Content marketing is an effective tool for promoting your brand.
If people recognize your business and you have strong presence on the web – your business will thrive.
Understand that this is a long process that requires investment, patience and your time.
If you were thinking of launching content marketing just for a couple of months, surely it will bring nothing but a waste of time and money. So, weigh up your options well before using this tool to promote your business.
Every third person would say that content marketing does not work. And every third person would be wrong. Like any other type of marketing, this is a tool that needs to be thoroughly studied and properly used.
The content will hardly have an impact or (in the worst-case scenario) will impact your business negatively if it was created without purpose, brand-awareness and proper distribution channels.
It doesn’t matter what kind of business you are running: thesis writing service , dog-walking app, cooking classes, recruitment agencies or retail business – content marketing works if it is relevant, regular, omnichannel and brings value.
So, let’s take a look at some useful, yet not obvious points to consider, when you are working on your content marketing.
To make people use your services or purchase from you, you need to change their behaviour, to become their choice among your competitors. To influence people’s behaviour with the help of content, you need to build a marketing plan.
Who will buy from you? What is a typical portrait of a person that is your customer?
First and foremost – get to know your audience. This step is crucial for your content marketing to work and cannot be skipped.
The more accurately the potential buyer persona is described, the easier it is to work. Instead of “all the dog owners” you should have a detailed profile like “a woman, lives in a big city, middle-aged, the owner of a small dog, most likely an expensive breed that requires continuous care.” The content for a dog grooming salon or pet spa becomes far more specific.
Where will we find our potential customers?
It is about targeting and the main rule is to go to the places your customers tend to spend their time. Creating a blog and filling it with content is great, but it is hardly enough. You should be present with relevant business information on different platforms, social media, specialized forums (or Quora, Reddit), influencers that are related to the area of your business and so on.
What do they need at this moment? What value do we offer to our customers?
The needs of your customers will determine the main topics you are going to address with your content. You can find out what people look for in the comment sections to the posts, thematic videos, reviews, specialized forums. You can also check what content your main competitors are focused on. It will give you hundreds of ideas and keywords for your content marketing plan.
What do you need from your potential customers?
This is the purpose of your text. The first is to let them know about an existence of your goods or service. The second is to provide them with information on how you can be useful. Describe what problem you can solve for them or inform them about ongoing sales or discounts, while elaborating on a broader topic related to your business.
Now when you have your content you need to promote it.
Prior to promotion, you need to make sure that your website or blog looks aesthetically relevant and easy to read. There are too many ways to promote your content.
The main ones are paid and organic marketing.
Paid marketing comes from external resources leading the customer to your content like from ads on Instagram or Facebook or any other platform. You are usually paying per click.
When it comes to organic search, it means you make it easy for people to find you via search engines, because your text is optimized around certain keywords related to what your customer is looking for.
It is all about SEO.
Both ways of content promotion take a lot of analysis and skills, so, as a business owner you need to decide what path to take and provide really clear information about your potential customer and the service/good you offer.
Your text should be well-written. It should answer the questions people have about your product or the whole category of your goods/services.
If you sell vacuums, you should understand whether you want to go all technical in your text and use lots of specs as benefits, comparing models, or if you want to write how to take care of the vacuum cleaner for the shop.
Also, it should have just the right amount of details, so your potential customer or a loyal one will find something useful.
This information should be enough for skilled content marketer to create tons of valuable content.
As you can see, content marketing is not so much about text, but more about people who read it.
It is about providing real value to the person who is reading it to make your blog or website their last stop before making a decision to buy.
However, if content marketing was done unprofessionally, without research and audience analysis and proper promotion, the chances are slim that the customer will find out about your business.
