Golden times have dawned, now that German companies have also discovered content marketing for themselves in large numbers: Finally, there is a method that costs less than traditional advertising, but at the same time automatically brings new customers into the sales funnel. Sales costs will finally be reduced again. Inbound marketing will automatically replace the increasingly laborious marketing activities. What do you need for this? A corporate blog, a Twitter account and of course a Facebook page. Everything else will then practically follow automatically. - Stop!
While there is certainly no shortage of instructions, books, lectures, webinars and advice on the subject of successful content marketing, I have to say: Yes, it is encouraging that a large proportion of German companies have now understood that they need to position themselves differently in the digital age.
But unfortunately, many decision-makers are still a long way from bank data realizing that "positioning things differently" really does mean positioning things differently, and definitely not simply continuing to do the same thing in other media that didn't really work before. So it's time to clarify a few things here.
(By the way, there is still advertising that works. If it is well done, follows contemporary rules and is placed in the right place. But that is not what we are talking about here.)
Insignificant marginalia and fake storytelling
For example, if you search for pages of German medium-sized B2B companies on Facebook, you will initially be pleased to see how many different companies are now represented: from screw manufacturers to consulting firms. But when you scroll through the pin boards of these pages, you are left with a great sense of disillusionment. Boring news that is of no interest to anyone other than the provider. Advertising statements with a barely concealed direct sales intention. Random and irrelevant marginalia from everyday office life that (at least I suspect) are intended to simulate something like storytelling among all the advertising.
If it was previously difficult to present a comprehensive product in an appealing way, then the topic will not become any more exciting if you instead move it directly to a Facebook page. Or, even worse, describe it in a boring and sober way on the company blog (so-called because it is built with blog software) and then just link to it on Facebook.