September 13, 2019
Content marketing enables any business (no matter the industry or products on offer) to position itself as a thought leader.
Why is this important? Because, in today’s digital economy, you need to draw people towards your brand gently and in a way that encourages them to form a bond with you.
Trust is a big thing in modern business. We’re forever being told about how dangerous it is to lose sight of our personal data, and brands are constantly in the spotlight for the way in which they apparently disregard any form of privacy in exchange for a quick deal.
In reality, things aren’t quite that frightening, and if you’re a small or medium-sized business, you will doubtless have the customer’s best interests at heart. This is where content marketing comes in.
With that in mind, here are four trends that will help you provide would-be customers with the best possible content.
If you’re ever tempted to simply copy and paste the content from one blog into yours and change a sentence here and there, you’re not going to get very far. Google is far too smart for that.
Instead, you need to create content that is authentic and which oozes credibility. Thankfully, if you can’t do this in-house, there are plenty of places on the web from which you can purchase hand-crafted, genuinely unique content - it’s worth the investment.
The ability to personalise email marketing campaigns makes that particular method one of the most effective around, but you can do the same with content marketing.
Instead of personalising content for each individual audience member, you can instead do it for different sectors of your audience.
Just as you would segment your email marketing lists, why not do the same with your blog audience? Consider how you can chop it up based on keyword research; which questions can you target for specific groups within your customer base?
Whether you’re sourcing content internally or externally, it’s becoming increasingly common for businesses to spread their content marketing effort across the business.
Your development team probably has an awful lot to say that will be of interest to your audience. Equally, why not team up sales and marketing to create a content series that hones in on a number of the most pressing concerns in your industry at the moment?
There’s a misconception that, in order to get involved in influencer marketing, you need to have huge budgets.
This simply isn’t the case.
An influencer doesn’t have to be a celebrity - it can simply be your most active customer. With that in mind, have a think about who within your customer base and among your partners could become your biggest ally online.
Tempting customers with a discount or two if they talk about your brand online is a great, effective way to get into influencer marketing and it will benefit your content marketing efforts, big time.
Keep an eye on the trends above; they’ll help your content marketing strategy really make a difference by providing a consistent flow of leads while continuing to position your business as a trustworthy, knowledgable brand.