Like any other field, marketing over time adapts to the psychology of the client. “Resistance” of buyers is growing, trust in new brands on the Internet is falling, but working with content will help solve these problems. Even if this is your first time hearing about this concept, you may already unknowingly apply it in your business.
Content marketing technology involves attracting customers by creating unique and useful content for the brand’s website and social networks. For this, several tools are used at once:
- promotion of publications;
- formation of a content plan;
- search for topics;
- work with the audience.
First of all, faced with a problem, any potential buyer is looking for information about its solution. At the moment, he does not know about your services, products, competitive advantages and prices. Having previously studied the audience, you can begin to “speak the same language with her”, understanding her pains and needs, thereby motivating them to take the targeted action.
And also, content marketing is …
Increasing the level of trust and recognition
And this happens without “working for the brand” directly. By “generating” useful information, you will become an authoritative expert in the eyes of competitors and consumers.
Clients don’t like being told what to do. Primitive “stealing” products does not inspire confidence – leave them the opportunity to make decisions on their own. By building trust with your customers, you will build long-term, productive relationships with them. They will talk about you, your brand will be recommended and discussed.
The client is looking for a solution to his problem – you offer it, unobtrusively describing your advantages. To let your target audience make their own choices, it’s important that they stumble upon your brand information in the right place at the right time. And if the product or service is truly “the best on the market,” that choice will be in your favor.
The main condition for this is quality information and original presentation. Expert articles do not encourage the user to look for additional materials elsewhere, because he receives a complete answer to his question. A safe bet is to start with theory, prove your credibility with examples and cases, and at the end of the material share tips or subtleties (for example, in the form of a checklist).
“Turning away” from the path of Internet marketing, once filling the site with articles and forgetting about it, will not work – you have to write constantly. Topics can be “borrowed” from foreign competitors or rely entirely on personal experience. Moreover, the materials must be unique.
Saving advertising budgets
Classic advertising methods require much more money, but in the case of content marketing, everything works “for you”. It’s no secret that search engines are better at accepting natural publications without an abundance of keywords and outdated SEO techniques. The robots will be helped by:
- correctly filled title, description and keywords fields;
- high uniqueness of texts;
- the presence of linking, attention blocks, quotes, original illustrations;
- clear semantic links to site pages.
The number of promoted requests grows in proportion to the content of the site. The more natural the links are, the better the positions in the search engine results will be. Rough SEO techniques (for example, buying a link mass) practically do not affect this indicator – search engines have long learned to recognize them and do not like them at all.
At the initial stages, you can get by with free methods of promoting materials: cooperating with thematic and news media, making “seeding” on forums, exchanging publications with partners using personal profiles on social networks. This is a real “panacea” for small firms with a limited budget.
Your offer can “slip” past the client’s field of vision, because every day he receives thousands of advertisements. For optimal results, I recommend combining free channels with buying ads from various niche resources, social networks and search engines.
Two-way communication with target audience
By driving natural search traffic and building links through content distribution, don’t become a “soulless commercial account.” Going to social media and creating content feeds? Then be sure to collect feedback.
Analyze reviews on platforms, monitor mentions of your brand accounts in social networks, news outlets and forums. If possible, answer customer questions in the comments and private messages (and they will appear even when it seems that you have fit all possible information on the chosen topic into the material).
Now your audience is “in full view”, and they should feel your participation, understand that you are “on the same wavelength” with them and want to help in solving problems.
Where to start content marketing?
Starting content marketing from scratch is impossible without a media strategy. Even though there is no need to recruit a separate staff to implement it in a project, abandoning planning will lead to weak (if not completely absent) results.
Creating a positive company image among consumers consists of three steps:
- audience analysis;
- selection of sites for placement and advertising channels;
- content creation.
Who is your target audience? The materials you publish should depend on several parameters: regionality, social characteristics of the client, his level of income, consumption pattern and attitude towards opinion leaders. The listed information will help you determine the choice of the site and the style of presenting information.
What is the purpose of a media strategy? Do you want to increase the number of subscribers or improve your site traffic? Perhaps to form a loyal community around the company? Based on these questions, decide on a publication schedule and a list of main topics.
What content do you want to post? The core of the blog (site, account …) is divided into three areas at once – materials to improve awareness, to increase expertise and to attract new readers. Alternating them, you can gradually “grow” subscribers who will promote your project naturally and independently.
How often do you plan to publish articles? The publication schedule depends on whether you are hiring specialists for outsourcing or filling in on your own. It is desirable that the materials come out at about the same time every few days. For example, for social networks, the ideal publication time is considered to be 8-10 am, since at this time people go to work or study, flipping through the feed on the road.
All that remains is to launch the project and begin long-term work on its implementation, “along the way” making adjustments depending on the reaction of the public.
A content plan that aligns with company goals and emphasizes diversity is the key to your marketing campaign’s success. Tell and demonstrate, do not impose and beg…