Brand Building through Content Marketing

Think about this: Most conventional marketing efforts, such as placing an ad in a magazine or on a website, or inserting a 30-second spot into a TV program, is like renting the attention of someone else’s audience and hoping they notice you. In other words, the person watching the TV is there to see a particular program, not to see your ad. But with any luck, he will see your ad and decide to take action. Content marketing, by contrast, is the long-term process of building your own audience, and owning their attention. That means creating content that they intentionally seek out. Today, content marketing plays a crucial role in any brand building initiative.

Seven Content Marketing Qualifications

Creating an effective content marketing plan involves touching several bases. Content marketing should:

1] engage the audience on their own terms.

2] be based on interactions with your customers.

3] tell a continuous and engaging story.

4] fit the particular channel it’s being delivered on.

5] have a clear purpose or goal.

6] be created with a long shelf-life.

Building a content marketing program starts with brand awareness. Over 90% of all purchases begin with an online search, so make sure your SEO is solid. When your customers search for what you’re offering, your brand should be front and center. And when your content appears in their results, it better be worth the search. By offering educational content and demonstrating expertise in your industry, you can start building trust and nurture an ongoing relationship with your customers. This is also called thought leadership marketing. People are more likely to buy from brands they trust, so it pays to become a thought leader within your category.

Thought Leadership Content vs Sales Content

Brands establish themselves as thought leaders by charting a path into the future for others to follow. They look for ways to make best practices even better, and often create industry disruption in the process. They provide content that doesn’t necessarily push their own products, but rather offers their audience useful information and best practices.

Sales content, on the other hand, necessarily doesn’t offer best practices, but instead specific details about the products the company sells. While it can be tempting to run your products up the flagpole, target audiences will often view sales content with skepticism.

Generating Content

Creating content on a regular basis can be a big challenge. The type of content you create should depend largely upon the current priorities of your business. These priorities could be a branding initiative, a new product launch, or an educational piece. One way to come up with ideas for content is to ask your team members what kind of content might help them do their jobs. Also, feel free to ask your customers on social media what they’d like to see.

Some practices that can help enhance your marketing content include:

Being observant
Take note of what your target audience is consuming and sharing. It’s really the only way you can create content that’s relevant. If they relate to it, they’ll engage with it and connect with your brand.

Staying current
Follow what’s trending. Spend time each week to see what people are sharing. Whether it’s a viral YouTube video or a popular TED talk, stay up on the latest trends and see how it might relate to your business.

Providing updates
Good content should be created with a long self-life in mind, which means with regular tweaking it can stay relevant and appear high in search returns. So don’t be afraid to repurpose your past content. Plus, republishing, say, a blog post, can help attract new members to your audience.

Changing it up
Resist the urge to draw from your same old references. In our busy lives, we often get stuck in reading rut. Seeking out a variety of thought leaders can help broaden your content and add a new flare to your writing and your brand’s message.

By consistently creating and distributing content that is valuable and relevant to your audience, your content marketing initiative can attract and retain the type of customers that can increase profits and grow your brand.

John Diggins
Copywriter Brand 33