Content marketing strategy is the all-important ingredient that adds sense to content marketing. Without it, content marketing is like the wind which bows aimlessly in all directions, completely unaware of the immense power that it would possess had it focused on blowing only towards the direction that matters. A good strategy helps you to create and manage your online content in such a way that it satisfies your existing audience and grabs the attention of your prospective audiences.
All businesses, big and small, must have a solid content marketing strategy for them to withstand the intense competition that brands are mounting online today. You need to clearly state your vision and make all the stakeholders in your business understand and own it. Why are you creating a given piece of content and for whom are you publishing it? In this article, we will dive deep and establish 4 ways how your local business would benefit from a good content marketing strategy. But first, what entails a good content strategy?
A good strategy has: A clear understanding of your audience, what motivates their purchasing decisions, where they are located, and their age/gender. This information helps you to tailor your content in a way that appeals to them most.
A unique plan for every social media platform. Most elderly social media users (above 55 years) are on Facebook, most youthful users between 25 and 40 are on Instagram, while the teenagers are mostly found on Snapchat. When planning for your content, therefore, you need to package it differently for each set of audience.
A well-detailed roadmap to telling your brand’s entire story. If your content doesn’t satisfactorily introduce you to the people and make people invest in your vision, then you may need to rewrite it all over again. You need to tell the story in phases: From why you think you can impact people’s lives better than your competitors, to your short and long-term goals, and to how you intend to impact on your immediate community.
It’s a cheaper, more effective form of advertising
Content marketing involves speaking to the souls of your prospective customers, creating the need and urgency to consume your products, and explains your brand to your prospective customers. Research shows that with a good strategy, your content can generate up to 300 percent more business leads than paid mainstream media adverts.
One of the most effective content strategies is the use of email marketing, where you send newsletters to a group of subscribers on a regular basis. Based on SavvySME, a local business directory “Email marketing is one of the best opportunities to engage with your customers on a more personal level with more tailored messages.” This marketing strategy is solely responsible for over 700 percent more business leads than the traditional media ads.
The revenue-generation capabilities for content marketing cannot be underestimated. What makes it even more mandatory for your small business, however, is the fact that it is over 60 percent cheaper than print media and TV adverts.
SEO Boost
A good content strategy enables you to not only grab the attention of your target audience but also to inspire them to share your content with their friends on social media. Your stories equip them with lots of knowledge about your brand to the extent that they are able to authoritatively explain your services and products to their colleagues, friends, and family. All these expose your content to a larger audience.
In the end, you find more and more online users visiting your website and converting to loyal customers. As the online traffic grows, search engines realize that you have the best content for their searchers and, to leverage that, they place it among the top SERPS. This SEO boost makes you even more visible online and that attracts more visitors and leads and is a must strategy for any business or SEO company.
Crowning your brand as an authority within your niche
With a content strategy, you are able to answer questions that people could be having, but which no other brand has managed to address satisfactorily. This is because you took your time to understand your audience and the content they yearn for. In the long run, you are able to position yourself as the final word in your niche. When people trust you to this extent, they quickly accept your product and even campaign for them through word of mouth advertising.
Your website never gets boring or irrelevant
It is only by keeping your website fresh at all times that online users will want to engage with it on a regular basis. A good strategy helps you to create relevant content at all times and ensures that you never run out of content.
Businesses like yours do not have the luxury of hiring an in-house content team. Sometimes, therefore, you have too much in your hands that coming up with a workable content marketing strategy feel overwhelming. Don’t worry just yet, though.
