As the internet penetration is increasing day-by-day, it is not just connecting individuals but it also provides an ocean of different content for consumption. Users now have pages of content at their disposal, but is it all consumed by the users? Not really…! Users have evolved over period of time & are choosy about the content which they would like to consume. It is no longer about the volume, but relevancy of the content & the value which it delivers on a consistent basis is of primary importance to the readers. This in turn provides a great opportunity to the marketers in building a strong and credible brand value by using the power of content.
Traditional marketing is no longer as effective as it used to be leaving the brand managers with questions on what innovation can be incorporated. Pitching products & services in plain vanilla way no longer works in attracting the customer. Today’s mantra calls for “Give & you shall definitely receive” necessitating the use of content marketing as one the major tools towards customer acquisition and loyalty. Being a strategic & long-term marketing approach, content marketing involves creating valuable & relevant information consistently and distributing it free for consumption to the users. The important aspect to remember here is if you remove the ‘relevancy’ & ‘value’ from the content, it will be perceived by the consumer as garbage similar to the one being sent by a lot of entities who are just trying to hard sell their products/services.
Types of Content Marketing
There are various ways by which you can have your content marketing strategy in place. Some of the common ways include:
Incorporating strong SEO on the website for being listed in search results
Writing blogs & posting on your website for greater engagement
Developing White papers for free download
Creating posts on social media which will appeal to the masses
Using online PR to address issues
Developing interesting videos
Creating series of Podcasts
Representing information in the form of infographics
There are many other innovative ways in which the content can be created & used to engage with the users, get them to follow you, ultimately leading to increased sales and repeat business.
Why the stress on content marketing?
Content marketing is not just about creating content to drive users to your website, but address the steps involved in the buying cycle of any consumer.
AWARENESS - RESEARCH - CONSIDERATION - BUY. Traditional marketing works great in Consideration & Buy stages, whereas Content Marketing helps in the Awareness & Research stages. Apart from this, content marketing helps in addressing the following problems:
Increasing the volume of organic searches
Create brand preference & credibility
Engage with customers
Reducing the awareness creation costs
Increasing ROI
Most companies are still focused on the traditional marketing methods & if you want to create a differentiator, its time to embrace content marketing strategy right away. With the business dynamics changing rapidly in today’s world, every business, be it small or big needs to have an online presence and be a part of the global digitization. A start-up, SME running a brick & mortar business or an entity with established footprints in the online domain, all need to survive in this cut-throat competitive business world. It is apparent that we look at new strategies & ideas on how we can use the power of the Online World. Ceresphere Consulting focuses on setting this stage for your online presence & more importantly on the growth of your business digitally. Contact us for assistance in the Digital space.