One of the main tasks of a 360° agency is to build brand awareness among the target audience. A key tool and strategy for increasing brand visibility and encouraging potential customers to interact with the brand is content distribution. This can take the form of branded tutorials, webinars or podcasts.
What should you consider when planning content marketing activities? When and for whom is it a good solution? Is content marketing suitable for your business? Check it out!
What is content marketing?
It has been known for years that valuable content and a professional image influence the acquisition of new customers. Content marketing revolves around the publication of text and graphic material in various forms.
It aims to convey a brand’s expertise, showcase its range of knowledge, talk about its core values and educate an audience interested in a particular topic.
When used effectively, content marketing serves as a professional tool to communicate a brand’s message to a wider audience, build trust and increase engagement through various channels such as social media and website interactions.
What do I need to look out for in content marketing?
Content marketers are not only limited by their creativity. The budget allocated to SEO and copywriting, among other things, and the nature of the industry in which they operate are also key considerations. There are a few overarching issues that both agencies and brands should be aware of, whether they are creating sponsored or press articles, publishing e-books, or preparing webinars.
Building a positive corporate image does not just happen. In order to achieve the desired effect and ‘please’ Google’s algorithm, it is necessary to focus on tailoring the message to the target audience, setting precise goals and timelines for content marketing activities. It is also important to ensure consistency between the brand’s objectives and its ToV (tone of voice) on social media and other communication channels.
Satisfying the curiosity of the target audience by answering their most frequently asked questions and paying attention to SEO, i.e. the intensity of selected keywords, will also not go unnoticed.
Content marketing strategy – an example
Imagine a hypothetical brand. A Polish eco-friendly clothing company has a low percentage of new customers and a declining number of loyal customers. It is not ranked as an environmentally friendly brand in market research and respondents do not know what it could potentially offer them.
In many regions, there are no visits to its website. It turns out that product descriptions designed to appeal to the audience do not meet the algorithms’ criteria. Content marketing activities such as a blog or social media channels are non-existent.
Content marketing strategy or how to choose the right activities?
Through content marketing and its various forms, such as publishing an e-book on the impact of so-called fast fashion on nature, or publishing a podcast in the form of an interview with environmental activists, the aforementioned brand could raise awareness among its audience. It would also appear more frequently in search results.
A smooth handling of content marketing would lead to an image of a company whose promises can be relied upon. Professional tools and distribution channels would reflect its authenticity and internal consistency. It would be seen as a multi-faceted, environmental and educational brand with a focus on distributing compelling content. This is a key aspect that any potential customer would appreciate.
Positioning in Content Marketing
Research from the MCF Survey shows that by 2020, the money invested by brands in content marketing activities will reach €13 billion.
Brands are investing in this communication strategy for a reason.
Good content is a marketing strategy that focuses on creating content that is useful to both the brand in the industry, in terms of positioning and achieving intended key performance indicators (KPIs), and to the audience itself.
This is because it is an excellent tool for building relationships with potential customers who, after seeing a series of valuable content, decide to entrust the brand with their time, commitment and money. They want to know more about a particular product.
With content marketing, the brand promotes its business while providing a lot of content that is valuable from the customer’s perspective. And it is through content that a deeper relationship and expert image is built in the eyes of the audience.
Google’s algorithms are not indifferent to content marketing. The more useful and relevant content you provide, the more you not only build a professional image for your brand, but also invest in a long-term customer relationship.
A content marketing strategy is also about improving your search engine statistics, increasing the visibility of your website, positioning your brand on the major search engines and cultivating an expert brand image.
The benefits of content marketing
Good content marketing opens the door to the world of the brand to audiences who have never encountered it before.
- It can serve an educational and advisory function.
- When using useful content, the customer feels a sense of freedom and trust in the information being absorbed. It brings them closer to sharing values with the brand.
- It allows them to delve deeper into the brand’s narrative and values.
- Content helps people make decisions, not just in the context of buying products or services.
- Content marketing reduces the distance between brand and audience.
In what industry will a content marketing strategy work?
Who should use content marketing? Valuable content and its regular publication is a strategy that will work in any industry, once the characteristics of the brand’s target audience have been taken into account and the context of the content has been appropriately adapted.
After all, both a mineral water brand and a specialist agricultural machinery brand can set up their own blog or social media. And from there, it’s a straightforward route to valuable content marketing!
Who uses content marketing?
Food brands, clothing boutiques and even financial institutions with their educational social programmes are using content marketing. When we visit a brand’s website, we immediately notice numerous blog posts, podcasts and various other forms of dialogue with the audience through the sharing of expert knowledge.
Would like to talk about content marketing?
A content marketing brand
Analysis of expected audience response, estimated engagement results and the ability to achieve intended key performance indicators is essential in content marketing.
It helps a brand to function in the public space as an expert in its field. It spreads not only brand awareness, but also a lot of valuable, educational content to potential audiences.
Can content marketing have a real impact on user engagement, search rankings and business objectives?
Definitely yes. Almost all case studies and analyses of content marketing activities show how quickly and sustainably our trust in a brand increases when we are reached by its concrete and professional content.
