Content marketing practitioners here are not represented by a peak body as they are in United States by the Content Marketing Institute. That is about to change.
The Association for Data-driven Marketing and Advertising (ADMA) intends to claim that mantel.
ADMA CEO, Jodie Sangster, says: “Content marketing is reasonably new. Over the past couple of years companies are starting to use content to engage and get customers to interact. That is why we are setting up an ‘expert group’ to look at this area,” she says.
The ADMA, which started in 1965, has its origins in direct marketing, but today it claims a much broader mandate of “customer-centric” marketing (regardless of the channel) that can be improved by making use of data.
Content marketing falls into that category – using analytics and other data, it’s easy to measure whether customers open an email, click on a headline, and stick around to read what is on offer.
Who are the experts?
The ADMA’s expert group in content marketing will be comprised of practitioners in the field, provided they are ADMA members. ADMA membership fees start at $3,620 per annum and rise to $55,000, according to corporate turnover.
Publishers such as Bauer Custom Media, Pacific + Custom, Mahlab Media and Engage Custom Content are among those driving the initiative, according to report in The Australian’s media section on Monday 30 September.
The ADMA can expect an influx of members as publishers join the group in an effort to make their mark on the emerging practice of content marketing.
Sangster says any ADMA member can nominate to be an expert group member – they will be invited through internal publications — and a nominee must represent “a section of market” that has a stake in content marketing, rather than their own interests.
The expert group may consider ethical matters related to brand-generated content, such as whether it is labelled “advertising” in traditional media. However, Sangster says the ADMA has recently updated its code of practice, which sets out standards for marketing, to cover issues relating to content marketing.
More often, the group will look at best practice, Sangster says. “The goals of the group came out of the round table. The key areas causing challenges to content marketers are creating content that cuts through, and how to distribute that content to the right people,” she says.
The group will create tools and resources that can be used by the industry.
Sangster says the expert group will be up and running by the end of this month, and the new code of practice published by November this year.