07 Sep Are You Giving Your Clients the Content They Crave?
By Jennifer Garrott, Marketing Coach
How many times in the last year have you made a purchase without doing a little online research first? Need to do a repair around your home? Where do you start? Google? Heading to a new restaurant? Better check out those Yelp reviews first.
Consumers today are more educated than ever before. When purchasers research your product or service, what will they find on your website and social media feeds? Do your online platforms simply push products and promote sales or do you give purchasers the content they need to make an educated decision? Better than that, does the content you provide help the consumer? Does it position you as an expert in your field?
Welcome to the world of content marketing. What is content marketing, you ask? Dictionary.com defines content marketing as “a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services.” While we could write a book on content marketing, we’d rather give you a few examples of how to integrate it into your marketing tool kit.
- How-To Guides: Don’t just tell people what they need, help them do it. Imagine you sell lawnmowers. Don’t just tell folks you have the best lawnmower in town. Help them make their lawn the best in town through easy to understand guides; for example, a blog with three tips for sharpening your mower blade or a video on how to adjust your mower blade to the correct mowing height.
- Stories: Do you have a success story on how your product or service helped a consumer? Share it. Ask them to shoot a quick video of their story. Tell their story through a blog and include photos of them with your product.
- Demonstrations: Is there a product or service that is new to your industry? Demo it. When demonstrating, give the consumer tips on how they can integrate the product into their lives. Be honest. If you wouldn’t recommend a product, don’t. Consumers will appreciate your honesty and value you as a trusted brand.
- Games: Can you make your content interactive? Try turning your message into a game. Imagine you’re a professional tutor. A very simple example of this could be to post an image with a math problem and ask folks to comment with the answer or post a piece of text and ask folks to find the grammatical errors.
Remember, don’t just sell. Tell a story. Make your content helpful, easy to understand, easy to access and easy to share!
As always, if you need help creating content, I’m happy to help. Drop me a line at Jennifer@germono.com.
