The potential of good content : What you can achieve with Content Marketing
Content marketing is one of many buzzwords in the industry and hotly debated. Anyone who delves into the subject will soon realise that this is more than just a hyped-up trend tool in the communications toolbox. With good content that is prepared in an interesting way and used effectively, long term customers will be retained.
Content marketing is all the rage and seen as the recipe for success in marketing and corporate communications. In a time of an almost overwhelming flood of information it is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to reach their target audience with advertising messages. Interchangeable, mundane marketing phrases attract hardly any users. Instead they expect to be informed, inspired and entertained by their online research experiences. This is where authentic content marketing comes into its own and brings the entrepreneurial market interests in line with what really motivates customers.
Content via all channels: Reach users at all stages of the customer journey
Through increasing digitalisation, content marketing takes place on almost all channels. Images, text, video, podcasts, infographics, white papers and social media channels are just a few formats in which companies can play with content. Content marketing that is prepared differently captures the spirit of the time and reaches the user at every stage of the customer journey — whether in the inspiration, selection, buying or experience phase. Good content is available everywhere and all times, which provides a significant advantage: In the digital age the customer journey is complex and non-linear. Until the final purchase decision, many phases do not follow one after the other but may overlap or even repeat. There are therefore many touchpoints along the way. Through well thought out content marketing, companies can identify these and be present with relevant information at the places where users are searching.
Conviction instead of seduction
Against this background, content marketing is primarily strongly user-orientated communication. More than ever, marketers have to bring to light and analyse what really interests the target group. Only in this way can relevant content for the user with real added value be created. The strengths of a brand, of a particular product or service are subliminally packaged in a story without intruding.
Compared to conventional advertising, content marketing has its own functional (market) critical advantages: Authentic, credible content does not seek to seduce the customer in an ad hoc manner and prompt him to purchase. Good content focuses on sustainability, is easily remembered and promotes long term customer loyalty at the various buying stages and touchpoints. At the same time the company positions itself indirectly, but all the more effectively for potential customers, because interesting content imparts entrepreneurial expertise, creates trust, gives a positive brand image and motivates the customer to interact with the company.
Content strategy as a foundation
Smart ideas for good storytelling — whether in words, pictures or video — are not enough to carry out meaningful content marketing by themselves. Producing good content also means rethinking supposedly fixed website content, such as product texts, and integrating it into the emerging concept. Anyone who is ready to shift the focus on to the customer in addressing the target group requires a well thought out and well defined content strategy, which we formulate in consultation with the customer.
Key questions that will be addressed in the context of strategy development include the following: What content do I need? Which target group do I want to reach with it? What do the processes of content creation and publication look like? How do I manage my content and how often does it need to be replaced in order to remain relevant? What happens after the content is online? While these questions are not relevant to every customer project, they show how extensive and therefore planning-intensive the process can be.
A set of distinct factors forms the strategic framework that creates a harmonious balance between business objectives, editorial orientation, user requirements, production and editorial processes and technical resources. In addition to business objectives, other things such as conversion goals and the added value for the user will be defined within the framework of the strategy development. At the heart of the content strategy is however the Core Story, which represents the essence of the content marketing of the company. The core story describes the central focus of all the company’s content, defines its strengths and determines which themes are to be played out around these. In addition, key messages and values are set out in the core story.
Operational content marketing is the second step of strategy development and specifies the form in which content is developed and marketed. In this context it is determined which media and formats will be used to bring the core story to life, how and where the company will draw attention to itself and how the company will carry out a dialogue with the target group. All these issues contribute to a clearly defined content marketing strategy. This in turn creates transparency and also facilitates the evaluation of individual marketing activities. The more strategic the approach from the outset, the more clearly and efficiently the goals can be achieved. Looking at the content strategy starts after the editing process — i.e. the preparation and publication of the content and the subsequent ongoing optimisation.
New potential for corporate communications
Lead generation, increasing brand awareness, customer loyalty, improved brand image: Is content marketing bringing in a new era in corporate communications? Without a doubt it is now a current marketing reality with lots of potential. Content marketing offers companies numerous opportunities to get closer to the target group and creates long term relationships with customers and other stakeholders. Content marketing also has a positive effect on search engine optimisation. Once a website has been established with good content, it can generate traffic to it for a long period of time. High quality content is not only for the user, but search engines also prefer unique content and take that into account in their ranking. A comprehensive content marketing strategy is therefore relevant for today’s SEO concepts.
Taking all these aspects into account, content marketing is less a trend tool in its honeymoon period but rather a significant cornerstone of sustainable communication.
