As we did last year we’ve posed some of our attendees’ most frequently asked questions to speakers who will be at this year’s Gilbane Conference. Today we’re spotlighting Rachel Metscher, Director of Content Marketing, ICF International. You can see all Speaker Spotlights from our upcoming conference as well as last year’s event.

Speaker Spotlight: Rachel D Metscher Director, Content Marketing

ICF Interactive; American Marketing Association

Follow Rachel: @rachelmetscher

Given that there are more smartphones than PCs on the planet and both will be important for the foreseeable future, how should organization’s content delivery priorities and technologies change? How is yours changing?

I think it is important to note how your content will look and feel on mobile. I know for my team, we are trying to find ways to repurpose content in visual forms; however,  it is influenced by the fact that our audience are accessing different types of information both at the office and at home.

Marketing is the most talked about discipline that needs to take on more responsibility for technology to be effective. What can other departments learn from the discussion around marketing technology and marketing technologists.

While technology is important, it is also important to remember that technology is powered by people. People will make or break the success if implementing technology. Getting everyone on board is key to adoption. If you don’t plan for adoption and use your technology project is dead in the water. Planning is the key to success.

Although sometimes used interchangeably ‘content strategy’ and ‘content marketing’ refer to very different though often connected disciplines. How and where should these activities be organized?

Every great campaign starts with a plan. Content marketing is no different. I try to advice our team to begin with who are we reaching and why should the care. With those two questions in mind we weave our content marketing initiatives into our editorial calendar to match up the content with the audience we want to reach.  Marketers face a real challenge of quantity versus quality in an age where everyone is a publisher. Again, in my mind, the purpose of content is to communicate with your prospects in a meaningful way. It’s about creating content that your customer needs, not what you want to produce. There is a huge difference. Organizations need to rethink their content creation in terms of value and relevancy. Without value and relevancy the content cannot deliver business results.

Catch up with Rachel at the Gilbane Conference:

Track C: Content, Marketing, and the Customer Experience

C12: Content Marketing Panel
Wednesday, December 3: 2:00 p.m. – 3:20 p.m.

Register now to hear more from Fred and all of our speakers.

See our complete conference program for more details.