Choosing the Right Type of Business Content for Your Marketing
Most businesses now know about the power of content. But not all content is made equal.
Different types of content serve different purposes and audiences. So content, for content’s sake is not the best way to run your content marketing strategy.
What type of content marketing should you be creating? Which formats will work best for your audiences? Where should you be activating it for maximum effect?
These are all valid and common questions when approaching a content marketing strategy… and it all starts with understanding your audience.
Knowing your audience is crucial to building out a strong and effective content strategy.
You need to know a couple of things before you start producing any content.
Firstly, you need to have a very clear understanding of your audience’s habits, behaviours and browsing patterns. What are the things they like? What don’t they like? What are their preferred channels?
There’s no benefit in creating a series of long-form blogs and whitepapers, when you’re audience prefers video content. There’s also little benefit if ploughing resources into channels and outlets that your audience simply does not exist in.
Understanding your business in relation to your audience is also very important.
You need to identify the needs of your audience; their pain points and what motivates them to take action. Then you have to overlay this understanding with content ideas on how you can answer those questions and fix their problems.
When you clearly understand these things, you’re on the first step to developing a content strategy.
Next, you need to understand the buying journey.
Principles such as the 95 – 5 rule outline that only 5% of your audience is ready to purchase at any given time. 95-5 states, that because of this, you should not spend all of your time and efforts trying to convert that 5%. Rather, you should spend it engaging with the other 95.
Now the buyer journey does vary from business to business. For some, it can be days, for others, years.
So what this means, in real terms. Is reducing the amount of hard sales content marketing you produce, in favour of more content that builds relationships, and loyalty and fosters engagement.
Producing high-quality content is great. But if all that content does is try to land a sale, your audiences are going to become very fatigued, very quickly.
Finally, you need to understand and clearly establish your unique value proposition (UVP).
What sets you apart from your competitors? What makes your products or services unique?
By understanding your UVP, you can create content that showcases your unique strengths and differentiates your business from others.
This is what’s going to make you stand out!
With an understanding of your audience’s interests and your own UVP, it’s time to start thinking about what content you can make,
A well-planned strategy will help you create content that resonates with your audience, aligns with your business goals, and sets you apart from your competitors.
Content creation is an extremely helpful way to drive prospects through the buying process, but also an incredible way to build brand loyalty. Rather than think about the quick wins, you should be thinking more in the long term.
Think about ways you can engage, entertain, delight and educate your audiences, rather than just trying to make a sale.
It’s not about conversions… it’s about conversations.
So, the Million Dollar Question… what kind of content should you be making?
Well the answer to that question, should become apparent once you’ve done all the appropriate strategic research and planning.
Depending on the content format and type you choose, you can appeal to buyers at different stages of their journey. From awareness and consideration, through to the final decision, different content types can have varying effects.
At the awareness stage, potential customers realise that they have an issue that needs a solution.
They won’t be looking for answers at this stage but will turn to search engines and social channels to contextualise their problem.
The best type of content that would help generate leads at this stage is top-level informative and relevant content that will explain their problem, concern or situation. It won’t seek to offer immediate answers and solutions or try to push the issue.
It’s about educating and informing… and you can do this in a number of ways.
A blog post or article falls under the category of awareness stage content. Writing blog posts allows a marketing team to target a specific pain point or problem that your audience is experiencing. You may also use search engine optimisation to target keywords that match the search turn. This will assist you in creating valuable content that search engine users may find, in turn potentially generating leads.
White papers are a form of long-form material, similar to blog posts. However, they differ from blogs in that they provide a comprehensive answer to a specific issue. They can be used to inform, clarify and educate prospects during the awareness stage. They are especially helpful for B2B companies because they cover specific issues related to the industry.
For the awareness phase of the buyer’s journey, the following types of video content work best:
Keep these videos short, educating and engaging not hard selling. The goal is to present your best content, as the solution to the viewer’s problem and make them aware of your brand.
This stage of the buying process is when your customer starts to think about which service or product to solve their issue.
With extensive research and careful consideration of all available options, it is regarded as the lengthiest phase of the buying process. During this phase, your content marketing strategy should include quality content that is as informative as possible, but content that also flexes your knowledge and expertise around the question at hand.
Social media can help reveal more about your product and brand.
It can also be the place where your audience can discover more about your brand’s reputation. Social media has an impact on consumers at the awareness stage, but it can also move people from the awareness stage to the consideration stage.
Successful social media marketing, for instance, can show competitive value, increase brand awareness and facilitate decision-making.
