Are you endlessly pitching sales to your customers without paying attention to how you can help them solve problems?

 

Fact, customers do not enjoy being bombarded with a sales pitch, what they want instead are solutions that address their problems. If you care about your customers and want their loyalty to lie with you, give them something helpful that will address their day-to-day challenges or frustrations. And that’s valuable and high-quality content.

Incorporating content marketing as part of your overall marketing strategy is one of the best ways of endearing yourself to your customers and becoming a brand that customers love to interact with and buy from.

 

That being said, let’s look at what content marketing is. 

 

Content marketing has nothing to do with promoting your products or services. It is about your customers/audience and what they care about. Content marketing is about putting yourself into the customer’s shoes then creating and sharing helpful content that solves your customers’ problems. According to the content marketing institute, content marketing is a strategic process of creating and distributing valuable and relevant content to attract your target audience and ultimately turn prospects into paying customers. 

To help you better understand what content marketing is, let’s look at the following examples.

Example 1

For a moment think about this, you run a sports shoe business and someone walks into your shop looking for a pocket-friendly pair of running shoes. Let’s assume they want to spend less than Ksh 1500. If you don’t sell shoes with that price range, the person is unlikely to buy the shoes. But if you‘d talked to that person at the initial stage of creating your product, say through a blog post or video, explaining to them why a good quality pair of running shoes is a worthwhile investment, then you can easily change that person’s mind about how much to spend on the shoes because of how valuable the information is.

Here is another example:

Let’s say you own an online thrift store, and in one of your blog posts, you decide to share a detailed video on 5 different ways to style a blazer. Someone who owns a blazer who happens to watch the video with only one styling idea will instantly get more tips on how to style a blazer. 

The person may not buy the blazer but will leave your blog more knowledgeable and inspired. Better still, a potential customer who watches the video may at a later date decide to buy one of your blazers inspired by the styling tips you offered. This right here is content marketing. You are offering solutions to your customers through valuable content.

By telling your story, and by providing valuable and relevant information, you position yourself as a credible and authoritative resource to potential customers.

Why is content marketing important for your brand?

When done right, content marketing can help your brand with the following:

Builds authority

When you strive to educate, create and share relevant and valuable content, you can build your authority online. You are more likely to be discovered by potential customers if you become a credible and go-to resource for topics that help your customers solve their problems.

Content marketing helps in lead generation 

Content marketing can help your business generate new leads especially with CTAs(Call To Action). When your audience listens, watches, or reads your content, and if they enjoy the type of content you share, they are more likely to be inspired and interested in purchasing your products in the future. Remember the blazer example? 

Content marketing helps you build trust with your audience

When you create and share content that is relevant, valuable, and informative, it helps build trust between you and your customers/audience. Your audience is more likely to trust you when you share content without asking for something in return. You are also likely to become a valued brand when your customers find that your content is valuable and educational. And who wouldn’t want to buy from a brand they value?

Content marketing increases conversions

A well-informed customer is likely to purchase from you once they’ve read your content. The valuable content you create enables your customers to connect with you and helps them make well-informed decisions when purchasing products. It is important to include a CTA (a Call To Action) in your content to encourage your readers to take action.

According to Sprout Social, there are different types of content marketing that you can incorporate into your marketing strategy. The most common include:

• Blog posts 
• podcasts 
• Newsletters 
• Infographics 
• E-books
• Email Marketing
• Photos
• Videos
• Social media campaigns
• Webinars
• Testimonials
• Listicles
• Social Media Posts
• Case Studies
• Tutorials and features

If content marketing is something you’d like to pay attention to, the best way to get started is to figure out which type of content marketing works best for your business. Is it blog posts, social media posts, infographics, etc? 

How do you know which type of content marketing suits your brand? By simply paying attention to your analytics. 

The type of content you choose should be able to help your customers solve their problems. Once you figure out which type of content marketing suits your brand, develop a content marketing strategy and you will be good to go

Is your brand incorporating content marketing into the marketing strategy?

By Senewa Kamwaro– Digital Content Creator