Brandhacker Infographic Rating (Hackin!, Status Quo, Lame): Hackin!
Smart Insights released a very relevant infographic called the "Inbound Marketing Funnel" recently. Of course I found this in my Pinterest digital marketing infographic collection (have you seen it?).
The main take-away from the "Inbound Marketing Funnel": *Again* Content Marketing will be driving digital strategy in the foreseeable future. The Branded Content Strategy is now being put on top of the inbound purchase funnel strategy. Key Insights:
- While the digital lead driving and customer brand awareness sales funnel engine has for the past years been focused on steps 2 (Reach/Exploration), 3 (Act/Decision Making), 4 (Convert/Purchase) and 5 (Engage/Advocacy), it's step 1 (Plan- Branded Content/Strategy/Creativity) which is truly driving digital strategy at the moment (and will increasingly do so)
- Smart Insights puts it (in a 101 form), "Content is marketing's last opportunity for creativity." (I guess to them the rest of the process of driving users down the consumer purchase funnel is just machinery, clicks, technology apps and media types looking at optimizing metrics -vs. anything creative)
- When we discuss social media going forward, we need to start talking both (but separately) about the platforms which move content and text around, as well as the content itself. While social media will increasingly be assessed for ROI and KPI-driving performance indicators, content will also be put under increased pressure to perform as well
