Consumers see a sales pitch from a mile away. They’re hit by them all too often on social media where ads are abundant. They’ve learned to spot posts that might appear to be interesting content but quickly reveal themselves as inauthentic pitches for a product or service. Content marketing strategies should work to inform the target audience, not just be a sales pitch for your product.
Content marketing has many key purposes, from establishing trust and loyalty to defining the company culture of your brand so the consumer can establish a personal connection. The problem many brands have is that they fail to develop the right messaging. You can avoid this by following a few simple rules.
Know Your Voice
You know what you do better than others, which is why you should create content that provides an authentic voice from a trusted expert in your field. Creating loyal customers involves developing your brand’s voice, which should be consistent in all your content, regardless of the distribution channel.
Audience Awareness
If you’re failing to make any headway with your target audience, you’ve probably failed to do enough research into who they are and what they want. When you pinpoint their interests and needs, you can develop content that speaks directly to what they require.
Fine Tune your Strategy
The Content Marketing Institute found that 63% of businesses don’t have a content marketing strategy that’s actually documented, which means these companies have not drawn out their plans in terms of reaching marketing goals. They might have a goal in mind, but without written directives, there is no consistency, and likely little in the way of planning the creation of content that will be influential to consumers.
A good strategy involves plenty of research into the target market, determining the language most suitable for getting attention among individuals in the market segment and delivering content in the most effective way.
Gaining the trust of consumers has never been more difficult. They demand more personalized services and have no time for content that comes off as a sales pitch or advertisement. When you work with a content marketing professional, you can sidestep all the guesswork and deliver thoughtful, influential content that will provide value.
That’s what we offer at SJC. Our marketing professionals can positively impact every phase of a marketing campaign, from research on the target audience to building a strategy to developing content. Contact us and let’s work together on improving your customer relationships.