find the most common time for their target to be logged on, listening or watching.

Furthermore, the content itself needs to be tailored to attract and keep the attention of consumers. This combines traditional content marketing practices (for example, search engine optimisation), with other important context marketing considerations. For example, context marketing considers personality, preferences and the path taken to the content (or the checkout point). Certain keywords, topics, tones and calls to action may be effective for one type of person, but not for others. It is important to know what works for your market.

Adding such a well-considered, personal touch to your content makes it much easier to turn consumers into customers. In an ideal world, the entire process would be automated, making context marketing simple. However, as not everyone has access to such advanced systems, much of it is done manually, through hours and hours worth of research. Research is fundamental to successful context marketing. An excellent researcher will find information that can be strategically used to generate sales.

Realising and investing in the power of personalisation and context marketing will lead your business, no matter its current size, to more success.