Using technology to market your product or service continues to change as new ways to reach customers evolve. Today’s biggest change for finding new customers is “how to fill the sales channel.” Advances in technology provide new ways to support the sales cycle by increasing traffic to your website and creating buzz around your brand. In the past, leads and new customers were attracted with expensive advertising and public relations campaigns. Now, online content marketing is paying huge dividends for companies willing to make a plan and stick with it.
What is Content Marketing?
The concept behind content marketing is to pull customers to you as opposed to push. Content marketing’s purpose is to pull in customers by consistently creating relevant content with the purpose of changing or enhancing consumer behavior. The key word is consistent and proves most valuable when integrated into your overall marketing strategy. You own the media; you’re not renting it.
What Are the Benefits?
- Convenience and speed. Buyers now expect to find out about your product or service on their own time. Utilizing relevant social media and your website gives buyers information about your product or service 24/7.
- Familiar process. Everyone’s online and uses the Internet to search, buy, research and comment.
- Tightens customer bonds. When you are using social media or blogging, it’s a two-way conversation. Open the door and let your customer engage with you. Build on your brand by including your customer in the conversation.
- Improves organic search. Frequent activity online such as posting to your news, blog or website will help users when searching for your product or service.
- Fosters trust. For professional services companies, trust is a key component to why you are selected. When companies continuously publish credible content, the honest exposure earns a potential client’s trust.
What’s in a Content Marketing Plan?
- Start with outlining your goals and objectives. Is it to gain 50 new customers or improve your search ranking? Set a goal, and then check in to see how the campaign is reaching those goals.
- Draw up the campaign. To reach your goal, determine the best content marketing mix that will help you get there. Start by looking at your website and social media engagement along with content management and automation tools.
- Establish accountability. Make a schedule and stick to it. Small businesses have a challenge in this area and will be successful when everyone knows who is doing what and when.
The beauty of content marketing is that it builds on itself. You can start with a small campaign, i.e., start with utilizing your social media platforms a few times a week. Build on that. The more content you can push out, the better your potential customer will be pulled toward you.
According to Business Content, Google’s new Hummingbird update thrives on fresh, rich content and rates it highly. Some helpful resources:
- www.contentmarketinginstitute.com
- WordPress: content management system; editing and SEO
- Hootsuite: social media management dashboard; automated content distribution
- MyEmma: email editing and automation program; analytics
Studio 2055 will present to your company the benefits and strategies of content marketing and ways to fill the sales pipeline. For more information, contact Nanette Newbry.
