New content research from Technology for Marketing and BuzzSumo analyses the DNA of top performing content in different markets.

Banks filming SnapChat videos. Pharmaceutical brands with Pinterest pages. The problem with following the latest trends is that what works in other markets may be entirely the wrong thing for your industry.

For all content producers the key challenge is creating something that resonates strongly with your audience, and that ‘thing’ can vary significantly from market to market. How does content consumption of fashion blogs differ from the charity sector or IT? What are the real differences between business-to-business and consumer media?

Technology for Marketing (TFM) and BuzzSumo have released a report ‘The Science of Content’ that analyses 150,000 articles from 10 industries to answer the following questions:

  • What types of articles and headlines resonate the most in different industries?
  • Which social networks are the preferred channels for content distribution?
  • What impact does the length of an article have on sharing?
  • Which day of the week is best to distribute content?

The research uncovered profound differences in how content is distributed across different industries:

  • Over the last 6 months, a massive 92 per cent of shares of content from news media came from Facebook, just 0.2 per cent from Google +. The most shared keyword “Donald Trump”
  • There is a power law when it comes to content sharing and engagement that applies equally to all industries. Only a small number of posts manage to ‘go viral’ and achieve huge numbers of shares and views
  • Tuesday is the best day of the week to publish and distribute, across most markets

The main takeaway: Market differences in consumption and distribution are more important considerations for content success than general best practice. Content strategy should be based on research and experimentation to discover a formula that works for your specific community.

Luke Bilton, Director Digital & Content, UBM presented the full results at Technology for Marketing on Thursday 29th September 2016, Olympia London, concluding:

“While much has been written about general content marketing advice, there is very little guidance for marketers trying to understand what works for their specific audience.

This research conducted between TFM and BuzzSumo clearly shows that while best practice can be useful, it is far less important than understanding what makes your audience unique.

“Creating content is an investment that helps you build an audience. To get the maximum return you need to understand the content topics, formats and headlines that resonate with your audience. This is why data-driven research is now a core part of any successful content strategy.”

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