Content Marketing: What It Is for and How to Launch It
Direct advertising is notoriously disliked by consumers, so they tend to pass it by. It is important for people to look carefully at products and get to know the brand to see if it is worth trusting. In that case, the business needs content. For example, you want to find a tutor, or order cosmetics, or build a house, or choose an advertising agency. It's hard to do without getting to closely know the companies that offer these services.
An example of content marketing of the travel company Expedia
Content marketing is a type of marketing that uses helpful information to foster customer trust and loyalty. The main purpose of content is to gradually and unobtrusively turn people into readers, readers into consumers, and consumers into loyal customers. Thus, content marketing provides long and lasting relationships with the audience.
Why content marketing is essential
Content marketing is important for organizations that want to optimize relationships with customers. This tool attracts a large number of potential customers and keeps regular ones. Firms that have their own blog with profile information draw the attention of consumers as much as 55% and more. Statistics show that content marketing generates 3 times more leads than paid search advertising. Also, research confirms - 47% of customers look at about 3 to 5 publications before deciding to buy a product or service.
What tasks content marketing can solve
1. Creating a positive image of the company
An important point is the brand recognition among consumers. When customers come across a brand on the Internet, they should keep thinking of it like that: "Someone I know told me about it recently" or "I read an article about this organization".
2. Introducing the product to consumers
Buyers need to understand the uniqueness of your offer, the target audience for which it was created, what are the benefits, how to properly use the product, etc.
3. Showing your competence
When a firm posts a lot of helpful content online, the level of trust in the product and the business in general gets increased.
4. Increasing customer loyalty
People who know your products but haven't bought them yet for whatever reason get to know more because of the content.
5. Getting feedback
The blog has comments and feedback from customers. They contain useful information for business development: how to change the product/service for better, what you should pay attention to, what are the drawbacks of the products and so on.
6. Attracting customers
Feedback determines the further way in product improvement. You learn how to properly present the product on the market and how to attract customers so that they choose you.
7. Increasing sales.
Create compelling content, thus interest in your products will increase.
Content marketing is not an explicit call to buy. It forms a company's image and influences the formation of strong relationships with consumers. It is important to develop a content plan. The more detailed it is, the more likely it is to increase brand credibility.
What content to choose
Types of content marketing:
Viral This is information intended for sharing it with others: "Top 5 Dresses for Spring," "The Case for Making Healthy Breakfasts," "A Guide to Photo Processing in Adobe Photoshop.
Expert It means expert content that is trustworthy among people, a feeling of communicating with a professional in their sphere. The publication of statistics, data analysis, instructions, surveys and research significantly increase customer loyalty to the brand.
Selling This is the type of content that best highlights the products. This type of information should take up about 20% so that readers don't consider it an annoying advertisement.
Pros and cons of content marketing
Advantages:
Content marketing is one of the most effective tools for creating a brand image.
Content marketing increases customer credibility: the growth of consumer loyalty to a company and its products depends on the expert level of your blog.
Content advertising boosts traffic and conversion rates.
Content marketing costs less money than other promotion methods.
Content improves the position of sites in search engines.
Disadvantages:
A long process The natural increase in traffic takes a long time. It requires patience and a well-planned strategy. If you need a quick response from customers, use contextual advertising, targeting, banners and other methods.
A lot of resources Content marketing requires not only a large amount of time, but also particular attention to the material produced. Posting popular information with bright pictures is no longer relevant. You have to dedicate a lot of effort to high quality content, a whole team of professionals should work on it. If you bet on content marketing, you need a competent editor.
Difficult measurement To analyze the efficiency of content marketing, typical online business metrics are used: click-through rates, conversion rates, delivery rates, and so on. However, there are many aspects that are not covered. For example, a person reads an article, goes to your website, gets acquainted with the goods, but never buys anything. After a while they come back to your products: they find your site through a search engine and make a purchase, but the initial interaction can no longer be traced.
How to launch effective content marketing
If you think content marketing starts right away with creating unique articles, you're wrong. Here's a plan for launching effective content online:
1. Analyze your target audience
Create content for a specific group of people. A company needs to know its potential customers - their desires and interests. Carry out research, gathering as much useful information as possible. To do this, find out the age of your audience, their occupation, hobbies, interests, status, financial capabilities, and so forth. Then write content that appeals to people from these groups.
2. Consider a content plan
Create a plan to reach your goals and engage your customers. Pay attention to all of your customers' needs, so you can respond to the most common requests. It's worth mentioning that planning is a very effective tool because it helps you save time, avoid repetitive moments in your publications, and achieve your goals.
3. Post high-quality content
To do this, focus your attention on the following aspects: expertness, uniqueness and value. An authentic blog with a professional opinion based on the company's unique experience is a great way to promote and attract clients. Sometimes it is worth looking at good rewriting, that is, the processing of ready-made texts, designed according to your style. Readers should be expecting a publication from you, so use segmentation into target groups to get positive feedback.
4. Experiment with the presentation of material
For newcomers, this point is not always clear. They start out trying to find the perfect format for content that clients will appreciate. There is no definite answer to the question, "Which is better: a longread or a shortread? So use both types of content: long texts and short articles in the form of notes. This way you will increase customer engagement and improve your blog in SEO.
Below, let's look at what types of content marketing can be:
- Posts;
- Articles;
- Surveys;
- Cases;
- Guides;
- Press releases;
- Photos and videos;
- Workshops;
- Glossaries;
- News;
- Research;
- Reviews;
- Content from customers;
- Presentations and others.
Types of content marketing
5. Use clickable headlines
The first thing a potential customer pays attention to is the headline. Only then will a person decide whether to read the article or not. So make the title interesting, informative and attractive, but don't overdo it: the topic of the article should completely represent the content.
Example of clickable headlines on the site of the travel blogger
6. Check content for mistakes
Even if the company has many loyal customers, there is always someone who pays attention to mistakes in the text and he is likely to leave because of it. Grammatical errors may be typos, but they demonstrate your attitude to your customers. Be sure to have the text checked before you publish it.
7. Optimize the content
You don't have to be a SEO expert to create relevant content and boost your search rankings. It's enough just to produce articles that answer readers' questions and satisfy their desires. To select topics, analyze query frequency and monitor your competitors, Google Analytics, Yandex Wordstat, Google Trends and other services will help you. With their help, you can find ideas and inspiration for your content, as well as identify relevant keys.
8. Configure the site for smartphones
Most consumers find products through their mobile devices. To increase your popularity, adapt your blog for smartphones.
Conclusion
To promote your business through content marketing, take the advantages and disadvantages into consideration. Note: it is effective, but it has its own specific features, because creating content requires spending a lot of time and resources. You also need a competent content marketer in your team.
For quick results, you can use other tools: contextual advertising, email or targeting. If you do decide to launch your blog, rely on quality, expertise and uniqueness, then your readership will increase significantly, and many of them will become loyal customers and just friends of the brand.