What Nobody’s Telling You About Content Marketing
Content marketing has lost its purpose.
Its purpose of being authentic, valuable and helpful.
Content marketers seem as they have lost sight of why we were creating content in the first place. The result? We have unintentionally caused content saturation by producing more information than people can possibly consume.
What’s the purpose of content marketing?
The main purpose of content marketing is to build an audience by providing non-promotional, valuable information to attract attention and build trust.
How? By:
- answering questions
- meeting people’s needs and providing them with solutions through relevant information
- educating customers about your products and services
- creating and providing transparency through open, conversational content
So, when done correctly, content marketing is clearly beneficial and crucial when it comes to building an audience.
Now, let’s have a look at some facts about content marketing that will help you see things differently than just “we need to write because we need content on the website or blog”.
Quantity will never be above quality. That’s why when you are writing your content have the following aspects in mind:
- Create content that solves the problems, needs and pain points of your target customers. It shows them you actually care. It shows you put their needs above yours. After all, it’s not about you, it’s always about them.
- Focus on creating good quality content. This will improve your reputation and your customers’ perception of you. The switch in how people perceive you won’t happen overnight, but you’ll definitely see beneficial results.
- Whatever type of content you’re creating, make sure you’re consistent with it. Post on a regular basis.
- If you’re not a good writer but you want to create content on your blog or somewhere else, just hire a freelance ghostwriter. Or use a digital marketing agency. Whichever one meets your needs best and whichever you can afford. Don’t get stuck in delivering relevant, educational content just because you can’t write.
- The beauty of content marketing is that it allows you to build relationships with people who enjoy the same things you enjoy, or who need help with things you can explain and provide. When you know exactly who your target audience is, you’ll know how to solve their pain points as well – which means your content will be relevant and needed.
- Another great thing you can use content marketing for is teaching others what you know. So, if you want to make living out of this, content marketing is an excellent tool for that.
- When writing articles for your blog, keep in mind that your blog needs to contain useful and relevant information about your product, service or your brand.
- When you write an article, post your real name under author. Allow people to get to know you, the person behind the article. Why? Because people don’t visit your blog to see your logo on author pictures and your brand name on author names. What they want is to see the picture and name of a real person – someone they can associate your brand with. People need to see the human behind the brand. Like this. ?
Image crop via EveryoneHatesMarketers
In fact, let me show you something fascinating regarding the importance of putting a face to your brand. Why is it so important not to overlook this aspect. Why is it so important for your audience to associate your brand with a human. A human they will eventually get familiarized with and love.
What I want to show you has to do with a discussion at Inbound, where someone asked Brian Dean (founder of Backlinko) what is the one thing he’d suggest to those who are trying to build an audience from scratch.
Well, his answer may surprise you. ?
Image crop via GrowthHub
What’s the first point he mentioned in his response? “Make your blog a personal brand (even if it’s a company blog)”.
And how do you make it personal? People.
Here’s what Brian Dean says: “So no matter what, put the people that write for you front and center.”
Consumers want brands they can trust. And the way you gain their trust is through transparency and the authenticity of the human touch behind the brand.
In fact, according to studies:
- 35% of survey respondents say that “trust in the brand” is a top reason to shop at a retailer (PWC Global Consumer Insights Survey 2018)
- 91% of consumers are willing to reward a brand for authenticity (Cohn & Wolfe’s 2017 Authentic Brand Study)
- 86% of consumers consider authenticity as an important factor when deciding what brands they like and support (Stackla)
The bottom line is, consumers want authenticity, they want to trust your brand. And the best way to achieve that is through genuine content that helps them relate to your WHY as a company, to your values and to your solutions that would meet their needs and solve their problems.
So, it’s not just about writing content, it’s about the message behind the content. How relevant and authentic is it? How helpful and needed is it? Find the answers to this and start crafting the best possible content with your target audience in mind.
What’s your next move in your content marketing strategy? If you need help, get in touch with our team.