What is Content Marketing?
Imagine receiving regular communications from a brand that appear to have been created specifically for you. It could be ‘How To’ guides, updates on products you’re interested in, blogs that are relevant to your sector, or case studies about companies like yours. Imagine receiving content that isn’t ‘selling’ to you, but is consistently relevant, and responsive to your needs.
You’re probably already receiving content like this from Netflix or Amazon, or Facebook. All those recommendations, suggestions and information relating to your preferences is content marketing in action. Consumers are becoming more and more used to being addressed as an individual, which means that traditional marketing practices now need to be supplemented with personalised content and attention.
Types of Content Marketing
Speaking to individuals, rather than ‘customers’ may sound like a daunting task, but it’s all about knowing who your customers are, and choosing the kinds of communication they’ll appreciate. Here’s a list of the kinds of content that are content marketers use regularly. Take a look and see which of them would appeal to the people who buy from you.
1. Looking Rather Than Reading
Many people prefer to consume information via video, rather than print. It’s all to do with how our brain process information. We’re built to retain visual content better than the written word, which is why video seems to be a more efficient way of communicating. There’s research to show that viewers will retain 95% of a video message, whilst only 10% of written text sticks in the mind.
2. Discovering How Success Happens
Content marketing is all about demonstrating the ways in which your product solve problems specific to your customers. Case studies show how your business helps customers with those problems, in order to become successful. It’s all about telling stories that your customers can relate to, and remember.
3. Adding Value With Worksheets
These are a great way to add value for your customer. They take the form of a worksheet which customers can work through. This could relate to ‘Safety at Work’, ‘Moving House’, or ‘Energy Efficiency’ for example. They’re a giveaway, and they allow your customers to make clear, informed decisions about the kinds of products they need to buy from your company.
4. Consistently Relevant Content
Regular communication is welcomed by consumers if it offer content that’s useful and engaging. The best content marketing blogs have researched the kinds of questions asked about your product, and then seeks to answer them. Key to this kind marketing is the sense that the blogger is a real person, writing to real people – it’s not about direct selling.
5. Gifs and Memes
This is a popular way to engage your social media audience by linking messages about your brand to images and short videos that have gone viral. These are attention grabbers, they make people laugh and they could attract customers that haven’t engaged with your other kinds of marketing.
How is Content Marketing Done?
It starts with 4 questions:
- Are we currently helping our customers, or selling to our customers?
- How many different ways do we try to communicate with customers?
- What are the questions our customers ask about our product?
- What the problem we solve, and how do we solve it?
The answers to these questions give you the basis for your content marketing strategy. If you like the sound of content marketing but you need some help with generating a different kind of content, give us a ring. We have a team of professional writers who can advise and inspire you. We can also write content for you, or manage your content marketing in collaboration with your team.
If you’d like to know more about content marketing tactics, or you’d like some help with content generation, call our team today to find out how we can support you.
