People love free stuff. And that includes free information in the form of content. If a business brings their A game in the terms of putting out good and relevant content people are more likely to remember them. And this is the main reason why the competition in the world of content is increasing with each passing day.
You need to provide your audience with unique valuable content in an organic and natural way. Content marketing is the way for businesses to achieve this in an appealing and enjoyable manner. But the question still remains that what exactly does content marketing mean and what it entails?
Content marketing is the marketing approach that focusses on planning, creation, distribution and sharing of unique content with your target audience by publishing it through the means of blogs, videos, podcasts, etc. on websites and other social media accounts. It can be done via paid methods as well like advertisements or press release. The intent here is to create awareness, loyalty and sales by increasing the direct engagement with your clientele.
To put it in simple words without all this technical jargon, content marketing is a way to stay connected and relevant with your consumers. It is done to make sure people do not forget about you and your product and to make your merchandise a household name. This is done not just to achieve sales but to make general population an advocate for your product. Of course, this has to be backed by a great product as well, but am hoping you have already achieved that.
The main reason of doing any marketing is the increase in sales. And this is the end result achieved by content marketing as well. But let’s break it down into different segments and see how you can achieve this, shall we?
When customers see your content, they get knowledge about the products or services that you or your company offers. In case, of new customers they find out about what you provide and how your product can solve their problems. This will make them inclined towards turning to your brand and becoming a loyal customer. And when your unique content reaches the already existing clients, it will hammer your image in their head. Because let’s face it, we as humans have a very selective memory. So if you are successful in keeping the focus on your brand, people are more likely to remember you. And this in turn means higher sales.
Content marketing usually works on a fixed schedule. That means, it is more likely to show up on the “for you” pages of different social media accounts of your target population. Now imagine a scenario, where you are scrolling through a social media platform and come across an attractive post. And you keep seeing similar post from the same brand on a regular basis, where they are giving out free useful information but only enough to hang you by the edge of thread but not show you the full picture.
What are you going to do in such a case? You will either click on the link if available or go to their page and search for their site, right? Well, that is what content marketing does for you. You can attract clients from different platforms and divert this traffic towards your own e-commerce site. Now, am not saying that all those who click on your site will buy from you, but the chances of conversion increases in proportion to the incoming traffic. So, as there is increase in the number of people visiting your site, higher are the chances of you making the sales.
When you are catering to the specific need of the society, you will meet with the people of similar mind set. So what you can do is that you can build a complete circle of people with shared interest. You can also give people a safe place to discuss their problems. For example, if you are a hair oil company. You have created a product that prevents hair fall, then you can create a community on your site where people who suffer from hair loss can have an open discussion, without any judgement. In fact, if you can have a set of experts who can deal with such personal grievances, then your brand can become a safe haven for such people. This means that whenever they think about anything related to that specific problem, you are the first name that pops into their head for solution. And this is one of the best possible outcome of any marketing strategy.
If you have done the second and the third step correctly, it will lead to an immense sense of loyalty in your customers. Not only will they turn to you with their own problems, they will start suggesting your brand to people with similar issues. Have you heard the saying, ”Misery likes company”? Trust me it is very true in real life. People with similar problems tend to band together in the hopes to either find solution or at least be a supporting shoulder for each other. So if you can convert a single such person into your loyal customer, they will themselves bring their entire social circle of individuals looking for a similar solution. This means that your customers become the advocate for your brand. And people are way more likely to listen to a person they know themselves who benefitted from your product over even a celebrity on tv selling your product.
The easiest way to plan anything is to answer a bunch of questions. These answers can lead you to a roadmap and solve all your queries. But the only problem here is knowing the right questions to ask. Well, worry not. Because for this particular topic I have done all the research for you and jotted down the most important questions to give you a head start. So let’s look at them one by one:
Here, I basically want you to set a goal for yourself. Yes, it can be anything like being the most well-known brand in my field as well. But it has to be realistic and achievable as well. So, instead of having a single goal, try to set up a long-term goal i.e. your end result, the big picture and divide it into more digestible short-term goals, that can be achieved at the current scenario. Having bite-sized targets to hit, can keep you motivated enough, and resulting in your ultimate target of fame, money, or whatever you decide you wish for yourself or your brand. So, the first step of this plan like any other is goal setting.
Now that you have set your goal, you have to decide why are you doing the content marketing. This is not just your goal, but also what exactly you are trying to gain from this specific plan. For example, let’s say your goal is to create brand awareness, so what factors will determine this result? Site traffic, social media followers, subscription sign-ups, etc. These quantifiable steps are what need to be decided here.
Now, let’s be honest, you are not the first person thinking of using content marketing. People are already using it for years, and this includes your competitor as well. I am not saying this to discourage you from using it, but we do need to be practical here as well, because this is a very crucial question. How will you stand out in comparison to your competitors who are also using similar marketing strategy? The answer to this question is what will decide your position in the market. So think very carefully. The simplest way to answer is to be unique. But what does being unique consist for you. It is a question only you can answer. If all your competitors are doing the tried and tested methods, then maybe it is time to apply some out of the box kind of thinking. The easiest method of deciding this is listening to you customers. When a client says, “if I had ____________ , I would be able to do___________ .” The first blank is the problem you have to solve and the second blank is the way to present yourself.
Now that we have decided what we want to achieve and how we want to position ourselves in the market, the key point is how to do it. If you wish to increase social media followers, then you need to give out useful content that is compatible with that platform, so your audience can enjoy it while the algorithm can push your content forward. You can also use paid social media ads on the same platform. But if you wish to increase the flow of traffic towards your site, your content should have a link that leads people to your site. Now this content can also be on different social media platforms. Or if you wish to have sign-ups, you need to have useful content that is accessible to the clients, only after they sign-up or give their email-id for you to forward the pdf or something similar. So, thinking these steps carefully is of utmost importance as this is the place from where you will decide the type of your content.
Content can mainly be divided into two forms: Macro and Micro content:
This consists of:
In today’s fast world, no one wishes to spend too much time on a particular page or article, so what is the solution to this to gain their attention? Micro content. Small, fast and full of information.
There are three forms of distributing content:
You can use any of these methods or a combination of these method depending on your goal.
Now that you have started your marketing plan, you need to know if it’s effective or not. And for that you need to analyze what is working and how to gain the maximum benefit out of it. You can use several methods to do such analysis:
So you have to answer all the questions mentioned above and you should have the start of the plan in your hand. With the analytics section you can learn to tweak your plan until it becomes successful. But if you think this is too much of a hassle and feel like this is not your cup of tea. Well, in that case why not book a call with us and see how we can help you. We at PulsAero are trained to tackle all these obstacles.
After this call, you will get a clear understanding of the next steps that you need to take in order to build consistent communication & reliable marketing strategies.
This call is perfect for professionals who want to,
