There are dozens, perhaps hundreds of ways that you can market a product.
Traditional mediums have included television, radio and print ads.
With the Internet becoming mainstream followed by the social media revolution, new forms have included products such as Google Ads or Twitter campaigns.
The issue with many of these types of marketing is that they are almost inevitably met with resistance from consumers.
There is a general mentality among consumers that marketers are trying to one up them.
That’s where content marketing comes into play, and it’s the reason you should be placing your efforts into content marketing.
What is Content Marketing?
You might have heard of content marketing before without actually knowing what it is. It’s one of those things that is discussed by many but implemented by few.
In short, content marketing is all about providing value.
Content Marketing means creating and sharing valuable free content to attract and convert prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers.
You provide content that’s relative to your industry, of value to the reader, and free. The idea is to use that free content to establish a rapport and subtly convert them to a customer.
Whether that’s through signing them up for an email list or giving them specialized advice depends on what your product is.
Why it works?
We mentioned building rapport as the key ingredient in content marketing.
The free content you’re providing should be meaningful and provide the reader with knowledge that is just too valuable to pass up, even if they do realize they’re being marketed too.
Ultimately, you establish yourself as a credible source.
This method of building relationships with customers and developing a level of credibility and trust isn’t new.
If you’ve ever bought a home or a car, the salesperson likely talked to you at length about everything related to the item. You bought from that person because they had established themselves as a credible source. That’s exactly what effective content marketing does.
By providing in-depth and free information on a subject that you have knowledge on, you’ll build that same trust.
When that happens, you’ll be able to easily convert readers into sales.
Using content marketing effectively
As a broad concept, content marketing is surprisingly easy to grasp. Many people struggle to think of real-world uses for it when faced with a need to do so, though.
Content marketing can be used in almost any type of situation. You just have to understand the connection between content and what you’re selling.
We used buying an auto as an example earlier, so let’s come back to that.
Suppose you manage a car dealership where all of the cars are hybrid or electric. A good chunk of being successful at your job requires knowing the ins and outs of the products you carry:
- What benefits they have,
- How they compare to traditional vehicles, and so on.
The average consumer doesn’t know, though, and is probably nervous about purchasing a car that runs on alternative fuel sources.
To effectively use content marketing in this situation, you could create a website dedicated to educating consumers on alternative fuel services.
By providing rich content that’s in-depth and unbiased, you’ll draw in potential buyers and educate them about the benefits of alternative cars.
By incorporating an email list or another tool to contact the reader, you’ll begin the process of turning readers into buyers. You’ll have the advantage here of being seen as a trusted source when no one else is.
Conclusion
That’s just a quick overview of how content marketing can work for you.
Great content marketing provides rich knowledge to the reader, but it also incorporates subtle elements of copywriting in order to effectively sell.
Once you get started with content marketing and see the results it can generate, you’ll never want to use another form of marketing again.
What are your thoughts about it? Are you using content marketing as a strategy? How has it affected your business?
I’d love te hear your comments below.