Content marketing strategy is for the direct benefit of your customer as much as it is for your business. Providing engaging content for them to read or watch provides them with information, inspiration, or entertainment while also getting them to your site to increase your business’s overall revenue.
More succinctly, content marketing is a cheaper option for increasing your visibility with qualified prospects that are less likely to ignore your messaging. With content marketing, you can build organic audiences without spending the money that comes with traditional advertising.
However, hiring a specific customer-focused committee on your team doesn’t mean perfection. Over 54% of the surveyed companies claim the biggest content marketing challenge is composing content that can consistently generate leads.
Oftentimes this is because companies do not write content with their customers’ attention as their first priority. They target the dollar signs that come at the end of this transaction. Do you see the problem?
Customer-centric practices create more leads and conversions for your website.
So how can you make your marketing strategy more customer-centric?
Here’s a crash course on content marketing and digital marketing strategy from Semrush.com
Quick Takeaways:
- All of your marketing budget shouldn’t go to ads
- Content marketing creates a sustainable way to create new traffic to your website and draw new eyes to your new product, but you can boost your views with paid content marketing
- Starting off strong can build your organic audience over time can be more efficient and better for your bottom dollar than exclusively using paid advertising to promote products and services
Here are some tips to keep in mind for publishing content customer-centric content for your online brand:
Make content they can’t look away from
Content marketing values quality over quantity. When you’re starting, you aren’t producing as much content because you’re trying to lock down your fundamentals and your voice.
Helpscout.com says:
Successful customer-centric marketing requires a deep understanding of why your customers need what your company provides. The goal isn’t business growth alone; it’s growth driven by showing customers how your product/service will improve some aspect of their work or life.
People won’t click on your article if it isn’t attention-grabbing and genuinely good – full stop. It won’t matter if you’re publishing twice a day and all of your pieces stink. Marketers must have relevance, credibility, and awareness of their prospects’ needs and desires to give them the reason to buy into their company.
Consider what information is relevant to your target audience in their normal day-to-day lives. If your company sells coffee pots and accessories, your prospects might be looking online for the best kinds of coffee beans or companies.
Writing content like 9 Dark Roasts You Should Try NOW or Accessories Every Coffee Addict Needs is an ideal way to grow an organic connection straight to your website that you wouldn’t receive banner advertisements.
These prospects are far more likely to convert as opposed to a prospect who isn’t looking for coffee accessories seeing an advertisement on a billboard or a YouTube ad. Creating organic awareness and interest in your service or product builds your credibility, proving to your prospect that you actually know what you’re talking about.
Talk to them!
Who doesn’t like to be asked what’s on their mind? Communicating with your audience is an important step in identifying their interests and concerns relevant to your product or service.
So how do you check up on where your clients are? Start with an audit of your social media presence. What communities are your company invested in online – more importantly, where is your online voice? If you don’t have one, you aren’t controlling the market narrative.
By improving your virtual presence, you are also maintaining an outlet to have your written content on your prospects’ screens.
Organic engagement is crucial to the engagement of your pieces and the overall value of your brand. This isn’t all about social media, though. Retention marketing can help re-engage potentially lost customers and ensure that your marketing efforts are optimized to target all parts of the sales funnel.
Email marketing has been around for awhile, and continues to play an important role in brand credibility. Nowadays, there are plenty of automated tools designed to show you where your message is being received and where it isn’t. Email blast services sites can provide insight AND organized lists for information and content shipping.
Influencer marketing
How about a different way to advertise on social media? Influencer marketing is sending money to users with prominent follower counts to demonstrate or promote your product or service.
Source: Marketing Charts
Nogood.io highlights one of the most successful influencer campaigns of 2021:
<Dunkin’ Donuts has a large presence on TikTok with 3 million followers and 21.3 million likes, and one of its key success factors is its strategic influencer marketing.
A viral campaign was created under the hashtag #CharliXDunkinContest and Dunkin’ released two drinks after Charli, with the first beverage release called “The Charli.” “The Charli” led to a 57% increase in app downloads on launch day and 45% increase in cold brew sales the next day.
The point? People like seeing their favorite social media stars showcasing products and their favorite companies. Lately, companies like Hello Fresh and BetterHelp have seen record sign-up numbers by targeting paid advertising on successful podcast channels of diverse genres.
Influencer marketing may be new to the fold but it’s definitely here to stay. While this example was for a more general population (Gen Z coffee lovers), you can get as niche as you want with it.
Another example is the video game Raid Shadow Legends has become a household name in the gaming community through influencer marketing. The Raid team has targeted popular streamers and esports athletes as promoters, paying them to play the game and produce content for it for their fans.
This has resulted in the game launching to the top of the app store and increased awareness. By targeting the loudest voices in their communities, they’re cutting the line and getting straight to their ideal prospects.
How can your company utilize influencer marketing?
Find your winning combination (and ask for help!)
These tips will help you get the little things right, but the real trick is looking at how they all fit into the big picture. Every business is unique, and because of that so are its ideal marketing goals and strategies.
Hiring a consultancy or bringing on SEO specialists can provide expertise and clarity that is much harder to get on your own without experience. This investment isn’t always cheap. But it could be the best way to get customer-centric content in front of your prospects quickly.
Wrap Up
Running a content marketing strategy is hard work, but you’re fumbling the bag by not putting your customers first. This is not a fast cheat to skyrocket your ROMI (return on marketing investment), but a gradual long-term investment to increase your leads and conversions over a long period of time.
The most important keys? Patience and consistency. Sacrificing quality for quantity won’t produce the growth you want to see in your business. By continuing the grind and producing quality content, you can keep your customers coming back for more. Go get after it!
Want more ideas to grow your bottom dollar and amplify your brand voice? Look at our other content on //dmnews.com/ to evolve your marketing strategies now.
