Earn Trust and Notoriety with Content Marketing
Content marketing puts regular publicity within reach for marketers who want to connect with consumers and earn trust, on their own terms.
Successful brands have already mastered the recipe of offering services and products that sell, solve a problem or enhance the livelihoods of their clientele. Yet when it comes to expanding market share and attempting to scale, enhancing awareness about any brand demands more than word of mouth. Even the most established businesses in their immediate area find it challenging to entice complete strangers to explore, trust and take action that leads to measurable ROI. This is where content marketing comes in for many. Marketers are using stories to relate to their customers. Identifying what you do and the problem you solve is where content is king. Sharing it with the appropriate audience is the next step.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing, or sponsored content, is taking its due position as the next layer of PR-driven advertising crafted to intrigue, educate and inform potential customers about a brand’s products or services. Separate from promotional copy, this crafted content can take the form of expert interviews, feature stories, helpful articles, case studies, blogs, podcasts, videos, social media posts, even infographics both online and offline. The content seeks to identify the key differentiators that set a company apart from its competitors, add personality, and inform specific audiences about its services and reputation, while establishing trust.
Simply put: content marketing is any type of story, profile, feature, editorial or advertorial that a company pays for publication or produces itself. It’s the opposite of traditional earned media where a brand receives exposure for free.
It’s gaining so much traction by marketers because, paid or not, it works.
How Do I Use It?
If you consider yourself a thought leader – a notable expert in your industry, who is quick to offer guidance and insight – content marketing is for you. You can use that desire to lead with guidance by bringing your experience to the fingertips of consumers in the form of helpful articles about the very services you sell.
Every consumer has questions about your products. Answering them in story form sets selling aside in favor of equipping consumers with the knowledge they need to make smart buying decisions. When they’re ready to buy, they come to you, the expert that took the time to educate them. Used at the proper time, attuned to the right audience, content marketing can help your brand rise above the competition by crafting a narrative that educates, informs and entertains consumers, not just sell them.
The good news is: you don’t have even have to be a natural “thought leader” to capitalize on content marketing strategies. You just have to be willing to think about your marketing from the perspective of your customer and ask “what questions do my customers have?” Then answer them.
Here are some tips to get you started:
Create content that capitalizes on your brand’s reputation and achievements and provides interesting insights and useful information.
Differentiate your business as a thought-leader by establishing how your product or service solves your specific audience’s problem.
Find an arch-narrative with various angles that tie back to your business without simply spotlighting it.
Create case studies of customer success that are relevant, timely and concise.
Use customer validations that highlight success.
Capitalize on industry-wide trend stories that tie your brand to larger, more recognizable brands on a regional or national level.
Use visuals like infographics or before and after photography
Create a recognizable, repeatable voice that resonates with your specific audience to connect with them on an emotional level.
Dig up the data. Back up your value statements with data that engages and educates your audience.
Where Do I Start?
Think about the components of your company that may be considered “newsworthy”. Are you the first or fastest in your field? Do you have the largest or latest products, or does your company stand the test of time with a long family lineage and tie to the community? All of these areas are ways to uniquely identify a company and strategically set it apart from the competition.
Establish Credibility. You are doing more than identifying your business and what you offer. By educating your customers (think industry trends, seasonal colors, travel advice for the holidays), you are gifting them with information that can assist in their daily life and they will thank you for it with establishing a relationship with your brand.
Consistency is Key. Remember, remember, remember: helpful is memorable. The more you can share helpful information with your audience rather than focusing on simply advertising your products of services as solutions, the more you will connect and bond with your potential customers.
Be Patient and Persist. Many companies come up with an “idea bundle” of various angles that impact their business. For instance a realtor may create six separate articles to run bi-monthly, targeting market trends, talking directly to first-time home buyers, working with an interior designer on home upgrades for resale, interviewing a landscaping expert about backyards, and then offer a q+a with the superintendent of the local school district to provide insight as to why taxes are rising for good education. Finally, an informative “how to” article on investment properties I surrounding areas would seek to enable potential clients to look at real estate in a new way.
Next Steps. SOCIAL Magazines can provide your company with insights on identifying your unique audience, creating a brand voice, and delivering consistent, concise and compelling brand content. Reach out to us to work with you on curating content that drives results to your bottom line.