The rise of content marketing for businesses

If you are in business and willing to reach your target audience in this age of social media, you will have heard the phrase, ‘Content is king’. In fact, content marketing might as well be named the buzz word for 2013. This is because consumers have focused more on consuming content and they have become very adept at blocking cold calls and advertising messages.

Business owners are constantly figuring out how to tie their huge advertising spend to customer acquisition and it is still a grey area.

 With the multiplicity of social media platforms that allows individuals, businesses and brands to create and share pictures, images blog posts, articles with everyone, everywhere across the world, there will be an abundance of content to consume. Realising they need to combine traditional and digital media, smart entrepreneurs are turning to marketing through media content.

Content marketing therefore refers to the marketing strategy that involves the creation and sharing of media content through status updates, news, videos, infographs, case studies, guides, testimonials that tactically avoids hard selling and simply focuses on delivering value to customers, prospects and other stakeholders. These types of content have the innate capacity to attract, acquire, and engage customers in a more meaningful way.

There is a whole gamut of content marketing framework, but I will focus on why it is becoming more relevant.

We want to escape advertising

If you switch off from ads while watching TV, annoyingly refuse to receive flyers, avoid cold calls, delete spam text and emails, it is possible that your target audience is doing the same.

However, we spend our time reading, broadcasting and sharing media content that we find interesting. In fact, if social media were a country, content will be its language.

Creating and curating content is an important aspect of building an incredible brand, especially if you are a consultant or entrepreneur.

Now there are multiple touch points

When you want to reach your target market effectively, you will realise that your customers have become a moving target. Touch points are moments and opportunities for brands to come in contact with their target market. While these used to be limited to point of sales, shops and traditional media, it has become multifaceted. We move between screens; TV, radio, phone, iPad and social networks.

Content marketing ensures that your customers are able to locate you, especially when they are looking and searching online for solutions to solve their problems.

Brand reputation cannot be built on mere claims of expertise

If you are looking at reaching an educated business audience, they have become very intelligent. They hardly believe what you say about your business. They will rather search online for what others are saying and what you have said, done or demonstrated that is not about ‘me’ advertising.

Consistently contributing insightful, entertaining and knowledgeable content is the way to go.

Advertising makes you famous

Paid advertising still has its place, but businesses must begin to balance it with online engagement and loyalty building. If you want to make a huge statement about your business or brand, paid advertising is the way to go. If you want to build a trusted brand or establish a relationship with your target audience, content marketing is your best bet.

Balancing your marketing efforts between the two ensures that your marketing lasts longer, has depth and establishes what we all want — brand loyalty.

People do not share advertisements

To make an impact on social media platforms, you need more than your fans and followers. You need to get your message shared. While we hardly share advertising messages, we love to share remarkable content.

We willingly share images, videos and articles that we consider to be funny, controversial and insightful. This is why people say controversy sells because it carries with it the word ‘viral’.

What you need to do

A fundamental shift occurs in building and promoting business and brands online. As people continue to spend more time getting connnected online, entrepreneurs and marketers must come up with creative ways to reach them. As a business owner, it is time to get your creative skills into play. What knowledge, article, pictures can you share with your target market? Give them content they will happily apply to their lives and they will willingly share it. This kind of content is not normal advertising; it is valuable, helpful, entertaining, personal and humanistic.

In order to make your brand story to spread, you will need to commission other people or create and curate awesome content yourself. You will also need the help of others to consume and share content. You will need to get other to get others talking about your business, sharing your content with their contacts and affirming your credibility through their comments.

While you are busy trying to sell online, there are peoople going online to search for your products every day. In fact, available statistics show that 85 per cent of buying decisions begin with a Google search. Unless you are a big budget brand, they hardly care about your brand name, but your product category.

When customers and prospects try to search for your products, the benefits are tremendous. They are interested, open and receptive. Content marketing floods search engines, thereby aiding brand recognition, trust, authority, credibility, loyalty, and authenticity. It delivers value. It answers business questions and provides information that establishes trust with the target audience. If you do not like the search results when you type in your product category, it is time to get your marketing ‘mojo’ right on.