We live in a world where anyone from anywhere can potentially start a business (provided they have the right tools of course) and whilst that’s undoubtedly a great world we live in, it means there is twice as much competition in any given industry.
And as if the odds aren’t already stacked against you, consumers are becoming increasingly savvy as to when they are on the receiving end of the sales spiel, and with so many ways to skip past adverts with little or no relevancy it’s easy to see how things get lost amongst the noise.
You’ve probably heard of content marketing. You may even already be doing it, although without much effort or reason, but your business needs it. Whatever your status, your businesses survival is dependent on you creating content which ultimately entices a consumer to do business with your business.
If you’re unsure on just how it can help your business to grow then this guide should help to cement just why you need it.
Increase Visibility
Content marketing is all about increasing your businesses visibility, whatever the platform. Ultimately, you want to make sure you are the first business that appears in the search results for related industry searches and queries.
The content you create should be there to inform consumers as to why they should do business with you. But don’t go in with the hard sell whatever you do. You should be aiming to be the source of knowledge on your chosen industry. You want to be the expert consumers trust above all others.
Improve Brand Awareness
You spend hours carefully creating your brand in the initial stages of developing your business, so don’t put all that good hard work to waste and suddenly forget about it once things are up and running. Your brand is what makes your business unique, and encompasses everything from how you look visually to how you do business and interact with consumers.
Marketing is about improving your brands visibility, and content can help to increase awareness of your brand and your cause. You should be looking to create brand familiarity in the content you recreate. A brand that rates highly in familiarity is more likely to be chosen than one which lacks integrity and is also more likely to develop a longer lasting relationship with those consumers. To create trust you need to develop a personal connection with consumers, and your brand can do just that through its content.
Customer Engagement
In order to make a sale then you need to be engaged with the consumer. Again, it’s all about creating that personal connection that makes a consumer want to take action. Creating high quality and useful content can help to make customers feel informed and well equipped to make a decision.
Content is all about being as useful possible to potential and existing customers. If you can create something which is both creative and useful then you’ve hit the content jackpot. Content can help you to be seen as a reliable expert of industry knowledge.
Make Creative Content
If there’s one marketing element you simply must include in your campaign, then creative content is it. We’ve already mentioned how content helps to increase your engagement through creating something useful, insightful and helpful for the consumer and creative content will help to push you that little bit further.
We are all very visual beings, and when something is laid out visually rather than having to sift through a chunk of text. You could create an infographic which shows key stats from a particular industry or a creative piece which allows the user to interact with the piece and increases shareability.
“Digital marketers have already seen the benefits of increased infographic use to better communicate their message with visual appeal and brand building and this is likely to continue. This trend along with the addition of more video content and other tools like quizzes are all designed to grab the attention of the end user more than traditional text based content” comments Chris Hardy from XChange Training.
Keeps Your Channels Fresh
Keeping your content up to date and relevant to the latest industry news can help to keep your website and social channels fresh. Your channels are a customer’s first impression of your business so you want to ensure that they are up to date rather than full of outdated information.
A blog which is updated once a week can go a long way in helping to establish you as an industry expert and someone who is fully invested in their business. Remember, that a consumer won’t always purchase or take an action the first time they visit your site. If there’s something new for consumers to digest on your site, then it will help to cement you as the business of choice.
Content isn’t something to be ignored, or put on to the ‘must do’ pile. It’s absolutely critical to your businesses success, and you aren’t taking your business seriously until you invest.
