by Candie A. Price

Don’t call them full-service, just call them BIG! BIG Communications is one of Birmingham’s best marketing, PR and branding firms and their name translates well in everything they do.  From helping Alabama Gulf Seafood recover from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to making searching for information cool for first time moms, BIG Communications knows how to tell a story and brand a company using creative and engaging content marketing.

Libby Romano, Director of Digital Strategy, and Lindsey Sims, Media Director of BIG spoke at the February luncheon for the American Marketing Association – Birmingham Chapter about the importance of doing content marketing right, the BIG way! Here’s the top 10 take-a-ways from their presentation, Digital Storytelling on Steroids: Branded Content Marketing:

1. Content marketing must be engaging, unique and branded
2. Content marketing must be shared on channels that your audience prefers
3. Proven content marketing formula –
   1. concept
   2. create content
   3. publish online
   4. amplify
   5. analyze
   6. adjust
4. Tell engaging stories that will help your company’s business objectives
5. Paid support for campaigns via social media helps to target audiences and get results
6. Enlist the assistance of a content marketing team to execute a well-rounded campaign
7. DO the work – don’t just leave your content out there and expect it to go viral
8. Content marketing increases brand awareness, builds trust and generates leads. At the end of the day it all boils down to ENGAGEMENT which moves the needle!
9. The future of content marketing will be automation, video/audio (podcasts are coming back!), and ad units, and LAST but not LEAST,
10. BRANDless content is AIMLESS content (and I’d have to add – USELESS content!)

Thanks so much to Libby and Lindsey for sharing their BIG ideas on content marketing!

Candie A. Price, MPR, MACE, is the Chief PR & Marketing Strategist at Priceless PR & Marketing Consulting. She provides public relations and marketing services to entrepreneurs, Christian authors and artists, and churches. Candie also serves as VP of Branding Strategy for the board of the American Marketing Association – Birmingham chapter. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook, and Google+. Email Candie at candie@pricelesspr.com and check out all her ventures on her website candieprice.com.