The darling of marketing communications today is “content marketing,” but it’s nothing new. Businesses large and small have been doing it for decades, through newsletters and free hand-outs in print.
Think of your in-flight magazine describing your destination, or the white papers about technical subjects.
Content marketing isn’t just for big corporations, though. Smaller and medium-sized enterprises can also use it to build markets and, ultimately, boost profits.
By leveraging an asset that many big businesses don’t have: knowledge about what customers need that grows out of a close relationship with them.
Knowledge is power
You’re close to your market. You know the challenges they face. Better yet, you have workable solutions they can use.
And this means you have valuable content to provide. That’s what the marketing communications gurus are calling “content marketing.”
Content marketing has proven effective for
- building customer loyalty
- spreading your profile to a wider market
- raising brand awareness
- conversion: turning potential customers or shoppers into paying clients.
What the marketing gurus miss
The thing is, your market does not care about your goals.
They don’t care that you’re chasing higher conversions, more sales, higher profits. They don’t have time, especially these days.
They have their own goals, needs and wants.
Why do it?
Here is where a business can add value than just selling a product or a service: by sharing the special knowledge that you have, you can answer your customers’ vexing questions. Help them with their challenges. Help them overcome business obstacles. Help them solve problems in their lives.
That’s the essence of content marketing—or rather, knowledge marketing. By providing useful knowledge that people can use in their work and daily lives, you make your business more valuable to your customers and potential customers. And that will lead to greater sales and profits when people are making their next buying decision.
Which brings us to the question: what kind of content should you bring to market?
Content that works for customers
The best content us content that customers need.
Information that solves problems, that helps them overcome challenges in business, finance, health, home maintenance, car maintenance, child care, elder care.
Or simply in finding something better: food, coffee, tea, fashion.
A content marketing strategy
Your business provides value. You have knowledge that can help the people and the businesses in your market, whether that market is local, national or global.
A communications strategy: Get a GRIP.
So put that knowledge to work for your market, and your business.
1. Define your markets, currently and those you want—this is a part of every marketing strategy, so you probably have done it already.
In other words, who buys your products and services now? Whom do you want to sell to? What are your marketing and sales goals.
The more clearly you can state these, the better.
2. What do they need that you can help with?
The better you know your customers, the better you can answer this question and the more value you can provide to them—and the greater profit you can earn for yourself.
3. What knowledge and answers can you share?
Make a list, just point form at first. You can flesh it out later.
4. Define your goals.
Every strategy has to have goals. You’ve no doubt heard of SMART goals before:
- Specific—not just “sell more stuff,” but what stuff? Which product or service? To whom?
- Measurable—how much more? 10%? 50%?
Sales and profits are relatively easy to measure, but “client engagement” may be too nebulous. You could measure the number of visit or clicks on your website, growth in social media followers, enquiries by phone or email, and many other quantifiable measures.
- Achievable—how will you achieve this goal? What are the steps?
- Realistic—closely related to achievable. Is it realistic, given the resources that you can direct toward your goal, that you’ll achieve them?
- Timed—set a deadline. “We will increase the number of followers of our blog by 15% by the end of the calendar year.”
Your first goal is to share your knowledge—the wisdom accumulated by your business through years of providing value to your customers. You’re not selling or marketing now, so much as communicating.
5. Redefine
Since you’re now in communications mode, your market is now your audience. And in communications, the audience is the most important thing.
6. Make a content plan
Go back to what knowledge or information your market or customers need or could use profitably. Then match that to the knowledge that you can share.
Make a list of subjects or topics. Again, you don’t have to go into detail here. Just jot down point form, and flesh it out later.
7. Engage a communications professional
Turn to a person or organization with a track record in communication and in content publication. They’ll help you choose the right channel for sharing your knowledge with your audience. They’ll also help you develop your communications so that your message is clear and valuable to your audience.
8. Choose a channel
Blog, website, social media, email, paper, traditional media, or a unique combination suited to your audience, your goals, your message and your business’s strengths.
9. Execute
Communicate good, valuable information regularly. If you choose email as the channel, send regular emails. If you choose a blog, make sure that your audience can depend on seeing your blog every week, two weeks, every month, whatever. People will come to look forward to getting new information that they can use.
10. Leverage
Use all the communications channels and customer interactions you have to grow your audience.
- If you have a storefront, offer a place where customers can sign up to receive your email newsletter.
- Add the web address (URL) for your blog and social media to your email signature as well as print material and swag, including business cards, flyers, posters, in-store signage.
- Add a way for people to sign up for your blog, email newsletter or social media (including LinkedIn and Alignable) on your website.
- If you choose an email newsletter or blog, for example, make sure every edition includes all the links to all your other channels: social media/business media, website and traditional media outlets.
Start planning now
It may look like a lot, but it’s not that hard to start developing your SMART knowledge marketing strategy. Call us or email us at the Written Word today.