September 28, 2022
Cloud9 - Digital Marketing AgencyDreamy & Authentic Marketing
Cloud9 - Digital Marketing Agency
September 28, 2022
Content marketing is a tricky thing to grasp, but if you do it right, it’ll pay off more than you might think. So, how do you do it right?
First, you need to understand what content marketing is. Next, you can learn the rules of content marketing to discover how you can get the most out of it. If you’re interested in exploring the content marketing framework, you’ve come to the right place.
In this blog, we’ll talk all about one of the best content development frameworks – the 7 A’s of marketing. This content marketing rule of 7 serves as a guide to all content marketing newcomers. Essentially, you can even use it as a checklist to get the most out of your content marketing efforts.
So, what is the rule of 7 marketing for content? Let’s dive right in and uncover the 7 pillars of a successful content marketing strategy.
If you’ve been in the marketing sphere even for a short period of time, chances are you’ve heard of content marketing. It is a more futureproof strategy for marketing that focuses on relevancy and value.
At Cloud9, content marketing is a core service. As content geeks, we make it our mission to solely put out content that is authentic and dreamy, considers the audience’s preferences, and, most importantly, achieves goals. This is what content marketing is all about.
If you are considering using content marketing to boost your business, remember the following goals that can be achieved with it:
Overall, content marketing is a marketing strategy that entails the creation and sharing of online content (including blogs, social media activity, videos, etc.) that isn’t a direct promotion of your brand.
The main goal of content marketing is to make people interested in a product. It aims to create a preference-level shift in people’s minds. For example, if you were selling a breakfast cereal, your content marketing output would promote eating cereal in the morning or the benefits of cereal in general. You would mention your product simply as a side-note, while the main topic would be around your industry.
Now that you know what content marketing is, let’s take a look at how it’s done.
First things first, let’s understand what a content marketing framework is. In short, a content marketing framework (otherwise known as a content development framework) is a planning tactic that helps you optimize your content marketing strategy to the fullest.
A comprehensive content marketing framework shows you where you are, where you’re going, and how to get there in the best way possible. To avoid pushing out content just for the sake of it and actually put thought and strategy behind it all, you can follow the 7A framework of content marketing.
The rule of seven marketing A’s covers all the essential aspects of a powerful content marketing plan, giving you direction and clarity. Without further ado, let’s talk about the 7 A’s of marketing.
The 7 A’s of marketing are agility, authenticity, attention, audience, authority, action, and acceleration. If you develop your content marketing strategy around these 7 aspects, your content will have purpose and will bring results like you’ve never seen before.
Whether you’re looking to boost your sales, spread the word about your brand, or simply generate more buzz around your products, the 7 A’s of marketing will help you get there.
Grab your pen and paper, and let’s jump right into the 7 essential pillars that your content marketing strategy needs.
Generating content should not be a hassle that nobody wants to take care of. If you put out content that is too difficult to produce, it’ll also be difficult for your customers to digest. So, your content marketing strategy should be based on agility.
Helpful note: One element that you can implement into your content marketing framework to make it more agile is the use of templates for social media. That way, you’ll be able to consistently produce content that is on-brand and effective.
Agility is one of the 7 A’s of marketing. Once you set up a marketing process that is based on agile principles, pushing out content will become organic and effective.
Instead of having a set-in-stone strategy and gambling on whether your content will work or not, you have to learn from feedback and implement positive changes. If your customers aren’t responding to a specific messaging strategy, understand why that is. Being flexible is key to producing effective content.
This agile mindset will help you pinpoint the content that is attractive to your customers and will guide you toward creating a better strategy, being more flexible to any changes in the market, and, ultimately, increasing your productivity. It is a proactive strategy to continuously become better and better.
The second A in the 7 A’s of marketing is authenticity. This element of differentiation in your content marketing strategy is one of your keys to success.
This might sound cliche, but the best thing you can do for your brand is simply to make it authentic. Modern consumers aren’t looking for fairytales. Instead, to be able to compete in this saturated market at all, you must be real. Tell your stories, let the customer in, and they will love you for it.
At Cloud9, this is yet another core pillar. In fact, Cloud9’s slogan is “Dreamy and Authentic Marketing.”
If your content is customized according to your brand’s tone of voice and other branding elements, it has the highest chance of being effective. If you’re looking to copy other brands and get away with it, you are likely to end up with the short end of the stick.
