Content marketing is the practice of creating and sharing useful online content like blog posts, YouTube reels, vlog, guides, and videos to attract and engage customers. Traditional advertising has been overtaken by social media which has allowed news and information from across the web to be accessed in real time. Many people tune into social media first to find out what’s going on and what’s trending. Access to this large built-in audience data, whose usage is frequent, is a gift to organizations. However, since listeners can organize their own feeds by following specific accounts and then are served more with more content of their choice which is done with help of algorithms is a boon to buyers and organizations. Companies can’t expect their target audience to find them, instead they need to generate efforts like paid amplification, influencer marketing and employee advocacy to help their content get seen and their messages get heard by target audiences.

Since the last decade, traditional television advertising has significantly lost its sponsorship to a high production value in content marketing. That evolution has seen even bigger disruption as the television, radio and press advertising that once reigned the advertising world.

Content marketing has been ruling ad world by increasing organic visibility. It drives more traffic to the digital content created by the company and boosts brand’s awareness and visibility. The company must create content that matches their target audience’s needs. CarryMinati is the most popular and the biggest YouTuber in India. CarryMinati, also known as Ajey Nagar, is a comedian from India who makes videos about playing games, rapping, and has a lot of fans on YouTube. Indian consumers prefer comedy genre of content, and it takes the top spot, while VIPs and celebrities are at the other end of the ranking. Lifestyle brand Arctic Fox famous for its backpack bags has announced YouTube content creator Carry Minati aka Ajay Nagar.

As of November 2023, cricketer Virat Kohli is the most followed Indian celebrity on social media, with approximately 375 million followers. He was also the most valued celebrity in the country, with a brand value of over 227 million U.S. dollars. That’s the reason he is brand ambassador for most products: brands like Blue Tribe, Rage Coffee, Philips, and Audi. Virat endorses Myntra, Puma, Philips, and more, aiding companies to enhance brand visibility and market appeal.

Content marketing generates more conversions. It turns more traffic into leads and sales by providing useful and engaging content that attracts the target audience and makes them feel comfortable doing business with a brand.  Because it differs from other marketing methods in which it doesn’t interrup or annoy the customer’s time with sales pitches. Instead, it seeks to provide them with valuable information that solves their problems and answers their questions. It is a strategic approach to attract, engage, and delight target audience with valuable and relevant information.

Coca-Cola. Content is central to Coca-Cola’s messages in all its promotional campaigns. The brand thrives on modern problems faced by a worldwide audience. The 70/20/10 rule used by Coca-Cola classifies content into low, medium, and high risk, helping the brand to allocate time and resources accordingly. Low-risk content comprises 70% of the total content created as it has minimal risks, is less controversial, and does not take much time to produce. Cola-Cola. With approximately 1.1 million visitors a month, is seen maximum on social media. Coca-Cola’s digital magazine Journey has been wildly successful at creating audience-focused globally.

Traditional media includes all outlets that lasted before the internet, such as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and billboards. Before online advertising, companies typically allocated most of their marketing budgets to traditional media with the goal to increase their brand awareness and attract new customers. Even today, many businesses continue to rely on traditional media for their marketing and advertising campaigns, which can be very effective if their target consumers regularly engage with these forms of media.

LinkedIn the social media platform is one of the most successful content marketers out there today. By encouraging its members to publish original and well-researched, longform content, the platform has created countless educational and promotional opportunities for brands looking to get their names known. Its library of content created specifically for digital marketers has braced full of insightful industry advice and expert tips in the form of eBooks, presentations, and webcasts.

Even, Amul adopts a comprehensive marketing approach, characterized by its iconic mascot Amul Girl campaigns and consistent content marketing efforts, which resonate with its audience. Another important aspect of Amul’s marketing strategy focuses on its diverse product portfolio. The brand has developed a witty formula to connect with its customers. Amul uses comic strips, fun elements, and powerful taglines to pitch their industry presence as a voice for many social issues. They use their brand for current issues awareness. Amul uses the technique of moment marketing by creating content on trending things happening now.

Some famous content marketing agencies in India are Elatre creative marketing agency, SEO Discovery, MMG Technologies, Content Spotlight, which are famous for digital Strategy, website development, search engine optimization etc.

Zomato multinational food aggregator and food delivery company knows how to bring out the hidden “foodie” in all of us. Zomato is so clever with its content marketing skills that it knows just how to grab mind shares of the people. Zomato has a good understanding of its target market. The brand understands what motivates people to utilize its services and it never fails to excite them.  Zomato’s content marketing strategy revolves around providing value-rich content that resonates with its audience. Through blog posts, articles, videos, and infographics, Zomato offers a treasure trove of food-related insights, trends, recommendations, and culinary inspirations. So many cloud kitchens, street food vendors and restaurants have gained fame and fortune because of Zomato.

Content marketing helps to build relationships, foster loyalty that leads to repeat purchases and word-of-mouth recommendations.

GE hits the mark when it comes to publishing original and provocative content. From Pulitzer-prize winning photographers to Forbes journalists, GE has recruited top-notch talent to create high-quality content that gets picked up not only by industry experts, but audiences in general and even the media.

Today organizations cannot survive without email marketing, social media marketing, SEO, public relation, pay-per-click, marketing funnel, digital marketing. One thing for sure, marketing today is impossible without great content.

