The game of chess can teach you many lessons but the most intriguing one can be learned through close observation of the King and Queen’s behavior on the board. The fort is ruled by the King but it is held up by the Queen’s efforts. While the King is considered to be of supreme importance, the queen holds it all together; her fall corresponds to his defeat. Something can be important because it is vital in nature but for it to be truly powerful, it needs to have control over the outcome.
Keeping the same example alive, we know that when the King falls, the game is over but Queen possesses the power to protect him. What makes a player great is the understanding of the difference between what is important and who is powerful; walking on this line gets you the edge that seems like a necessity to win.
The board of business and marketing
The same equation can be applied to the marketing strategy adopted by a business, the roles of King and Queen can be deciphered from a list of factors that impact the success of a brand. However, let us see the characteristics of the contenders beforehand.
Content Development
“Content builds relationships, relationships are built on trust and trust drives revenue.” – Andrew Davis
Statistics have proven the importance of good content over the last few years as the chances of success of marketing campaigns have been strengthened through enforcing effective content. This impact can be felt so much so that approximately 61% of the audience prefers brands that can deliver original as well as alluring content through different means.
The dawn of the digital age has rejuvenated the world of content; a glimpse of the ranking of factors affecting a buyer’s decision can shed more light on the issue. The fact that around 67 % of the audience relies on content provided by the brand for research and 35% of the audience is more comfortable with sharing content about a brand, proves to us the significance of content in marketing and brand building. Good content shows the audience what your brand is and what your product can do, instead of just telling them. Prima facie, it is believed that content builds the bridge on which a potential customer can walk and feel a part of the house. The importance of content can be summed up in Beth Comstock words, “You can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything”.
Having stated that, the focus now turns to tell, is good content enough? Not knowing who to tell and how to tell can make the content ineffective or rather useless.
Therefore, Chris Penn’s words are to stick by, “The next evolution of content marketing is not more content but its better distribution”. Marketing is a contest for people’s attention and the same cannot be achieved if the content is not reaching the people.
Content Distribution
In the world of digital marketing, distribution channels do the work of communicating the content to the desired audiences, without which the content per say cannot get itself readers. Amplification of the content which is created is majorly dependent on the distribution strategy selected. A good distribution plan can improve the effectiveness of the content whereas ignoring such planning may lead to a degrading result. Following is list of such distribution channels, which assist the content to achieve its destiny and audiences access on a daily basis;
- Blogging.
- Social Media such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn etc.
- Visual aid through YouTube etc.
- Networking through communities and forums.
- Email lists.
There are many such channels, use of which can benefit the circulation of content and thus result in active participation from the audiences and lead to better distribution. A well thought out content distribution strategy allows the marketer to place their content right where the target audience is congregated.
Distribution works as salt in any dish prepared with content, as salt helps to bring out the flavours of the food and allows it room to cook properly. Similarly, distribution allows content to reap its benefits by delivering it to the relevant audience it was first created for. This codependency proves that the content is king but distribution is also the queen and she holds the crown in the relationship.
