The Content Marketing Institute states that content marketing helps attract and acquire a specific target audience in the most profitable ways.
In the dawn of content marketing, it was used in the form of taglines, vivid imagery, or a call to action, like “Drink Coke!”
Today, content marketing has evolved to become so much more than that. Today, content marketing shows the world and its customers how and why they should choose and use your brand.
It also shows them why they should continue to choose your brand over other brands. This requires strategy and an insistent implementation by the people in your employ for it to be effective.
Top 10 Ways To Use Content Marketing
If it’s done properly it will show an increased brand engagement and conversion rates, as well as more web traffic towards your social media platforms.
Give Valuable Information
Giving value to something can have a thousand different meanings. In this scenario of content marketing, it is important to give your customer valuable information. Something that makes them want to know more, something that hooks them into your network.
Make sure that the information you are providing is something that will make them click on the ad, the podcast, or the video. Provide them with the answers to their questions and offer ready solutions.
Also, be sure that the valuable information you provide is to correct the audience. If your audience wants real estate, then your content should be more than just house ads. It should be about everything that a customer would need in any given situation related to a house.
For example, information regarding mortgage and property taxes. You can even provide testimonials or valuable feedback from previous customers as the credibility of your work to new customers.
This is just one example of how to build value. Providing value is the best way to appeal to your niche market. It helps put you at the forefront and allows your customers and others to know that the work you do is credible and valuable.
Perpetuate The Brand Identity
Content Marketing is one of the biggest weapons in your arsenal when you are building a brand identity. It helps to create an image of the brand that your customers aren’t likely to forget anytime soon.
But this tactic although great involves a consistent spread of content marketing across various platforms. This message should be spread through words, blogs, videos, lives, messages, tone, and mission statements.
And each of these should be adapted according to the medium they are being distributed on. This way of marketing allows your customers to begin a conversation with you, to build a cozy environment where they can ask questions, create memes, and be free.
The moment this happens and your brand becomes a topic of conversation online is when you know you are a user of Content Marketing.
Reach Your Target Market
Knowing your audience is important, it is a key feature of ineffective content marketing your brand. For if you don’t know your target market, your marketing of any kind will not reach the desired people and you will have wasted time, effort, and money.
You can even take it one step further and define your target market into a “persona.” This way you have made a focus group and now you can further specify your content marketing to ensure the success of your brand.
By directing your marketing towards a specific customer you can use your money more effectively on a niche and local websites. You focus on the places of success rate and get quick results. A good example could be 13 year old girls who like the band PINK in Lisbon.
Spread Variety Across Platforms
Content marketing enables you to spread the message of your brand across different platforms in a wide variety of ways. From publishing how-to manuals on the website, to uploading full-fledged demonstrations on YouTube, fun tweets on Twitter, and engaging posts on Instagram and Facebook.
The only catch here is that to be successful you need to maintain the integrity and also make sure of the consistency of posts so that customers do not lose interest. You might want to consider hiring a specialist whose work is to specifically advise and manage the content projects.
Social Media Is The Best Way Of Promotion
Social is the most preferred and successful way of promoting your content. It is free and flexible and one form of content can be easily shared across different platforms.
If someone likes your content, they will like and share it. Hopefully, enough people share and soon your content will go viral. That is the ultimate goal.
An example of going viral is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that was recently all the rage on social media. It helped in raising $115 million for fighting a specific disease.
Civilians to celebrities participated in this fun way of fundraising. It was a whole new way to engage the audience. This way of content marketing was funny, easy, simple, and shareable. It also increased value by being something that increased prosocial behavior.
Get the influencers of social media on board, ask them to share and that will mean more than a simple advertisement.
The only thing you need to be sure of here is those different tactics of content marketing work on different social media platforms. So be sure to adapt your content marketing style for each platform. For example, LinkedIn requires a more professional style while TikTok is casual and fun.
Get Attention
Take a leaf out of Martha Stewart's method of content marketing. Her content marketing strategy relies on brand identity. This allows her to change and adapt while still being loyal to the brand.
While Martha was in prison, her brand actually expanded and used that to reach out to an audience that previously considered her snobbish. Getting attention is best done when you utilize the most opportune moments that come around, just like Martha Stewart did.
Keep The Customers On Their Toes
In the content marketing world, the main goal is to make sure that people keep coming back. This is important as after getting your customers' attention first, now you need to make sure to keep that customer engaged. Otherwise, you risk losing your customer to the competitor.
A good way to keep attention is through blogs. Blogs are a great way to maintain an audience, especially if they are kept consistent and provide valuable information. This is a factor in getting people to revisit their respective pages.
Differentiate From Your Customers
The best thing about content marketing is that if you pick the right strategy, it will help you differentiate from your customers.
Engage your audience in a way that your competitors are not. Respond to complaints, give praise, and ask for feedback. Create a bond with your customer that is both loyal and true. Once this bond is made, your customer will always come back to you regardless of the competition.
This bond will allow you to build a bond of trust with your customer and it also helps you understand your target audience better.
If you know what your audience likes and dislikes, you can re-organize your content marketing in the way they need and desire. Making your content unique and something that separates you from the masses.
Excellence And Quality Is Key
The key to good content marketing or any field in life really is Quality. Your content should be unique, clear, and compelling. People statistically spend less than 20 seconds on any particular site unless you capture their attention.
Make sure that your product and the content is compelling enough in quality that your customers just keep on coming back. Use all the sophisticated tricks you know.
Capture Their Info
Last but not least in our list of 10 ways that Content marketing can ramp up your ranking in the business world is Capturing information. It is important to capture certain types of data about your customer so that it gives you an ‘in’ to keep your customer engaged.
This “in” can be a sneaky way to get your customer's email, their age, name, where they heard about you, how you can become better, feedback, etc.
The most important thing is reaching out to them and making yourself known. This information helps you become a better brand and also refine your content marketing strategies.
Rule Of Thumb In Content Marketing
Content marketing is one of the key factors in building a successful brand, expanding customer engagement, and ultimately ramping up the ranking of your business. Make your business innovative with content marketing.
If you are using content marketing, use the right content as often as possible and remember to use every trick we have talked about. After all, if you are doing something, you need to do it well!
