If you live in North America or Europe, you probably have heard Jamie Oliver’s name. You may only know that he’s associated with food or TV, or you may be well-versed in Oliver’s cooking shows, books, and healthy cuisine initiatives. Either way, it’s pretty remarkable that a chef can garner this exceptional level of name-recognition.
So how has a chef who hasn’t even turned 40 yet become so omnipresent on (at least) two continents? Perhaps it’s worth examining his content marketing strategy to see what role it has played in his success.
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He’s a master at cooking AND content marketing.
Quality Content
As you might imagine, everything starts with producing quality content. Strong content must do accomplish three goals:
- educate the consumer about various aspects of the product (but not necessarily the product itself)
- entertain the consumer using elements of storytelling
- empower the consumer to do something that he or she couldn’t do before
Think about it – Jamie Oliver isn’t all over television hawking his cookbooks, enamel roasters, and pasta sauces. What he is doing is showing people what they can do with these products, and then (sometimes) casually mentioning that what he’s working with can be found on his website, at his restaurants, or wherever they are sold. So for example, if your business sells residential lighting products and supplies, you could show people how to use light to complement interior design, live greener with eco-friendly light bulbs, or remodel a home for recessed lighting.
Strong Influencers
What are good influencers? They’re not simply people who sing the praises of your product – like a paid spokesperson or a studio audience.
Successful influencers can direct the public toward your core products.
Effective influencers tend to be people who are skilled in a particular area or field, not someone who has encyclopedic knowledge of your product. The idea is for these people to discuss or promote your product to their established group of followers and fans. In this manner, your product can benefit from an influencer’s reputation, credibility, and online presence within his or her niche.
As for the fans, followers, or devotees of your own product or company, the degree to which they are successful influencers is largely dependent on how active they are. After all, would you rather have 20,000 people who Like your Facebook page, or 100 fervent supporters who do all they can to tout, showcase, and praise your product? In the case of Oliver, he actually convinced small groups of people in different communities to lobby on behalf of his initiatives to serve healthier foods in schools. Talk about strong influencers.
Repurposed Content
If you’re like most people, you don’t have time to sit around and constantly come up with new ideas for content. But with a little ingenuity, you can get the most out of the content you already have.
In chef’s terms, repurposed content is taking the “leftovers” and creating something great with them.
Jamie Oliver records various cooking shows; but after they have aired, these programs are sliced up into short video segments and uploaded to YouTube, where computer users can enjoy them in perpetuity. Or he takes some of his blog content (say, for a smoked salmon recipe), adapts it to the visual medium, and makes a new video out of it. So it’s wise to sit down with your current content (like your product brochures, videos, blog posts, etc.) and think about taking the same information and putting it into a different package (maybe a top ten list, video quiz, eBook, or infographic).
There are quite a few people in the world who are either highly-skilled or strikingly charismatic, but aren’t as successful as they could be or as their peers are. And then there are the Jamie Olivers who know how to leverage their strengths well and market their content properly in order to achieve astonishing levels of success. Who knew that you could learn more than just cooking tips from a celebrity chef?
Chris Martin is a freelance writer about topics ranging from online reputation management to entrepreneurism to business finance solutions.