Attracting Savvy Customers Through Creative Content Marketing

Published by Ashton Elder

Ashton has an M.S. in Marketing from Florida International University and has been working as a marketer for over five years. She is currently serving on the University of North Florida’s Department of Communications Professional Committee Board. Ashton has been a guest on several media and marketing panels throughout her career. She also holds a degree from the University of North Florida where she studied political science, journalism, and mass communications. Prior to working in marketing, she worked as a journalist for several news outlets and publications, including an internship at NPR where she produced several radio features. This site features a collection of her articles and radio features from her career in journalism. This site also features some of her insights and projects from her career in marketing. Ashton’s background in journalism has provided her with a solid foundation on which to build enhanced media and social media strategies to provide creative, innovative marketing solutions. Ashton also has first-hand experience with brand design and brand building. Ashton also works on an array of marketing projects from social media to email marketing and everything in between. View all posts by Ashton Elder

Creative content marketing is a great way to appeal to savvy customers. I have been able to utilize my rich background in journalism to create Top of the Coast, a branded media outlet the company I work for, EXIT 1 Stop Realty, and it has been incredibly successful since it was created. I also gave the company blog it’s own unique, original brand. I again leaned heavily into my media background and experience as a features editor when I developed the blog brand and the content. I chose Top of the Coast which references Northeast Florida, also known as the First Coast. The blog’s tagline is: “the art of living on the First Coast,” and I was inspired by the format of city magazines, one in particular, Maine’s Down East magazine, which has a real estate spotlight section called Main Homes.

The blog showcases all things local and it not only ads value to our customers but it also entertains.

The content on the blog features in depth profiles on local restaurants, events, businesses and neighborhoods. It’s a great outlet to attract customers who are looking to move to the Jacksonville, Florida area as well as those who make their homes on the First Coast. Top of the Coast is a WordPress site, which allows me to integrate several important company media channels, such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube onto the blog.

I have also embedded our company website as a button with a call to action that states, “Northeast Florida Real Estate: Ask the Experts,” which is another type of “soft sell” through content marketing on the blog. Lastly I have added lead form buttons for a newsletter subscription in order to retarget visitors. I think some of my best marketing moments have come when I thought like a journalist, as the savvy customer wishes to be entertained, educated and inspired in a digital age where content needs to be creative in order to stand out from the crowd online. Creative content marketing is an easy fit for me, it’s my go to marketing tip for most things because it really works!