Marketing = content
You could expand this as marketing = content creation + distribution + CTA. Platforms such as Facebook and Tiktok are distribution mediums. Content generation is fundamental to successful marketing.
👋 Hola! Welcome to Out of Singapore. I am Shantanu and I write about building businesses from scratch. I failed to build a B2B marketplace last year. This year I have been mildly successful in setting up one consumer brand. Another brand is on the way. I am positive of taking it to a few millions run rate in next 2 years.
Today I am in Kolkata. Right in the hustle & bustle of Esplanade separated from the noise in the cosy 1800s hotel room. I hear the muted horns from my window. The bustle has gone up since 9 am. The writing desk is an old table (probably used by an English civil servant).
Kolkata was the capital of the British India for over a 100 years. The British left, but the city refused to move on. It is an “intellectual” and creative city. It has failed to modernize. The city abhors capitalism. Residents hate paying 10 cents extra. All this boils down to unkempt historical buildings, old dilapidated buses, non-existent paint on outer walls, old taxis and wobbly roads (not much potholes, though). Interestingly, like the English gentleman, Kolkata uses the term “Bhodro lok”. “Bhodro” in Bengali language means “well behaved” and “lok” means a person. “Gentleman” = “Bhodrolok”
Beyond complaints, I admire Kolkata for food and deserts. Among the Indian cosmopolitans, Kolkata and Mumbai are the only cities that have managed traffic well. Singapore and Kolkata are similar - rainy, humid, rule following and British. To me Singapore is an ultra developed version of Kolkata. Maybe that’s the reason I love Singapore - relatable without the inconveniences.
Give me travel recommendations?
Tell me what’s your favourite hotel (reply back or comment)? It could be any part of the world and I will plan to visit in 2024. I am hoping this will occupy my 2024 travel plans. 💀
A structure for marketing discussion
Today we will talk about
The rise of online advertising in past decade.
Why content has become increasingly important.
How are we building content?
#1 Online advertising is the king
A brand creates a story, presents it in the form of text, images and videos, shoots/designs content and distributes it via ad placement in offline and online media. Past decade saw significant push towards online ad networks. Search and social media took centre stage in people’s lives. Read this - 50% of marketing dollars worldwide will be spent on online media in 2023. I think this shift happened in 2021 itself.
Google and Facebook are the most developed advertising eco-systems. Others - Bing, Twitter, Pinterest, Tiktok don’t provide advanced advertising solutions. We will see it improve over the next 3-5 years. The third segment are players like Taboola and Outbrain, offering native display ads on their network. The fourth segment put ads in a basket of ad networks and optimizes based on performance. They are called programmatic advertising solutions such as StackAdapt.
Advertising space is a 2 sided marketplace - customers and advertisers, with customers being the main focus. An advertiser has two goals - create content that engages users on the platform and nudge them to register or buy from them.
The platforms incentivises advertisers with good content and penalises ones with bad content (measured by engagement, CTR and conversion). Content that drives engagement and performance with its intended audience gets more reach. More reach, high performing content leads to multiplying performance.
Content starts the flywheel and advertising networks then increase the pace of consumption.
#2 Content because social media is now content media
Let’s quickly understand you online watch time before I get into details.
The growth of Tiktok from 2018 onwards meant that social media moved from sharing within a friend circle to sharing to the world. Tiktok opened up the gates of content to anyone who might like it. Now creators (no more influencers) can reach a a million people even if it is their first video content. Social media is now a place to consume content, aka content media. Tiktok gave rise to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.
Now a user -
Enjoys a video more than images.
Videos with subtitles and copy work better than only videos.
Has a short attention time (under 7 seconds)
A brand needs to create content engages the users rather than share brand values and product information. Let’s have a quick look at the type of videos that are consumed by users today.
Moral: create what users are consuming (aka trend).
Content is not just video. Some large YouTube channels are amalgamation of stock videos or photos and a voiceover. Content starts with information that users will like and then packaging it with video, audio and text that captures attention and is easy to consume.
Advertising dollars are being spent on social media. Social media has become content media. So, what should marketers become?
Content marketers 🤭
#3 How are we creating content?
Initially, it was all about setting the brand backend up - storefront, inventory, and fulfilment. Next we moved to creating content on social media - Instagram and Tiktok.
First we made the posts and videos in house in our office. Very soon we realised that its not scalable at the given cost and time structure. We needed to post 1-2 videos every day. We just didn’t have the bandwidth in-house to do it.
So, we hired freelancers to create consistent content for social media, both Instagram and Tiktok. This was second phase of content creation. The frequency was still slow but we achieved consistency. The ideation and production was outsourced. It was a simple instruction - create content by combining the social media trends with the brand information.
We are now figuring out the next stage of content - regular high frequency creator and user generated content. It will be a mix of
Paid creators/creator agencies
Paid influencers
Actual users reviews
It is unsolved piece for us right now. With the demand on content generation, seems like we need a 3-4 full-time content creators for the brand.
Beyond it, we will follow these steps to scale these content.
🏗️ Generate content.
🔥Boost content with marketing money.
💹 Run ads with these content.
That’s it for today.
Thanks again for reading till the end, superstar 🤩
Please like the post, and share it with someone who would find it valuable.
One week of working from India whizzed past very fast. There were troubles, especially coordinating with our new warehouse. However, it didn’t lead to any major issue (that’s what I am hoping for).
I started writing this in Kolkata and finished it today in Singapore. Quite a cross-country article!
Jisoo as Pikachuuuuuuuu 🤭
Hahaha, have a great week ahead! Bye 😻