Whether you’re posting on social media, crafting your monthly email newsletter or tapping away at your weekly blog, the foundation of your marketing is content marketing.
More than a decade ago, brands had really just one option for attracting the notice of consumers, and that was through traditional advertising. It has its value, but advertising is a uniquely one-sided conversation, forcing companies to trumpet their product benefits and promotional offers in the hopes that someone will respond.
Content marketing is different. It uses valuable information to help your brand grow in many areas, including:
Reputation: You build credibility as a trustworthy industry expert when you regularly produce content that is informative and helps solve challenges for members of your audience.
Brand Awareness: Every time you add value to your potential customers, they build an association with your brand.
Findability: Search engines love websites that regularly post new items, so when you produce content, you improve your ranking.
Focus on Quality Content: When planning your content marketing strategy, there’s often an emphasis on the distribution side: how much you’ll post on social media, how often you’ll produce an email newsletter. But it’s also important to spend a lot of time creating quality content:
- Think about the topics that matter most to your audience. What are their pain points or commonly-asked questions?
- Invest in the right talent. You may happen to have an in-house photographer that can make your Instagram feed light up with amazing images, but you may not have an in-house employee with the writing skills to produce a quality blog. Think about what you have available in your organization, and don’t be afraid to outsource the skills you require.
- Be consistent. If you tell your audience that you’re producing a weekly podcast, then don’t miss a week. If you find that you get the best response when you post on social media on Wednesday evenings, you’re likely to develop some followers that watch for your new post.
Make an Emotional Connection: One of the benefits that content marketing has over traditional advertising is the connection you can make with audiences. That connection is always rooted in underlying emotions.
Think about the emotional benefits your brand offers. It might be security because you’re a financial advising service. Or it could be status through a luxury product. Take time to think through what types of emotions lead your customers to make a purchase with you.
At SJC Marketing, we build every strategy on high-quality content marketing. We would love to know more about your plans for your company and share how a well-designed content marketing strategy could help you reach your goals faster.