There is a well-known saying in marketing circles, “Content is king”, and that’s right since, as Internet users, we are looking for content on daily basis. Content has various objectives and can help to get your business noticed, to generate traffic to your site, to encourage people to stay on your pages, to browse more or them, to share them on social networks, to buy something, in short, to engage your audience and to generate brand loyalty.
You may have heard quite a lot of people recommending content marketing as one of the main strategies to create engagement, but what does it imply exactly?
Help people and develop your brand awareness
Content marketing is perhaps one of the subtler marketing methods, and also one of the most effective as it can include various types of strategies to develop your brand awareness. Through a smart content generation, you can spread a positive image and studies have shown that it generates 3 times as many leads as outbound marketing, despite costing 62% less.One of the best examples is how videos made using a Go-Pro indirectly promote the company, once posted online. Go-Pro videos don’t have to try and convince people to buy, they help achieve that intrinsically and the content was directly generated by the users. Smart. That’s a unique example and it will hard to replicate it but more achievable strategies exist and the main goal is to highlight to your potential customers that you have something they need or want.
To make your content marketing campaign strategy a success, the key is to write content that will help people and that can be achieve by:
- Answer Questions: In order for people to decide to purchase from you, you will first need to answer questions that they might have. Until this happens, doubts might remain over whether the product or service is what they need and this will discourage them from buying. One effective method of achieving this is with PAA (People Also Ask) boxes which this can result in a 31% increase in clicks. Writing content that will answer these questions will help to drive more people to your pages as well as to be recognize as an expert in your niche.
- Solve Problems: People often go to the internet looking for a solution to a problem they have. This can mean anything from learning how to fix a leaking tap, to finding assistance with their financial matters. If you have a solution to peoples’ problems, be sure to let them know. In addition to demonstrating that you have something they need, giving a potential client something of value, like a solution, will help build a rapport encourage them to buy from you.
- Story Telling: When telling third party stories, people will often associate themselves with the characters in the story. Story telling can also help to keep the reader interested, which is often quite a challenge since people stay around 37 seconds per article according to the Content Marketing Institute. Story telling will not only encourage a sale, but it will also help the customer to identify more closely with your brand. When this happens, they become more than just a customer, but also an ambassador that can help to promote your brand to others.
Find content ideas to write articles
Even the best writers can struggle to find ideas on what to write about. That, and creating content can be time-consuming, taking up time that could be spent on other important aspects of making your project work. Companies like Get Clicks deliver content marketing strategies and can help you managing that kind of project and there are also online tools that will help to get the job done, in case you prefer to do it by yourself.
- Answer the Public: Your content marketing strategy should answer questions, but what questions are people asking? Answer the Public is a very useful resource that lets you know what people are searching for in relation to your product or service.
- Coggle: A content marketing campaign will likely have multiple parts to it and those taking part will have different ideas to contribute. This can make it difficult to keep up with everything and tools like Coggle will allow you to create simple to follow flow charts that multiple users can contribute to.
- Upwork: Maybe you are not great at producing content, or perhaps you are simply too busy with other things? In that case, it would make sense to find somebody to do the work for you. Freelancer platforms like Upwork, Text Broker or Text Master will help you finding copywriters that will make your content marketing come true.
When embarking on any content marketing campaign, it is definitely worth taking the time and effort to make sure it is done right. Doing so can help you to be successful by help users and therefore, to increase your brand awareness.