Be the publisher of one of the most impressive thought leadership centers in the industry and achieve 2015 Content Marketing Award Finalist , Aimia finds herself ahead of the content curve. But while the success and scale of the company's efforts are fascinating, what's even more interesting is how Aimia got there.
As a data-driven marketing and loyalty analytics company, Aimia has always been focused on making customer insights clear and actionable for marketers and C-suite executives around the world. Based on that helpful approach, the company was able to build the kind of trust that drives conversions.
With a long sales cycle, content bridges the gap between creating brand awareness and making sales. A few years ago, however, the company realized that relying solely on traditional content marketing methods — like producing 20 — blank pages — wouldn't cut it. With audiences starting to use more mobile content, Aimia needed to diversify and expand her B2B marketing.
That challenge propelled the company, in partnership with Contently, to launch Aimia Institute a groundbreaking subscription-based digital content platform that uses long-form articles, infographics, videos, and op-eds from leading experts to inform entry-level marketers worldwide on how to build stronger customer relationships.
“Of course it fills a very strong need. Actually, they raised the ante. Aaron Dauphine, director general of the Aimia Institute, explains: “We have gone from a relatively tight network of individuals to forty thousand people worldwide. “Now not only can we rely on North American writers, but we can step up the game and get a writer in the UK… We can get a potential writer in the UK… Singapore. We now have easy access to local writers who help support our business units better because they understand the nuances of the regional market. It's breadth and reach is consistent and reflective of our global operations. ”
The Aimia Institute offers everything from comprehensive consumer research reports to interactive facts, presenting a comprehensive view of the data-driven marketing and analytics space. Impressively, all of this was accomplished with a content team that has been shrunk from nine employees to just four.
Aimia's in-house team currently works with more than a dozen freelance writers, designers, and researchers at any given time to fill the site with high-quality content in a variety of formats. For example, a monthly consumer research study might lead to more than 10 different sections that include lengthy articles on key findings — like “ Bringing loyalty back to a long-term relationship “ – with infographic go with slideshow summary and video content .
Aimia also uses Contently for powerful editorial scheduling and management. “To curate more than 1,400 pieces of content, the equivalent of what we have published on our digital platform in just over two years, requires more than one spreadsheet,” said Dauphine.
For weekly content, the Aimia Institute partners with subject matter experts in business and academia to provide opinion pieces. And 10 times per week, readers can check out “ Views on News ,” curated posts full of top industry stories with Aimia’s own perspective on their relevance to marketers.
Additionally, other business teams at Aimia are leveraging Contently's research services to turn first-party consumer research and data into compelling reports and insights.
With such a nuanced content program, the Aimia Institute's subscriber count has increased fivefold from last year. Additionally, Aimia is currently outperforming its peers on the Contently platform in most metrics including average interactive stories per person, average ending, and average attention time per person. , is four minutes – 16 x average attention span for a web article.
“Without measurement, you really can't get the hang of it,” says Dauphine. “Content has allowed us to do that in a way that personally feels more accurate to me than Google Analytics.”
He notes that the key difference is that Google Analytics counts any website visit as an actual pageview, which can skew the results, while Content Analytics only counts individuals who spend money on it. Spend at least 15 seconds with content that is audience engagement.
“With Contently, we get a really accurate understanding of when people visit our site and read our content, so we're more certain of what's working,” Dauphine said. added. “And if it doesn't work, we can tweak it. And if it's working, we can create more and more. ”
The Aimia Institute's primary goal is to establish a two-way conversation between marketers and consumers — what Dauphine calls "the unthinkable" for most content marketers. “It cannot just be a vehicle for us to sell our products and services,” he said. “It must enable a forum where marketers can come to learn and be educated on topics that are meaningful and of interest to them.”
Going forward, Dauphine hopes to continue building the company's momentum by ramping up distribution efforts, webinars, and videos tied to live events.
“You need to be skilled to be able to develop your strategy when it comes to content,” he says. “Here the audience is both king and queen. You need to flip the lens and say, 'What will meet their needs? What would provide a solution that would make their lives easier? ' And if you start with those hard points and structure your content from there, you'll have a solid path. ”
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