Did you know? 75% of texts are read diagonally, 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual and 65% of individuals have a visual memory. (Source: NewsRoom by Publicis Media).
What is content marketing?
The definition of the Content Marketing Institute is: “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on the creation and distribution of rich, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a defined audience – and ultimately generate profitable customer action.”
It is therefore a strategic approach that focuses on creating and distributing valuable content that is relevant to its audience in order to attract and retain them over the long term, with the ultimate goal of converting them into customers. Above all, it represents a digital strategy that allows to improve one’s e-reputation.
The notion of content marketing should not be confused with inbound marketing, which can be more intrusive. Content marketing offers quality content that is useful to the Internet user and does not primarily seek to promote its brand or collect an e-mail address. Its main objective is to provide answers and useful information to consumers. Unlike Inbound Marketing, content marketing can have the sole aim of improving brand awareness or strength, particularly with a distribution on social networks or the company’s website.
Which Content Marketing strategy should I adopt?
For content marketing to be effective, it requires a good strategy. First of all, it is necessary to have a very precise targeting of its customers as well as a clear message to spread.
To be relevant, you must take into account the information expected by the consumer in order to optimize your SEO, that is to say the visibility of your site on search engines.
Content marketing can be done in different forms such as: blog articles, case studies, newsletters, white papers, surveys, videos, computer graphics, webinars, podcasts, emailing … But also, on different media such as your website or on social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram.
It can therefore allow you to have more responses following an emailing campaign, to attract traffic to your website but also to improve your search engine optimization, to attract prospects, to transform consumers into brand ambassadors, to generate more sales, to promote your employer brand. And finally, to position your website as an expert in your field of activity.
Why use content marketing?
Making personalized ads is much more effective than non-targeted marketing strategies, also called Outbound Marketing, which consisted of mass advertising, i.e. sending out ads without having any specific targets. Indeed, this required a high budget but with a low return on investment.
Today the consumer has become accustomed to advertisements and ads and they no longer have the same effect on him as before.
Content marketing addresses these difficulties by offering the creation of interesting content adapted to your target audience to have a personalized customer experience and a better digital communication. This allows you to develop your visibility as well as your notoriety and to promote your company.
It is important to know that an average person retains only 80% of what he sees, 20% of what he reads and 10% of what he hears. Moreover, an Internet user spends only 10 seconds on average on a web page and 60% read less than 200 words (Source: NewsRoom by Publicis Media). Content marketing is therefore the best way for you to be read because Internet users will only really read if the content is interesting and useful to them.
Content marketing is therefore the best way for you to be read, because Internet users will only really read it if the content is interesting and useful to them, so you will be a reference for your Internet users because you will gain credibility.
For the last 5 years, the budgets of companies in traditional advertising have been constantly reduced. Conversely, budgets allocated to digital marketing have been increasing. In 2020, it is estimated that companies will put an average of 45% of their marketing budget into digital. Moreover, video is the fastest growing category, with an estimated doubling of investment between now and 2021 compared to 2016. (Source: WSI). Marketers are paying more and more attention to the customer experience which is an important lever to establish their web marketing strategy.
We can see that companies are increasingly concerned about the user experience. Indeed, it is the best way to encourage a reader to come back and therefore to build loyalty.
What are the steps of Content Marketing?
First of all, it is advisable to create content, as we have seen, relevant and useful for the targeted audience. Then it should be promoted to attract visitors and collect contact information. You can then convert them into customers, building loyalty and having more interactions with them, allowing you to make them a proposition.
Tips for a successful content strategy:
- Know your target audience (by creating personas).
- Determine your business objectives and the types of content you want to deliver.
- Establish an editorial line.
- Identify the themes to be addressed according to the target’s interests and problems.
- Define the frequency of publication as well as the distribution platforms.
- Make a list of keywords.
- Establish the stages of the targeted purchasing process (awareness, reflection, decision).
Developing an editorial calendar, i.e. planning the design and publication of content, will give you an overall vision of your strategy.
The most important thing in this strategy is to focus on the quality rather than the quantity of content because this helps to develop the confidence of your visitors. The more useful and relevant the content is to your target audience, the more they will find real value in it. Your target audience will then trust your brand and your content and this will lead to new customers and customer loyalty.
Then the distribution of your content should not be neglected. Think of the time and money you put into building your content, it would be a shame not to promote it properly. Establishing an advertising budget on social networks is therefore essential because a paid referencing will be much more effective than a natural referencing.
Our marketing agency Habefast accompanies you on a daily basis to manage your marketing and communication strategy.
The key factors of success:
Quality comes before quantity. It is better to have less quality articles than a large number of articles of less quality.
This allows you to have a better credibility but also to be relevant to reach and retain your target.
In order for Internet users to trust your content, it must be reliable and respect reality.
Put yourself on the user’s side and ask yourself what they are looking for when they go to a website: clear answers, a simple to use site, a quick and relevant experience. It is therefore important to make an editorial effort on your articles. Then think about Marketing and Design to have consistency and generate emotion. Don’t forget that Internet users first do a visual search and then look for content with high added value.
Finally, be patient because a content strategy bears fruit in the medium to long term. Nevertheless, if your content meets your customers’ expectations, your work will always end up paying off.
