Content Marketing – Ask Them to Engage
Advertising to attract customers use everything. It is simple in its essence and understandable: they placed an advertisement or launched a video – they got (or did not get) the expected result. The problem is that today it is difficult to build a competitive business on one advertisement and you have to look for new forms of interaction with users.
This is where content marketing comes to the rescue. It allows you to move away from the traditional advertising concept, to offer users real value and in the long term to motivate them to become not just clients, but supporters (“advocates”) of the brand.
What is content marketing and how does it work?
At a first approximation, the concept of content marketing is simple: create and publish content that is useful for the target audience, post it on thematic resources (including your own), get links to the site via back links, purchase applications, registrations, subscriptions (that is, leads) . But, as in any business, in content marketing there are a lot of details that it is important to master in order not to waste time and budget.
Content marketing rests on three “pillars”:
content (users need a quick and effective solution to problems, so the content should be interesting, useful and unique in terms of semantic content);
interaction (it is important not only to publish content, but to constantly keep in touch with users, answer questions and comments, stimulate discussions, etc.);
conversion (content is created not for the sake of content, but for the sake of attracting customers, so it is important to think through the content strategy in such a way that readers and viewers perform targeted actions).
If you remove at least one component, you will not be able to fully use the possibilities of content marketing.
It is possible to consider the “mechanics” of content marketing both from the seller’s side and from the client’s side.
From the point of view of the seller, the process consists of several stages:
1. creating a portrait of the target audience , understanding its needs (who are your customers, what they care about, why they “do not sleep at night” and how to help them);
2. content analysis taking into account the preferences of the target audience (this also includes competitor analysis, which allows you to identify which content is in demand, which is already there and which is not yet);
3. selection of sites where your audience “dwells” (these can be thematic sites, forums, groups in social networks, etc.);
4. creating useful content and placing it on selected sites;
5. stimulating the promotion of content through social networks, newsletters and other channels;
6. setting up chains of goals in analytics systems, tracking transitions to the site and evaluating performance.
A potential client sees content marketing a little differently:
1. awareness of the problem that needs to be solved ( “I want shoes – I must choose”, “There are no customers on the site – How to attract?”, “It is necessary to paint the walls – which paint should I prefer?” , etc.);
2. finding a solution to a problem (search engines, social networks, forums and communities come to the rescue here);
3. consumption of useful content, interaction with the brand and the formation of preferences ( “I looked at the paint review of Tikkurila — she wins from the competitors”, “I read on the forum about my experience in the SeoPult system – I also want to try” ” );
4. the final choice of product and its purchase ( “Many good things are written about the brand – Must be taken”, “I have been reading a cool newsletter for a year, and here they have also given a discount of 10% as a regular reader – I will try to work with the system” , etc.
In practice, variations of user behavior are numerous. In any case, the result is the transformation of the next visitor into a real client (conversion).
Why invest in content marketing?
Promotion of business through content provides several advantages:
1.wide coverage of the target audience and increasing brand awareness through the use of different channels;
2. forming around the brand a loyal community that can be quickly mobilized during sales, promotions, when a new product is introduced to the market, and even to repel the attacks of competitors;
3. attracting targeted traffic to the site, improving the site’s behavioral indicators, obtaining natural backlinks from reputable sites, thereby increasing its position in search results;
4. optimization of the marketing budget through the use of different promotion channels and the possibility of choosing more efficient ones;
5. ensuring a long-term competitive advantage and a steady flow of applications.
However, content marketing has features that need to be considered:
1. prolonged effect over time: in spite of bursts of traffic after the publication of publications, the main result in the form of increasing awareness and trust in the brand is prolonged in time. It often takes at least 6-12 months for content marketing to work in full force;
2. There is no direct impact on sales: the goal of content marketing is not an instant increase in sales, as in the case of contextual or media advertising, but the formation of a loyal community. Sales is a consequence;
3. constant financial investments are needed: in order to launch content marketing, you need to research the target audience and competitors, form a content plan, and all this requires expenses;
4. Difficulties in evaluating effectiveness: if you analyze the effectiveness of content marketing using the same metrics as contextual advertising, it turns out that it is not profitable, although in fact it is not. In each case, you need to select your own set of indicators and track users’ actions using analytics systems in order to add an objective picture;
5. Content marketing is not always appropriate: it’s good that it cannot do harm a priori, but there are situations when it is better to invest resources in other technologies. For example, this strategy is not suitable for services of instant demand (taxis, emergency opening of locks, cleaning sewage), unique and specific products in the field of B2B (oil and gas equipment, titanium dioxide, MRI devices), local offline business sites (hairdressing, pet shops) and some other areas. Of course, it does not hurt, but only allows you to further demonstrate the expertise, but this is unlikely to affect sales growth.
