The main objective of any business is to make profit, and for this to be possible, sales have to be made. However, consumers are tired of businesses putting their products/services in their faces and constantly trying to sell to them. What then is the solution? Simply sell without “selling”. Make use of Content Marketing to engage your audience in conversations through which they can learn more about your products and offerings while also endearing your brand to them.
Content marketing involves creating and publishing relevant, valuable content that attracts and engages a clearly defined audience. It encompasses all forms of content that directly or indirectly promotes a business, brand, product or service.
The type of content marketing that any business engages in should elicit a deep-seated emotional response from the consumers. Do not think of your brand and its offerings alone. Also provide content that has no strings attached but is still valuable, educative, informative and even entertaining to your target audience. Endear your customers to your brand an eventually they will become brand advocates recommending your products/services to others within their networks.
Content marketing includes but is not limited to the above. However, it is integral to have a blog at the heart of your content marketing strategy. A blog provides you with the opportunity to create relevant content for your customers and ultimately drive traffic back to your website. You can also post inbound links directly in your blog articles, to drive traffic to specific landing pages of your website.
Why use content marketing?
1. Visibility
Through the use of the various media available, content marketing makes you more visible and gives you a wider reach. People are not limited to only a single channel of contacting you.
2. Improves your online reputation and SEO
A popular and yet effective practice in content Marketing is to employ the use of certain recurrent keywords when crafting your content. These keywords should be terms that best describe your product/service. This way, overtime, your digital assets will rank high in organic listings for terms related to those which you have selected. Also, publishing relevant quality content that is aimed at a specific target audience will equally increase your ranking as the more people interact with you, the better you rank.
3. Helps in relationship building
Content marketing if done properly puts the consumer’s needs at the forefront. It is no longer about you selling to them. You are instead listening to them, interacting with them and solving their problems. You not only end up having a rapport with them, you equally gain their trust so they are open to eventually acquiring your product and recommending it to someone else.
4. Establishes you as a thought leader
You will be regarded as an expert in your particular industry especially if you constantly provide quality content that is valuable to your customers and has helped them. It places you in a position where people will listen to what you have to say and gives you a unique opportunity of directly influencing their purchase decisions.
Here are some tips for effective content marketing
- Have a clearly defined goal and stick to it.
- Do not expect instant results – it takes a lot of dedication, patience and attention.
- Understand your target audience and always put their needs first.
- Quality content is key.
- Provide evergreen content.
Businesses and individuals who would like to get ahead and reap the benefits of using content marketing should therefore take the first step by attending our Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing training which will provide them with a solid foundation not only in content marketing but in other essential aspects of Digital Marketing.
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