Content marketing is about credible engagement with your audience. Simply put, content marketing is designed to connect companies and brands with customers and potential customers.
through well-crafted content marketing.
Content marketing is a targeted approach that gives customers and prospects insights and useful information that is relevant to the company or brand. Content is designed to both attract new customers and foster loyalty among existing customers.
By engaging with customers through content, a business can add value to the relationship by providing useful information and, in many cases, compel customers to seek additional information, goods, or services from the company.
An article from Hootsuite discussed several core principles at the heart of content marketing. They are:
Customers today want different relationships with the products and services they use. They want an interactive forum for gaining information and solving real problems. Content marketing serves as a valuable resource for them.
Content marketing is done best when the company knows its customers' needs and issues and creates content that is relevant. Give readers tools and content they can apply and use right now. To achieve this, you need content that is specific, not generic. Put the solutions in your customers' hands.
Your readers are intelligent, but you still want to create content that is easily read and uses language that is simple to understand, easy to digest and read, and absorbed on the fly. Readers may be reading your content on a mobile device, often in moments with little time to spare. Make your points brief, memorable, and compelling.
The content you create will be associated with your brand. It should be high quality — work you can stand behind.
Let's take a closer look at the types of content available.
All marketing needs to be targeted to a certain stage of the buying cycle. Content marketing is no different. A blend of content is needed that reaches customers where they are in the purchase process.
Let's take a look at each stage and what types of content work best. Imagine, for this section, that your company makes iPhone cases with a personal photo on the back.
Blogs offer companies a great way to share insights, solve problems, and drive business.
Who's going to produce all those compelling blogs, powerful web pages and zippy infographics?
The first determination should be whether there are deployable in-house resources that are capable of expertly addressing the task.
The marketing and communications department might take on these additional duties. It might even be a responsibility of executives who are experts on various topics.
Part of the content strategy needs to be who is positioned as the face of your campaigns.
Do you want your CEO to be positioned as an industry expert in areas related to your business? Do you want multiple voices that are presented from within the organization?
It's your choice. If the resources or talent are not in place internally, there are terrific external options, as well.
Various content marketing firms offer services that include strategic content planning, search engine optimization, and analytics in addition to producing the pieces for you. Other sites make writers and editors available on an ad hoc or contract basis for specific projects.
The main advantage to in-house production is that the staff are likely — at least at the start — more familiar with the company's mission, objectives and short- and long-term goals. Product usage, services offered and differentiators are usually already understood. In addition, writers can speak with one corporate voice.
On the other hand, using external writers provides fresh perspectives and insights, a new way of phrasing a concept and different tonalities. For smaller companies that do not have the internal resources, hiring a skilled writer accustomed to producing compelling content can be affordable and efficient.
Content marketing gives your sales team several decided advantages. When used as part of a lead generation strategy, content marketing drives more potential customers to seek information, fill out a form or send an email.
Good content marketing forces a company to understand customer motivations and respond accordingly, providing deep insights for a sales force. Further, content marketing is an effective way to test-drive certain messages and see what sticks.
Content gives sales teams an understanding of what messages resonate best with prospects and what problems need to be solved well before they are a part of a sales funnel. In addition, the content can help forge a trusting relationship with a salesperson before the relationship begins, largely due to the value proposition the content offers.
Finally, managed content provides a rich resource pool for sales staff (and other employees), who need to stay up to speed on products or messaging.
Content marketing is a powerful and essential part of successful B2B and B2C companies today. At Inbound 281, our experienced digital marketers help companies large and small connect with their customers and potential customers in meaningful ways.
Our vision is to change the way people engage with media and communication technology for more positive interactions. Using advanced technologies and analytics, we work with our clients to create compelling digital marketing plans that help our clients attract and keep customers.
Contact us to learn how we can help your company with content marketing and other digital marketing approaches.