Today, the buyer is the expert and the one proactively reaching out to brands and businesses for help. For example:
There is an answer to this buyer-driven environment: Content. Content marketing is the process of creating high-quality, valuable content to attract, inform, and engage an audience, while also promoting the brand itself. Buyers and consumers are already searching the web for answers that your brand is uniquely positioned to offer. Its benefits are three-fold:
Increased brand awareness: As prospects and buyers search the web for answers to their questions and solutions for their problems, your brand continues to show up.Increased brand preference: Content marketing helps to further establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry, which strengthens relationships with buyers.Greater reach at lower cost: It is not a short-term strategy, but over time, a library of great content will continue to reach more qualified leads and interested buyers.
Content marketing is the savvy marketers response to the new, relationship-based, buyer-driven, digital marketplace.
Creating a Content Marketing Strategy
An effective content marketing strategy is built on two pillars that you (hopefully) have already:
A set of robust, strategic personas, andAn understanding of your typical buyers journey.
Each content asset should appeal to one (or two) personas at each stage of their buying journey, gently nudging them to the next stage.
For more help and inspiration in filling out your content marketing strategy, check out the Content Marketing Tactical Plan. This workbook is more than just infoits a hands-on journey complete with persona exercises, content arc charts, calendar templates, and more.
How to Design Engaging Content
Design means much more than color schemes and stock photos. The process will look different for every marketing team, and even for every teams various content pieces.
In general, design starts at the very beginning, as you map out a content marketing strategy. Understanding the brands personas and marketing goals will shape the basic style of each designeach should be useful to your personas, and true to your brand voice.
A strong content marketing strategy includes a variety of content types, so as individual pieces begin to take shape, there are some specific things to keep in mind:
Blog Posts
Distill your content marketing strategy into your blog schedule/strategy. The company blog can and should be used to cross-promote other content, which will help keep posts on a consistent schedule. If you dont have a marketing team member who is familiar with SEO, this is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7MRFuOi8IA
