What makes content important to companies? An interview with Copestone’s strategic development director

Content is more important than ever to companies. 

In this competitive digital age, brands rely on content more than ever. And as content specialists, here at Copestone we are constantly seeking to grow our capabilities and infrastructure – as well as those of other agencies – to meet the demands of a content-hungry world. This involves us not only staying aware of trends in content popularity, but also growing our own strategy when it comes to client opportunity.

Eliza, Copestone’s intern, sits down with Martin, our strategic development director, to talk about his role at the company and all things content.

Firstly, what does a strategic development director do?

The role of the strategic development director is to ensure the business is positioned in the best possible way. This includes having a website that is appealing and clear to potential clients. But as well as getting those initial visitors, it is also about making them stay. We want them to go on to make enquiries, and for these enquiries to be acted on. One way we do this is to make sure we’ve got the best tools to process leads. For example, we use Lead Forensics, a lead generation platform that reveals the identity of your anonymous website traffic, as well as other inbound and outbound CRM marketing tools. The focus is on maximising opportunities. We get a steady stream of inbound enquiries because we’re good at what we do, but we also have to make sure we maximise those leads.

As well as working with individual brands, we’re also looking to become more involved in agencies – why is that?

Just as Copestone operates within a specific sector – B2B and content writing – there will be agencies that deliver certain types of content, whether that be video, social media, or advertisements, to name a few. Where these agencies excel in specialist skills, there may be others they lack in. For example, a web design agency tasked with creating a website for a metal supplier will have certain skills when it comes to delivering digital content but may lack the technical expertise to write the copy.

So where do we come in?

We specialise in creating content and developing content strategies. We have a team of people with the extended expertise to write the content. We also know how readers engage with content, so we can provide the insight necessary to deliver it. It would be impossible for an agency to permanently house enough writers to cover every technical subject they may potentially have to write about. For Copestone, the ability to know about a technical subject and then to write on it is where our skills are

I can see the benefits for the client, but what about for us?

Working with agencies can have many benefits. Let’s return to the web design agency as an example. They might be working with six different brands which means that Copestone would be writing copy for six different clients and yet we have not had to source each client ourselves. In this way, it’s more efficient. We have regular business from an agency, while they receive quality content and marketing expertise.

Why is it brands need content now more than ever?

A study of 2021’s marketing trends found that 47% of buyers view at least three pieces of company content before engaging with a sales rep. They also predicted that the top three roles marketing leaders will prioritise hiring in 2022 are ‘content creators’, ‘content marketing managers’, and ‘content strategists.’ In this new age of digital engagement – something heightened by the pandemic – there is an expectation among consumers that brands are meeting their content needs.

But it is also about what that content does to promote your brand. It is all very well a company producing ads to promote themselves, but this costs a huge amount of money. Content can be much broader than this. It can be blogs communicating thought leadership, which are showing that your business is the top of the tree when it comes to what you do. And it’s not just about producing content, it’s about having the right content viewed by the right people at the right time.

Is this where Copestone’s knowledge is key?

We’ve all heard the phrase ‘content is king’, but context is the most important thing. Without context, you’re just shouting into a void. At Copestone we’re constantly looking to understand our customers better, and what they are searching for. If a brand approaches us, we will look at what their competitors are doing to see how authoritative their website is in comparison. And it’s not just the technical content of the words themselves, it’s also about producing engaging copy that audiences want to read.

So, what’s the forecast for 2022?

All the research suggests that investment in content will continue to be a major focus for brands. At the beginning of 2021, the average UK marketing budget had increased by 6%, rising to 12% at the end of 2021. And 82% of marketers reported actively using content marketing, up from 70% in 2020. So, we can expect 2022 to bring even greater growth in content marketing.

And, at Copestone, we continue to grow, both in terms of skills and in the number of clients we work with. A large part of the DNA of Copestone is our top-quality service. This is very important to our brand. So, we will endeavour to expand our capabilities and, in doing so, continue to support our clients.

For more information about creating and implementing your content marketing strategy, contact us today. We are always happy to meet face to face or digitally to discuss how we can support your growth.

If you need support to write engaging, audience-driven content for your B2B brand or agency, contact Copestone today.