Content Marketing
The world of marketing is constantly changing and evolving. In the past businesses and brands would attract customers in a much different way than they do today. In the old world it was all about choosing a medium such as television, radio or print to create an advertisement and entice the audience to either purchase their goods or services or even to simply create brand awareness. While this strategy was highly effective in the past with examples such as Coca Cola, McDonald’s and Apple being behind some of the most ingenious marketing campaigns, making them the juggernauts they are today, these days there needs to be a little more tact and subtlety in attract our customers.
Next Generation of Marketing
With the world moving towards a digital economy seeing more and more businesses asserting their presence online, the traditional methods of marketing are just simply not working. Advertisements online are either simply ignored or blocked altogether with many Internet surfers taking up the use of ad blockers. So where does that leave us in terms of marketing? The answer has been around for quite some time though only now is it taking center stage as an effective solution to the modern world of digital marketing. - Content marketing has grown over the last decade to become one of the strongest and most effective methods for attracting new customers than any other medium. But what exactly is content market and how can you use it to grow your business online?
Content marketing is essentially providing valuable content to attract, acquire and engage a specific niche or target audience. Content marketing is not just limited to the online world either, though it is most prolific on the web, it can be a strategy used across any medium whether that is in print, in person, television or radio. If you are struggling to think of some examples of content marketing, think YouTube videos, social media celebrities, Instagram and authority blogs then you will have a good idea of what I am talking about. With these channels, it is all about delivering interesting content to the audience without the pitch, instead you retain a loyal base of customers who grow as your content grows.
Knowing Your Audience
The key to content marketing is to know your audience, without this, any campaign you decide to run will come out fruitless. Content market is all about choosing a specific niche and sticking with it. Having a clear customer in mind is the first step towards deciding which content you will start creating. If you already have a business established, this might come a little easier since you will have a fair idea who most of your revenue is coming from. Keep in mind that you will need to create your ideal customer to a tee; meaning you will have all the demographics of them in mind. Demographics such as: Age, gender, location, hobbies/interests, income level, education, family structure and employment. These factors all determine what kind of content you will start creating and how it will be matched up to these demographics to create an effective marketing strategy.
Once you have figured out your target customer, it is time to start creating content around their hobbies and interests while also keeping in mind their other demographics. To get a better idea of this, you wouldn't want to create content around luxury yachts for a schoolteacher who makes an average salary and lives hours away from the sea since it just wouldn’t make any business sense. Instead place yourself in this customer's shoes and figure out what motivates them to make a purchase and build content around this. For an optimal example let's focus on something simple - A mid-level executive who has an interest in playing golf.
Creating The Customer
From this example we can get a pretty good picture of our target customer. Male, 30s to 40s married with children and earns a decent salary. He is likely to have a college degree and works in a corporate management job, for examples sake lets call him Fred. Now we know that Fred likes to play golf on the weekends and that is his passion so we are going to start creating content around amateur golf. This content would cover all things interesting and exciting for Fred such as golfing equipment, apparel, golf courses, professional tours, instructions to improve play and of course covering all things of the golfing lifestyle.
So with this kind of content we are going to be attracting people like Fred since it is all strategically designed around his interests and his lifestyle. Keeping in mind we aren’t looking to sell products just yet, content marketing is all about attracting the customers and keeping them engaged without hitting them with the hard sell. So when does content marketing start turning around and converting the Fred’s into paying customers?
Converting Your Following
As mentioned before, content marketing is all about attracting and retaining potential customers. Now rather than directly trying to sell products we are in the business of creating value for our customers which we are ultimately building up to a grander plan. The product you create is all built around your business or brand and the value you have been delivering over time, which will give your customers a clear indication of the value they will expect to receive. So while our content is constantly creating value, our main objective is to convert customers over to products, which will provide greater value and be an accumulation of the content we have been provided previously.
By the time you have created enough value through the your created content you will want to provide your customers with a bigger piece of the pie. This means if you have been consistently providing information through blog posts, videos, webinars, eBooks etc. it is now to provide premium content and this is where your customers will see the greatest value. So what exactly is premium content? It is basically the sum of all your free content put together with a few extras to entice customers to purchase it. Premium content can be an eCourse, a premium eBook or subscribers only section of your website.