In this age of conscious consumerism, customers are more prone to becoming loyal brand lovers, so you must take advantage and give them what they need. In short, being you is the best strategy you can use in your content marketing efforts.
Attention is the 3rd A in the 7 A’s of marketing. If your content isn’t going to grab the attention of your audience, then your content marketing strategy won’t succeed. You have around 8 seconds to grab your audience’s attention before they switch to another website, so you have to make it count!
First impressions matter. Your visitors won’t take too long to form an opinion about your brand. You’ll need to know your audience like the back of your hand to create content that’ll woo them.
Each time you create a new piece of content, try to get feedback from someone who’s never seen it before. Putting the “wow” effect in numerical terms is tough, but you’ll need to gather as much insight as possible.
Once you’ve made sure that your content is optimized to be in the center of attention, don’t forget to check the other 7 A’s of marketing off the list. Attention is important, but so are agility, authenticity, and more.
Here are Cloud9’s tips on how to grab the attention of your audience:
Your audience should be at the core of everything you do. After all, you’re making products for them, advertising your products to them, and hoping to get a sale from them. If you don’t consider the needs of your customers in every step of your marketing endeavors, your whole strategy might as well not exist. This is why your audience is the 4th A in the 7 A’s of marketing.
Let’s consider a scenario where you’re walking down the street, and you see a pet food store. If you don’t own a pet, virtually no type of advertisement can make you walk into that store and make a purchase.
Similarly, if you advertise to people who are not relevant to your brand or simply target everyone for that matter, you are going to be disappointed.
Let’s consider another scenario where you’re looking for an electric bike but haven’t found your perfect one yet. If you’re scrolling down your Instagram feed and an ad pops up with a great ebike discount, chances are you’re going to tap on that ad.
If you dive deeper and analyze what actually makes your audience tick, you’ll hit the jackpot of content marketing. Do your customers really struggle with something? Use it! Does your product give them something much more than a competitor? Tell them about it!
In short, knowing your audience is your key to success. They’re an undeniable source of knowledge that can tell you what they want, how they want it, and how you should sell it to them.
Once you’ve made sure your content marketing framework is agile, authentic, attention-grabbing, and audience-centric, it’s time to conquer the 5th A in the 7 A’s of marketing – authority. At this point, you’re thinking about coming off as the expert, making your audience feel that you know what you’re up to. The key here is to establish trust in your brand.
But, how do you establish authority, especially if you’re new to the game? Having been there, we’ve identified a couple of tips you can use:
Coming in at number 6, the next A in the 7 A’s of marketing is action. This is one of the more obvious pillars of a marketing strategy. It’s no secret that your content should bring some sort of result. This result is the action that your customers will take as a result of your content marketing efforts.
You are probably familiar with the term “call to action” (CTA). This CTA is the final stage of your content marketing framework, telling the customer what you want them to do next. If you succeed and your customer completes the CTA, your marketing strategy will have worked.
At Cloud9, we develop this step gradually – from smaller conversions like social media likes to larger ones like building sales funnels. If you have the previous A’s from the 7 A’s of marketing all ready to go, Action will complete your strategy and turn it into an effective way of bringing customers in.
Last but not least, the 7th A in the 7 A’s of marketing is Acceleration. With this element, you’re going to make sure that your marketing strategy can repeatedly and continuously work. It also entails the modification you make along the way to keep your audience happy.
Acceleration is also about trying out new and unique things that can take your brand viral. Once you figure out a way to put out engaging content that achieves your goals, think about implementing a strategy of keeping it relevant for a long while.
Social media content will stay in circulation for a couple of hours, email can get you attention for a couple of days, and blogs can bring you traffic for years if you keep them up to date. We recommend implementing a strategy that focuses on taking your content as far as it can go, aka accelerating its distribution.
And there you have it – the 7 A’s of marketing! All of these aspects of marketing come together to create an unbeatable content marketing strategy. The gist of it all is – if you incorporate agility, authenticity, attention, audience, authority, action, and acceleration into your content marketing tactics, you’ll definitely see powerful results.
Every marketing strategy has its specifics, but some essential elements always need to be present. The 7 A’s of marketing are exactly those elements.
Thank you for exploring our knowledge base. If you’re interested in applying expert techniques and strategies to skyrocket your business, let’s talk.