If you have taken into account these features and consider that content marketing is right for you, then it’s time to move on to choosing communication channels with your target audience.
Channels of communication with the target audience
Depending on the specifics of the subject matter and goals, different sites are chosen for content placement and communication with the audience:
Own site (by placing content on the pages of your site, you attract traffic from organic issuing, social networks, mailings. The advantage is that with an increase in the amount of content and traffic, the authority of the site increases, new subscribers and external links appear)
niche media and blogs (this is a good way to attract the target audience, because you know exactly what it is. In addition to traffic, you get good external links. You can post content both on a paid and free basis, if site owners find it useful);
YouTube channels (the video provides a higher conversion than text posts, so the order of videos or references from well-known vloger is popular. In addition to traffic, your brand’s credibility increases significantly);
Groups in social networks (you can publish not only in your groups, but also in third parties that are relevant to you. Instant conversion is not easy, but you can increase brand awareness. In addition, links from social networks make the external link profile more natural);
thematic communities and forums (these are platforms like drom.ru, babyplus.ru, awd.ru. The audience here is strictly targeted, but advertising is perceived poorly, so you need to make the presentation of the material as unobtrusive as possible).
What content to use
Earlier we told how to select content depending on the type of audience, and tips from the article “ How to choose content for the audience ” will not be superfluous. Any content that is interesting to the target audience is suitable for content marketing . There are no restrictions here. The main thing is to study the audience, its needs, interests and preferences, and correctly use this knowledge.
Content content can be divided into:
entertaining (pictures, short videos, quotes, jokes);
involving (polls, contests, riddles, puzzles, applications);
informative (articles, reviews, test drives, infographics);
training (case studies, webinars, instructions, guides, books, checklists);
advertising (news, promotional offers).
Choose several types and formats of content – then it will be possible to close more user needs, and it will be more interesting for them to stay with you.
How much is content marketing
The price issue is one of the most important, especially when it comes to content marketing. It is quite difficult to convince yourself to invest in promotion today in order to get a result in six months or even a year. Another thing is contextual advertising: invested – received, but did not like it – turned off the campaign. Moreover, you can get cashback from contextual advertising up to 8% at any time. With content marketing, this will not work: if you start work, then you need to go all the way.
Previously, content marketing scared small businesses with a high threshold of entry. Indeed, most agencies do not undertake projects with a budget of less than 50-100 thousand rubles a month. In the case of a small business, this may be monthly revenue. With the entry into the market of automated services, the entry threshold became minimal – in fact, it is equal to the cost of one publication.
Consider a specific example .
Placing a 30-60-second video on the entertainment channel FreeShow on YouTube will cost 4370 rubles, a full-fledged promo video of the product – 14,950 rubles (the video recording is already included), and the link in the description is 920 rubles:
Is it expensive or cheap? Let’s count. The audience reach is 54532 people. If we divide the costs of placing a mention (4370 rubles) for each person who watched the video (54,532 people), then we get 0.08 rubles for one potential contact:
If you order a full review, the cost of such a contact will be 0.27 rubles. With an average CTR for reviews of 2-5%, the maximum number of clicks to the site can be from 1090 to 2726 people. and will cost between 4 and 5.5 rubles. Now, remember how much the transitions from contextual advertising cost (40-50 rubles – if you are lucky).
Of course, in each case it is necessary to consider, taking into account the reach of the audience, the expected effect and the cost of a particular publication. But the fact is obvious: with the right approach, you can get a profit that is several times greater than the effect of contextual and other types of advertising.
In conclusion, we say that you should not choose between content marketing and contextual advertising, SEO-promotion, SMM and other strategies. To compare is possible and necessary, but not opposed . After all, they all work in different ways and serve for different purposes.
Successful companies practice integrated promotion , finding a place for each strategy. As a result, it is possible to reach the target audience as much as possible and to ensure stable business growth.