Like any other sphere, marketing adapts to customer psychology over time. “Resistance” of customers is growing and trust in new brands on the Internet is dropping, but working with content can help solve these problems. Even if this is the first time you’ve heard of this concept, you may already be unconsciously applying it to your business.
Content marketing technology involves attracting customers by creating unique and useful content for the brand’s website and social networks. Several tools are used at once for this purpose:
- promotion of publications;
- creating a content plan;
- search of themes;
- working with the audience.
First of all, when faced with a problem, any potential customer is looking for information about its solution. At the moment he does not know about your services, products, competitive advantages and prices. Having studied the audience beforehand, you can start “speaking the same language” with them, understanding their pains and needs, thereby motivating them to take the targeted action.
Increased credibility and recognition
And this happens without “working for the brand” directly. By “generating” useful information, in the eyes of competitors and consumers, you will become an authoritative expert.
Customers don’t like to be told what to do. Primitive “vparivanie” products does not inspire confidence – leave them the opportunity to make decisions on their own. By forming trusting relationships with customers, you will build long-term and productive relationships with them. People will talk about you, your brand will be recommended and discussed.
The customer is looking for a solution to their problem – you offer it, unobtrusively describing your benefits. To give your target audience their own choice, it’s important that they come across information about your brand in the right place at the right time. And if the products or services are truly “the best on the market,” that choice will be made in your favor.
The main condition for this is quality information and original presentation. Expert articles don’t encourage the user to look elsewhere for additional material, because he gets a complete answer to his question. A win-win option is to start with theory, confirm 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).
“Turn” from the path of Internet marketing, once you fill the site with articles and forget about it, you can not – you have to write constantly. Topics can be “borrowed” from foreign competitors or rely entirely on personal experience. In this case, the materials must be unique.
Saving advertising budgets
Classic methods of advertising require a lot more money, but in the case of content marketing everything works “for you”. It is no secret that search engines perceive natural publications better without an abundance of keywords and the use of outdated SEO techniques. The robots will “like” you:
- Correctly filled in the title and description;
- The high uniqueness of the texts;
- The presence of linking, attention blocks, quotations and original illustrations;
- Clear semantic links to pages on the site.
The number of promoted queries increases in proportion to the content of the site. The more natural are the links, the better will be the position in the search engine results. Crude techniques seo-specialist (eg, buying link building) on this figure almost no effect – search engines learned to recognize them a long time ago and did not take pity at all.
At the initial stages, you can make do with free ways to promote your content: cooperating with thematic and news media, making “seeding” on forums, sharing publications with partners, using personal profiles on social networks. This is a real “cure-all” for small firms with limited budgets.
Your proposal can “skip” past the field of view of the client, because every day he receives thousands of advertisements. To achieve optimal results, I recommend combining free channels with the purchase of advertising on various niche resources, social networks and search engines. Visit site by Kirill Yurovsky
Two-way communication with your target audience
By attracting natural search traffic and increasing leads through content distribution, don’t become a “soulless commercial account.” Going into social media and creating content distributions? Then be sure to collect feedback.
Analyze reviews on platforms, monitor mentions of your brand’s accounts on social media, news outlets and forums. Whenever possible, answer customers’ questions in comments and personal messages (and they will appear even when it seems that you’ve packed all the possible information into the material on the chosen topic).
Now your audience is “in the palm of your hand,” and they need to feel your participation and understand that you are “on the same page” with them and want to help them solve problems.
Where do I start with content marketing?
Starting content marketing from scratch without a media strategy is impossible. Even though it is not necessary to immediately hire a separate staff to implement it, failure to plan will lead to weak (or even non-existent) results.
Creating a positive image of a company among consumers consists of three steps:
- analysis of the audience;
- the choice of sites for placement and advertising channels;
- creating content.
Who is your target audience? The materials you publish should depend on several parameters: regionality, social characteristics of the client, income level, consumption model and attitude toward opinion leaders. The above information will help you decide on the choice of platform and the style of information presentation.
What is the goal of your media strategy? Do you want to increase the number of subscribers or improve site traffic? Maybe to create a loyal community around the company? Based on these questions, decide on a publication schedule and a list of key topics.
What kind of content do you want to post? The core of a blog (site, account…) is divided into three areas at once – materials to improve visibility, to increase expertise and to attract new readers. By alternating them, you can gradually “acquire” subscribers who will promote your project naturally and independently.
How often do you plan to publish articles? The schedule of publications depends on whether you’re going to hire outsourcers or fill their own. It is desirable that the materials go out at about the same time every few days. For example, for social networks, 8-10 a.m. is considered an ideal publishing time, because at that time people go to work or school, flipping through the feed on the way.
All that remains is to launch the project and begin the long work of implementing it, making adjustments “as you go” depending on the public’s reaction.
A content plan that aligns with your company’s goals and puts an “emphasis” on diversity is the key secret to the success of your marketing campaign. Tell and demonstrate, not impose and beg.
