Nearly all of us have done it. We have waited impatiently for the five-second clock to count down before clicking the "Skip Ad" button, finally allowing us to watch a video on YouTube. We have purposefully ignored pop-up ads that tried to drag us away from articles we were reading, and we have exited from web pages completely because they are crowded with invasive advertisements.
In this age of instant information, consumers have become immune to traditional advertising and marketing tactics. What consumers want now is information they can use to make their lives easier or more interesting. This is where content marketing comes into play.
You might have heard the phrase, "Content is King" or that content marketing is the future of marketing to a tech savvy audience. But that doesn't do much to explain what content marketing is, or how you can use it to help your business connect with target audiences.
According to Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is defined as "a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action."
In short, instead of solely telling your audiences what your products and services can do for them, provide your potential clients with information that is valuable and relevant to them.
This can be done in various ways: tips on how to complete certain tasks, entertaining videos or stories, or educational information that will help them do something they enjoy more effectively.
To be clear, we understand that your products and services are what you believe to be important to the clients. And they are. But that is information the consumer can get from other sections of your website, or through a Google search. What we want to do is give the potential client a way to know who you are so they can discover how your products and services can help them. By providing this type of information on a consistent basis, you are building a system that will generate leads and building a loyal customer base.
The process of developing an effective content marketing strategy can be as simple as finding out what is important to your target audiences. If you own a coffee shop, you can create a weekly blog explaining how to create delicious coffee-based drinks, or how to use coffee-making tools like the French press. If you own a restaurant, you can develop videos showing how to pick the best produce for date-night dishes, or how to properly prepare certain foods, like cutting an onion or mincing garlic.
There are limitless ways to connect with your target audiences, no matter what business you are in. Just find out what is valuable and relevant to your audiences, then develop a creative way to provide that information to them on a consistent basis.
By creating good content, you raise awareness for your brand, set yourself and your business up to be thought-leaders within the field, and generate leads. Not to mention, you develop good will from what could become a very loyal following.
Orion Marketing Agency specializes in developing and managing content marketing strategies for businesses in a wide variety of industries. For more information on how we can help you reach target audiences, generate website traffic and develop leads for your business, please contact us.
Comments