Jim Collins who is famous for his originally coined and is a path breaking leadership theory called Level five leadership has coined the phrase “the flywheel effect “in marketing management. 

So what is the flywheel effect? When customers experiences goodness or plosive effect with a brand, they start trusting it more. The trust which gets built over time creates a relationship between the brand and its customers which is also called customer loyalty; over the time the customers start advocating the brand and the company. Today also word-of-mouth publicity is most trusted and valued and is healthy for brands.   

Technically, a flywheel is an incredibly heavy wheel that takes huge effort to push. Keep pushing, and the flywheel builds momentum. Keep pushing, and eventually, it starts to help turn itself and generate its own momentum. A flywheel is also a self-reinforcing loop made up of a few key initiatives such as designing suitable content, personalized marketing messages, data driven marketing, updating the content from time to time, continuous marketing research, regularly to train sales staff, concentrate on maintaining quality, diligence in handling marketing channels and an efficient supply chain. These initiatives feeds in turn drive each other to build long-term momentum.

In marketing ‘value’ has a special meaning. When organizations work on improving their value-chain, they achieve a flywheel effect.  Value is perceived by a customer. And it differs from customer to customer. Value in marketing is the difference between a prospective customer’s evaluation of the benefits and costs of one product when compared with others. When the perceived value of a brand is higher it improves the sales, it increases profits, and helps the brand to grow. Therefore, a well-designed and well-executed loyalty programme can help an organization retain existing customers, attract new customers, reduce turnover and drive profits.

The ‘Flywheel Effect’ was introduced as a business concept by Jim Collins in his inspiring book ‘Good To Great’ and it was used to state the fact that companies don’t become exceptional as a result of a single innovation or initiative, but rather from the accumulation of small wins that collect up over the years of hard work until a momentum takes over to influence acceleration of growth greatly. The underlying hypothesis of flywheel effect is that there are combinations of elements within a business which if properly aligned over a period of time will gain significant momentum and subsequently create a self-reinforcing virtuous cycle for the company.

Here is how the flywheel effect works for Amazon

Customer experience is the key for the momentum that the flywheel gathers. Good experience of customers transform into customer loyalty. It also ensures a longer association of customer with the brand and a positive word of mouth among people. For example, Amazon’s ecommerce business model includes pricing according to preferences and customer profile. It works on end-user delivery preferences, last mile (the journey of goods from the distribution centre to a customer’s location) national, international and regional (including different tariffs for delivery, landed costs (Item Price + Shipping Costs/Freight Costs + Customs Duties + Risk + Overhead) delivery costs, and payment options. Giving good customer service is each Amazon employees’ number one principle. And excellent customer experience drives traffic to Amazon.com. Sellers are attracted to put their products on Amazon.com which is the reason for larger variety for customers to choose the best in any product category. This is also the main reason for the increased sales on Amazon.com. Over the years by improvising on processes and adding more products Amazon has achieved the flywheel effect which has set a continued momentum.   

Case of Uber

India’s infrastructure is becoming more and more progressive in terms of saving energy and mobility development, which nicely sets the stage to advance current or existing practices. According to statistical data, an estimated 40% of its population will be living in urban areas by 2025, and they will account for over 60% of the consumption of resources.  Moreover, transportation in India is highly fragmented, disorganised across modes with poor management, congestion and low public transport density. Riders and drivers have to undertake multiple challenges daily such as lack of availability, reliability, quality, consistent pricing, safety etc. Uber is one of the major players in cab services.

Uber is expanding in international markets, and as demand and supply both are growing, it has to invent pickup times which get fuddled. Shorter pickup times mean more reliability on drives and more cars. The more people that use Uber, the shorter the pick-up times get challenging in each region. As Uber grows in a city, its dependence on car and driver get more deepened making the range of supplier liquidity greater. The more people that use Uber, the greater the coverage. Its utilization increases. Basically, the drivers get motivated when they get paying rides per hour constantly because his vehicle gets utilized number of times in a day. This is simply a math reality – more demand and more supply make the working model more rational. Uber then uses the increased utilization to lower rates – which results in lower prices which once again leads to more users. The more people that use Uber, the lower the overall price will be for the consumer. Each marketplace is two sided, with riders and drivers, has its own network effects driven by pickup times, coverage density, and utilization.

For a positive flywheel effect organizations must understand that the customer experience is the core of the entire marketing process. Organizations must familiarize with the compliance regulations and standard operation procedures for each function. The communication with the marketing channel must be regular and supportive. Organizations must maintain healthy account standings and customer performance metrics. 

Experimenting with new ideas and new innovations is a must, but the growth cycle must be steady. Organizations must regularly monitor their product portfolio and have performance matrix in place. Each product has a life cycle which needs measuring the stage of life cycle and rejuvenating the product.

Today, website and social media marketing plays the key role. Firms must apply search engine optimization (SEO) to its product detail pages. The design of website matters. The product description must be engaging answering any potential questions of customer.

For gathering flywheel momentum, continuous efforts are most necessary; it moves entirely on its own and is not an overnight process. Firm’s strategic objectives must be checked from time to time and carefully examined. Each optimization improves the flywheel effect hence it remains the firm’s responsibility to regularly find new avenues to keep the flywheel in motion.