Blog Post By: Anna Shircel, Marketing Intern
In today’s information-overloaded society, traditional advertising can sometimes get lost in the mix. Content marketing is an effective tactic to integrate into your marketing plan to engage and inform customers, create trust, and build your brand.
Content marketing involves creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, retain, and engage a target audience with the objective of driving customer action. Content marketing is ideal because it communicates with customers and prospective buyers without selling them anything. It delivers information to make them more knowledgeable. The essence of this strategy is that if a business delivers consistent, useful information to buyers, they will in turn provide their business and loyalty. The key to this is that the content must be relevant and valuable. It is easy to overwhelm consumers with useless information. The content must make people stop, read, think and take the desired action.
Content marketing works well for both large and small businesses. For small businesses, one key aspect is keeping the material local. Focus your content on the experiences that the average person in your area goes through. This will help your business develop connections with local customers.
Most importantly, use content marketing to show that your business cares about its customers. Make your business the go-to source when customers need information, as well as when they need products or services.
Three questions for businesses to consider about content marketing:
1. Why are you using content marketing?
Obviously you want to better your business, but what do you really hope to accomplish with content marketing? How will content marketing add value for your target audience?
2. Who is your content for?
It is vital to know your target audience in order to focus content around their specific needs, wants, preferences, and challenges. For example, Home Depot’s Tips and Trends on YouTube are geared toward DIY projects, which is what the majority of customers are interested in. When a customer gets a great idea from Home Depot’s YouTube channel, they are more likely to head there to purchase what they need, rather than go to an alternative home and garden store.
3. How will you present your content?
What channels will you use to reach your audience? This relates back to the “who” question, because your business must know what type of content will best reach your audience. Some examples of content marketing channels are digital/print magazines, blogs, online communities, and videos; however the possibilities are never-ending!
Sources:
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/getting-started/
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2304036/Content-Marketing-for-Small-Business-The-Five-Ws
http://www.revenews.com/online-marketing/ways-small-businesses-approach-content-marketing/
