Page 53 - Gulf Marketing Review

M A R K E T I N G

When content marketing is proper, the
actual execution of it brings your company
closer to its audience and permits you to steer
your product development with clear focus.

Get intimate with your content. The typical
CEO is often quite aloof from the daily mar-
keting efforts or even product development.
But look at the example of Steve Jobs and
you’ll notice how closely involved he was in
marketing – by all accounts, fully controlling
the entire effort.
And on the product development side,
he was legendary. Jobs had a finely-tuned
awareness of what people wanted, with the
end result being a series of products thanks
to which, years after his passing, despite no
radical new innovation, Apple is still on top of
the world’s list of most valuable companies.
Involvement in content marketing brings
a discipline that Jobs naturally possessed. It AT THE CORE
tightly integrates marketing and innovation, OF CONTENT
which, according to Peter Drucker, the father of MARKETING IS THE
CREATION AND
business consulting, are the only two business DISSEMINATION OF
functions that bring results. (The rest, Drucker
INFORMATION
said, are costs.)
Jobs knew this naturally – and, more im-
portantly he lived and breathed it, so he was Here in the UAE, our Creative Director at Creating good content is not
able to put it into action every day. Silx, who is also a published author, recently easy. It is not just about putting
Content marketing does this. It starts with gave me an example that nicely brought pen to paper and writing for a
the creation of content. If you cut corners in home the point. set amount of time
this process, you will know, deep down, that If you are trying to describe in your novel
not only does the content itself have little val- how beautiful one of the characters is, don’t
ue to your audience, but the content creation just keep repeating "She is beautiful."
process also has little value for you. Rather, you describe her personality, her Content marketing is essentially doing the
Why? Because creating good content features, her actions, her dressing sense and same thing. You are explaining rather than
is not easy. It is not just about putting pen all of the other things that create in your read- simply presenting facts. It’s a process that
to paper and writing for a set amount of ers’ minds a way of visualising her beauty forces you to reflect deeply on what it is you
time, or creating a video walk-through of for themselves. deliver and why.
your new corporate headquarters. It’s about
explaining and guiding the audience through
your story.
ALEX IONIDES, MANAGING DIRECTOR, SILX
If we stay focused on the fact that your
story is there to resolve problems on the lines “The typical CEO is often quite distant
of your products or services, then you’ll find from daily marketing efforts and even
yourself naturally creating content with a dis- product development”
cipline that delivers true value.

DECEMBER 2017/FEBRUARY 2018 I GULF MARKETING REVIEW I 53