Last time we shared some insight into content marketing and how it can help drive new leads to your business, converting into retained, loyal customers. Although our market segment may be different to yours, the same principles apply to almost any industry.
Content marketing can be an inexpensive way to promote your business; and whilst its certainly not the only way, here at Wider we’ve found it to be really effective to build up interest around our brand and engage our audience, whilst at the same time sharing some of the team’s expertise.
We are relatively new to Solihull, but our team have decades of experience delivering creative design, branding, web design and online marketing to Solihull and Birmingham businesses – and much further afield!
Just to recap from last time… content marketing is creating valuable information to educate and attract a particular target audience. The aim is not to be sales driven or promotional but instead to build brand awareness within your target market.
We are now going to take a closer look at some of the ways we use content marketing to reach out to our clients and target audience.
There’s no better way to demonstrate your expertise in your niche than creating a compelling business blog. You will need a certain amount of commitment to schedule posts regularly as it’s this consistency over time that people notice. Content will help to optimize your blog on the search engines, as we know Google loves fresh, new and unique content.
A newsletter is more traditional than a blog in some ways – but can also be a valid way to reach out to a particular target audience. A regular newsletter can offer really flexible content which may include FAQ’s from your customers, a column from an industry expert; blog recaps from the month, a company news round-up, a letter from the CEO or director or an interview.
Also, don’t just consider this to be an expensive direct mail process – many companies are turning to email delivery to engage with their audience. Email newsletters that offer subscription are a fantastic way to deliver useful information to your customers and are much more cost effective than traditional print and mail delivery costs.
Creating content in easy-to-read, digestible chunks of information in an interesting and attractive format is a great way to present a lot of information quickly and clearly. A high quality infographic often engages people more quickly than a lengthy text article. It offers another way to tell a story, educate, inform and build your brand awareness.
These are particularly popular on social media too, so don’t forget to cross-post infographic content across your social media channels. A good inforgraphic can have a long lifespan on social media and subsequently offer great exposure for your brand.
Participating in speaking at events on your key area of expertise is a great way to be remembered, which could then easily be transcribed for your blog or newsletter. Take a look at our latest presentation on branding, which we’ve curated into a blog article.
Also, don’t forget to publish your presentation online – we strongly recommend SlideShare for this. This is not only great for attendees that often want to recap on what you’ve presented, but also gives you the opportunity to cross-post on social media and professional networks like LinkedIn.
Collating content and images on your best work and showcasing it on your website is an invaluable way to inform and build trust with potential clients. A well crafted case study goes one step further in that it has the power to persuade and sell what you do (no hard sell required), and can be an extremely useful tool to demonstrate what you do, how you solve problems and deliver results.
As I mentioned last time, writing great content is not easy and it can take time to build up a bank of valuable articles to share and promote amongst your audience and followers. Try not to get discouraged and give up too soon. You will need to work consistently; but over time you will certainly see the benefits of your efforts!
Find a publishing schedule that is maintainable for you and your team. It’s better to consistently publish 2 great, well-considered pieces of content a month rather than 8 mediocre pieces of content that may in-fact give people a poor impression of your business.
Hopefully we’ve inspired you to consider content marketing as part of your overall marketing strategy. We think it’s an important component that can’t be ignored in todays competitive market. If you’re struggling to find the time to regularly publish content, let’s talk about how Wider could assist you!
