Those of us working in the digital space live out a perennially poignant point made by Bill Gates in 1996. The “real money” to be made on the web is found in content – as Gates stated in his famous, seminal opinion piece that first appeared on the Microsoft website all those years ago, “Content is King.”
At present, Gates’ prophetic claim that “Content is King” rings true, resonating as such with no end to its reign in sight. The dominion of content has prevailed for more than a decade now, proving Gates to have been equally correct in his further prediction that, like other media of the past century or so, the internet would live and die by the strength of its content.
Gates’ opinion came, nonetheless, before anyone could have truly foretold of the advent of the Web 2.0 world in which we presently operate. In the current online climate, content may still remain king, but everyone is a contender for the throne – from the amateur blogger to the corporate one. In an era when the internet, and moreover media itself, is all about the quality of its content, the challenge becomes not simply having content to offer, but having content that speaks to an audience thru a veritable den of noise.
In the years since Gates’ assertion that content is, in fact, king, the web has seen the rise of the content marketing. Content marketing often treads a line so fine between what is purely informative and, what is expressly advertorial, that few web users can distinguish between the two. These blurred lines place added stress on companies to generate content that has value above all else. And, that is no small task.
Enter King Content, an aptly-named nascent arrival in the content marketing niche hailing from right here in Australia.
Content marketing agency King Content, already an established content provider, has announced its latest entrepreneurial move. It’s the inception of a software platform called Communique at the latest Content Marketing World Sydney. The new platform allows the company to plan, manage, execute and measure content marketing activities more effectively for its customers.
The King’s Communique
Communique is a scalable content solution. It will provide users with a fully-integrated suite of editorial content marketing tools that span the entire lifecycle of content strategy.
With a built-in editorial workflow and content calendar system, Communiqué supports the creation of multiple content types and provides transparency and insights into every aspect of a client’s content marketing campaign.
Communique’s reporting tool can show the performance of a specific article and show detailed insights into the role it played in the overall effectiveness of an entire campaign. It’s highly detailed and, can provide a holistic view of content.
The company has designed the platform to include:
- Contributor management tools for recruiting, selecting and communicating with King Content’s database of content contributors.
- Campaign management for defining, planning and executing content marketing programs with integrated client approvals, editorial workflows, campaign budgets, real-time contributor assignment and content calendars.
- Amplification for monitoring and measuring content amplification campaigns through paid, owned and earned channels.
- Reporting and analytics for tracking content performance across owned, earned and bought assets, providing reporting insights into every aspect of the content marketing lifecycle. Communiqué will integrate via API with Google Analytics for web metrics and content amplification metrics will be pulled into the platform via amplification channel integrations.
In short, by being an established content provider in the market, King Content saw a new opportunity. And, this platform is the result of understanding the gap in the content marketing ecosystem.
Prepping the platform
The development of Communique has been led by Charles Jacobson, King Content’s Technology Director and former Senior Solutions Architect at Exact Target.
“It’s not enough for brands to think like publishers, they must also behave like publishers when it comes to planning, amplifying and measuring the effectiveness of their content campaigns. The brands that succeed at content marketing will not only be great at the creative side of the business, they will also focus on the science – the data and measurement that gives them the same insights media companies have used for years,” said Jacobson.
While it’s a robust technical solution, the real power lies in its strategic application to content marketing activities.
“It’s is all about delivering a strategic, scalable and measurable approach to content marketing. The platform provides centralised and streamlined processes around content production, distribution and measurement.Measuring the performance of content is a key focus of the platform. It will gather data from a variety of API sources like Google Analytics, Twitter and Klout. Then, it will track the effectiveness of all content produced. These insights are fed back into the content strategy and the content adapted and optimised for maximum results,” explained Todd Wheatland, Head of Strategy at King Content.
The ascent to the throne…
King Content is relatively new, but then again, so is the whole field of content marketing. The company took its fledgling steps in 2010. Since then the company has gone on to help companies including Football Federation Australia, Aspen Pharmacare, and NRMA Motoring & Services, among others.
It is on the wings of its past successes that King Content plans to forge ahead. Its entrepreneurial approach and the creation of a dedicated content marketing platform, looks set to differentiate it from its competitors in the content production space.
