Beyond Important: Why content is business critical for brands in the age of connectivity and AI
Content strategies are considered “important” for brands. But is this enough? At The Positive Consultancy, we would argue that we’re now in a phase where content has become business critical. Here’s why.
Did you know that within 10 years the number of satellites orbiting the earth is going to increase from 4,000 to 100,000? And 5G will be available by 2030? This rise in connective stability means that everything will be able to be online together at the same time.
This will support the exponential growth of the Internet of Things. Within the next 2-5 years it is predicted that each and every person will be connected to more than 100 devices.
As this growth fuels collection of behavioural data, consumers will know more about their own preferences and habits. This will raise expectation for brands to understand more about them too. It follows that if a brand has not invested in methods of personalisation, it is more likely to be perceived as irrelevant, leading to swift lack of consumer engagement, a loss of brand relevance and an abrupt “not for me” attention drop.
Artificial intelligence is adding complexity to the situation. With consumers turning to AI to provide answers to their questions, a brand that has not created content which can be used as a data point within the potential solution offered won’t be considered.
At the root of this is a need for brands to:
Deeply understand their consumer. Both at a broad product and pain point level and at an individual consumer level. Data is key.
Develop a solid content strategy throughout the buying cycle that sets out its product purpose, use cases and impact in order to drive awareness, consideration and conversion.
Actively invest in securing a direct-to-consumer relationship through effective first party data collection, analysis and application.
Finally, develop a personalised or at least highly segmented connection strategy to remain relevant, useful and primed for advocacy
The biggest risk for brands is failure to evolve. 60% of public firms that failed, failed on account of keeping pace with market and societal demands. Moreover, companies who are the most future-prepared are 44% more likely to outperform their markets.
Content is key to all of this. 80% of consumer interactions are now digital. Make your brand voice heard. Speak to your consumer. Adapt your product, messaging and contact strategy according to what you hear.
Transformation is hard, but failure is worse.
Source: Global Futures and Foresight
