Why content marketing?
Content is everything, everything is content
BOOST YOUR BUSINESS WITH CONTENT
Anno 2020, providing valuable content to your potential customers is one of the most critical pillars in your marketing communication strategy if you want to grow your business.
Valuable content is relevant content that genuinely helps your ideal customers without being salesy and will contribute significantly to your LIKE, KNOW, and TRUST factor. It will boost your brand and ultimately result in business growth.
Booming business
Content marketing is a necessary part of your online marketing communication strategy. It’s a missed opportunity if you don’t use it, regardless of your industry.
But, what is valuable and relevant content? When are you perceived as authentic, and when not? And how do you get started? Every company has potential customers, but where can you find them? And what keeps them awake at night? How can you help them? Which content helps them best? And most importantly, how do you get them to consume your content?
FOR (59%) OF THE B2B MARKETERS, IT IS UNCLEAR WHAT AN EFFECTIVE CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY LOOKS LIKE
(Content Marketing Institute)
Content marketing is essential to reach new leads and to convert them into customers over time throughout the customer journey. As mentioned before, it will help you to build your LIKE, KNOW and TRUST factor.
Build your personal or business brand and align it with everything you do. Of course, you must know your ideal customer. What are they looking for? Where can you find them online? Evaluate this, and make sure you get to know your ideal customers better.
Nobody wants to see ads that don’t apply or relate to their needs. Also, make sure the content you share on social media, blogs, and other channels is relevant and authentic. Provide content that arouses their interest and makes them appreciate you more and more. What’s important is that the right people start to like you. That’s why it’s so important to know and understand your ideal customer.
Finally, build trust with your audience. Make sure you talk to your ideal customer, use consistent branding and share relevant content that your target group cares about.
Value for the customer
Content Marketing has been around for a long time, but it has gained a lot of ground in recent years, even among the more traditional B2B companies.
When you see all the content of other companies passing by, you might think it is not possible for my company because industrial B2B companies are not attractive enough… Wrong!
Or maybe you think, how do other companies do this? Where do they keep getting their inspiration?
The answer is simple: they have a solid content marketing strategy in place! Engaging blog posts, checklists, and a few top tips here and there are not enough to build a plan around. You need to speak from your expertise and authority and be authentic. You can find real stories within every company. You need to know how and where to find them.
With real life stories, you will put your company in the spotlight and attract your ideal customers.
If all goes well, every company has a long-term business plan. That should be the starting point for creating your marketing communication plan. From there onwards, you will work with Sales to see how marketing communication can support the necessary activities to achieve the sales objectives. Ideally, this should be a healthy mix between online and offline activities.
With content marketing, you will offer meaningful information to your ideal customers, NOT directly linked to the services or products you offer. You will offer added value to your (potential) customers and thus create a bond with them. Content marketing is about providing relevant information, both online and offline. The themes and topics largely support the sales objectives and the values of your company.
Offline activities can include events, such as trade show participation, organizing seminars or workshops, and press events. Online you can think of optimizing your website, SEO, Google Ads, Social Media, etc.
AHEAD OF COMPETITORS
With content marketing, you will also distinguish yourself from your competitors who do not (yet) use it. Just sending information to your target group is no longer sufficient. Customers first orientate themselves online before they come into contact with the sales department. The customer journey has changed compared to the past. Just think of how you buy a washing machine or a car today compared to a few years ago. You start by prospecting online, and in 80% of the cases, you already know what you want without having spoken to a single salesperson. That’s how it now works in the business world too.
Using the right strategy and a well-founded content plan will enable you to share valuable content with your target group, which will generate a higher level of involvement because they get to know you better. They will understand what you can offer them, how your company distinguishes itself from others, and they will trust you enough to proceed with a purchase. (LIKE, KNOW & TRUST)
ONLINE VISIBILITY
Now that we know the “customer journey” almost always starts online, we can share information at the right time throughout the different touchpoints for this journey. We need to write content that convinces potential customers that you are the right partner for them before purchasing. If you do this well, you will attract the interest of your target group and keep their attention until they are ready to buy.
Finding unique ways to attract new customers can be a challenge. You have to find them, make them interested in your company, and you have to win their trust. So it’s essential to know which tactics you can use for this in each step of their “customer journey” and with which content and through which channels you can best reach them.
Think of content and channels to optimize your conversions and collect email addresses so you can stay in touch with your ideal customer, such as landing pages, white papers, e-books, a website, GoogleAds, social media, events, etc.
Your customers can also be essential ambassadors. If they are satisfied with the products and services they have purchased from you and with your service, they may repeat this in the future and recommend your company to family, friends, and others.
How do you ensure the online visibility of your business?