Content Marketing 101

June 29, 2012 by RobR Printer friendly

Content Marketing. We are hearing the phrase everywhere these days but what does it mean?
 
Content marketing is about giving your target audience good, relevant, current information that educates. It makes prospective clients more informed buyers. It helps them understand the issues they need to know about when trying to solve a problem. And it shows that you understand their problem and are the right choice to deliver the solution.
 
To us here at Webbuilders Group, Content Marketing is all about:

• Educating your existing and prospective clients so they can make the best decisions for their business
• Building your credibility and affirming your skills, experience and knowledge 

Done right, Content Marketing will:

• Build trust and confidence with your targeted clients
• Reduce objections to a sale – keep in mind, you have to know what the objections are, so you can educate
• Provide lots of opportunity for trusted word-of-mouth referrals – if your content is interesting and valuable, people will want to share it with their peers
• Create great SEO value for your website (when you start talking about things people are searching about, you inherently increase your potential to be found)
• Build a permission based opportunity to engage in an ongoing relationship with your customers and prospects

Content marketing is about generating regular and worthwhile information. It’s staying on top of trends and issues and offering your take on them. It’s about giving your prospects a reason to stay in touch with you.
 
So, how do you keep coming up with new content? Why not write about:

• an important industry trend
• a change in legislation that will impact your customers
• a hot topic that people are having trouble understanding a common customer question or sales objection
• a checklist for clients to consider when hiring a supplier in your industry
• the top 10 reasons to ……..

How do you get your content out there (on the web)?

• Regularly publish new content on your website (make sure your site is built in a content management system so you can do this in-house)
• Publish a blog (its really easy to add a blog to your CMS built website)
• Distribute a regular newsletter (make sure you offer lots of opportunity to sign up for future issues)
• Produce a  white paper that’s available for download
   
  Then move on to external avenues:
• Post to your company Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages
• Guest post on an industry colleague’s blog
• Post a response to relevant external blog, or comment on an industry forum.

Don’t forget the marketing part. Content Marketing should lead to a call to action, whether that’s a sale, a signup for your newsletter, submission of contact information in exchange for your white paper, etc. If you provide interesting, relevant helpful information on a regular basis, your sales prospects and existing customers will want to stay in touch.
 
Webbuilders Group regularly partners with great content marketing strategists and copywriters. If you need a name, give us a call.