Content marketing is about customer-focused conversations. But as the Content Marketing Institute points out, customers have tuned out traditional sales messaging. They bypass TV commercials with DVRs, Netflix, or Hulu. They download podcasts and plug in iPods to bypass commercial radio and install popup blockers on their Internet devices.
Why are they doing this? Because marketing bores or worse, annoys them. Smart businesses can turn this around with well-crafted content marketing that does more then attract customers’ attention. It provides useful information they can use right away to solve a problem or improve a situation.
Content Marketing Delivers Current and Valuable Information
The Internet made consumers a lot smarter because it empowered them to do their own research.
Successful businesses work hard to establish their authority within their fields and share their expertise with customers. Think about why you stay with the same mechanic or plumber for years—you aren’t just getting good service at a fair price. You continue to call them because they give you information you can use to prolong your car’s life and performance and they teach you how to avoid another backed-up sink.
The same attitude—give customers solid, accurate information they can use as well as excellent service—can be translated into content presented to customers and potential customers.
There are Many Ways to Deliver Content Through the Web
The Web provides diverse marketing opportunities to anyone with something to sell.
Today anyone can create a website for very little cost and use it to host a blog. The free video site YouTube has grown to become the second-largest search engine in the world, according to Digital Sherpa. Popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn offer free pages to use to share blogs and videos, as well as different advertising options. Email services like ConstantContact and MailChimp have created ways to tie everything together through direct marketing.
Consumers like to get content in different ways. Sometimes it depends on what the content itself is conveying, and sometimes it depends on the consumer’s own preferences. Major marketing initiatives should be supported through the different channels available. Here are a few tips to keep in mind.
- Revisit your content to make sure it’s up-to-date, offers useful information related to the product or service you sell, and is authoritative.
- Learn about SEO (search engine optimization), which includes writing and minor coding techniques that help content get recognized and indexed by search engines.
- Incorporate graphics in blogs, tweets, and social media posts that illustrate the content. Historically, visual content gets more retweets and Facebook interactions.
- Videos will really highlight your content. Landing pages with videos see 86 percent more conversions, according to Wishpond. Shutterstock, a site known for providing quality, royalty-free photos, also offers stock video footage clips. TopTen Reviews gives it a score of 8.8 for variety.
- Don’t try to be active on every popular social networking site. Work where it makes sense. If you serve consumers, a Facebook page is a great tool. If you’re a B2B (business to business), focus on LinkedIn. Use Pinterest if you sell consumer-oriented products. Twitter is a great tool for finding and sharing information.
- Don’t forget email marketing, which marketing expert Brad Friedman says can pack a lot of information in one package.
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