For the consideration phase of the buyer’s journey, consider the following types of video content.
These videos should educate the audience about your solution, address their specific problems and differentiate your offering from competitors. The goal is to build trust, give detailed information and convince customers your product or service is the solution to their problem.
Email can be utilised at any point during the buying process, but it’s most effective during the consideration stage.
Your customer might not be prepared to make a purchase at this time. But any queries they might have can be addressed in your emails. Email also allows you to learn more about your audience. Click-through-rates, web traffic, bounce data, email opens and behaviours on your site can provide valuable insights.
To move buyers through the process, you can start introducing your product or service in more detail.
This is the most valuable stage of the consumer buying process.
It’s where the buyer will evaluate all of their options and decide on the right provider for a solution. At this stage, your buyer knows about your brand through reading your social media network, digital content and high-quality blog posts, and now intends to make a purchase.
Here’s how you can make a difference at this stage
Offering a trial is the best method to address any last-minute queries your customer may have about your service. It’s like how car dealerships give test drives. Many software companies free trials to potential customers to give potential customers increase their customer base and widen their market appeal.
Because it appeals to your customer’s fear of missing out, a coupon or voucher is an excellent marketing strategy for the decision stage. Your customer is already fully informed about your company or product at this point in the process. They are now seeking an excuse to make a purchase. At this point, a short-term offer or deal can frequently earn their business.
A case study can be used in both the consideration and decision-making stages of the buyer’s journey. They’re essentially a kind of research report that focuses on how your solution helped business at another company. They’re excellent for demonstrating how and why your good or service is superior to those of your rivals. By analyzing these case studies, businesses can identify gaps and areas of improvement which can then be utilized to enhance their own strategy.
For the decision stage of the buyer’s journey, the following types of video content work best:
These should be high quality, short and focused on getting the prospect to buy your product or service. Get them to take action.
Creating content is always designed for the personality and interests of your target audience segments.
But always remember the 95-5 rule, not everyone is ready to buy from you right away. Warm up your audiences and work hard to endear them to your brand during this incubation period.
Wherever you post your content, be it on YouTube, LinkedIn or Facebook use proprietary analytics to monitor the reception of your content. Different channels often have different windows of opportunity for the most effective posting.
Test and learn with this, mix up your posting schedule and try to learn what times work best for you and your audiences.
Now, you’ll likely have noticed the repeat mentions of various types of video content throughout the buyer journey.
Video is more than just a useful tool for conveying information. Video is one of the best ways to tell a story It also has the highest interest level out of any other content form. Making it one of the most valuable and effective parts of your content marketing efforts.
Video content is incredibly versatile and offers a wide variety of creative opportunities for video marketers. A YouTube video, for example, can educate customers on how to use a product, while also entertaining and engaging.
But, there can often be some confusion and concern about producing content like this. You want to be producing quality content. But a lot of people correlate quality content, with extremely high production value and an associated high cost. That’s not always the case.
For example, TikTok can be a very effective source of video content throughout the buyer journey. But TikTok videos don’t need massive production value… if anything, lower production value content works far better here, than something slick and shiny!
YouTube, is becoming increasingly important and quality is important here. It has to look great and something people always overlook, it has to sound great too!
If you’re committed to making video content, know also that sweating the assets is a good thing. Just because you’re making a YouTube video, doesn’t mean it should just be a YouTube video. Consider how you can slice and dice your assets to be used on different channels.
The greater your format variety, the greater your chance of cutting through.
Measuring and improving performance is critical for content marketing success. By tracking your performance, you can identify what’s working and what’s not, and make data-driven decisions to improve your strategy.
To measure performance, you need to track key metrics, such as:
By tracking these metrics, you can identify areas for improvement and make adjustments to your strategy.
To improve performance, you need to analyze your data and identify opportunities for growth. This may involve:
By continuously measuring and improving performance, you can optimise your website content creation and activation, ultimately driving better results.
Content marketing isn’t about creating content for content’s sake – it’s about strategic storytelling that resonates with your audience. The key is knowing your unique value proposition and your audience’s journey, and focusing on the 95% who aren’t immediately ready to buy.
In the vast world of content creation, video content is king, it’s versatile and highly engaging across all stages. Remember, it’s about conversations not just conversions.
The ultimate goal? Content that educates, entertains and connects with your audience!
AMBITIOUS by name and by nature, we are a PR led communications agency that delivers integrated strategic communications - online, offline and everywhere in-between. Proud to be crowned winners of The Drum Magazine's RAR Best PR Agency of the Year.
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