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BERATUNG VEREINBAREN

case study

Content Marketing for the german market

Why is content marketing different in Germany, and how should US and UK
businesses approach it?

A German content marketing success story

The marketing team at the US IT provider is well versed in the value of the right content, and its relationship to good inbound marketing practice. When entering the German market, it recognised the requirement to identify the content needs of local customers and integrated them into the marketing communications asset mix. This in turn led to the realisation that to drive content marketing successfully in Germany, the company needed content with a depth that its global marketing agencies were not able to deliver, because they didn’t have the necessary specialist technical knowledge and insight into local trends and developments. They also recognised that simple translations of existing content from the US headquarters would not be enough to satisfy German target audiences. All of which meant that they had a clear need for a network of experts and editors that could identify and fill content holes, and create appropriate content at the right level of detail. The company found the team it needed in the German content marketing agency, Avidly.

Avidly Germany: Local content marketing done right

Avidly Germany has been retained as an agency for Inbound- and Content Marketing in Germany since July 2014. Working closely with the customer‘s local management team, Avidly Germany develops marketing strategies for the creation of specialised local content for German target audiences. Its activities include:

  • Advising the company on an integrated medium-term content marketing strategy for the German market
  • Development and implementation of a detailed editorial plan aligned with the customer buying journey across all communication channels
  • Creation and publication of blog posts on company owned website
  • Creation of articles, whitepapers, compendiums, posts, presentations as well as the curation of existing content
  • Management of all social media channels in Germany on which the organisation currently has a presence (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Xing)
  • Planning and delivery of customer communications
  • Reporting on content access

Benefits

Through close collaboration with the customer and a specialist media agency, Avidly Germany has helped deliver unique digital marketing solutions that are making a very positive impact on the acceptance of the US IT company in the relevant target groups in Germany (brand awareness). They are also contributing to a rapidly growing number of customer contacts (leads) and revenue.

In addition, Avidly Germany fulfils a number of requirements that cannot easily be met by conventional advertising, PR or media agencies. An experienced and talented content production team is the cornerstone when it comes to producing content not just quickly, but also to the standard that a German audience expects. The proven specialist expertise and broad technical capabilities provided by Avidly Germany are also essential for developing technically challenging, innovative strategies and solutions at Internet speed, and implementing them together with the customer.

Avidly Germany backs up all of this expertise and local market knowledge with editorial experience that ensures the content produced for the customer maintains its own unique tonality consistently, across all assets and channels. While this comes at a premium, the customer recognises that in the long term, it is much cheaper than the endless rewrites that are often required when using low cost providers.

Conclusion

Germany is the largest and potentially the most lucrative European market for US and UK companies, and the opportunity to establish a strong, differentiated presence there should not be ignored. Moreover, content marketing will become increasingly important in establishing that presence for businesses of all sizes. 

But quality and customer-centricity are essential for success. The right strategy, the right content mix and the right assets, delivered at the right time, can convince prospects and convert them into customers – but only if these activities are tailored to the informational needs of German buyers. Ultimately, a successful result is about living and breathing a “Think global, act local” attitude through content marketing and digital strategy.