Are you looking for ways to convert members of your target market into clients/customers? Are you looking for the secret sauce for building trust and loyalty between your organization and your client/customer base? Are you looking for ways to impress your clients/customers and convince them to tell others about your products and/or services?
If any of the above three questions apply to you, content marketing is for you.
Content marketing consists of an organization’s planned efforts to create and distribute interesting and valuable content in an effort to engage with the target audience. The ultimate goal of content marketing is to provide valuable information at no cost, build trust, and eventually convince the target audience to purchase products or services. The most popular types of content marketing are infographics, ebooks, white papers, blog posts, videos, checklists, case studies and interviews. Think of content marketing material as the content people like to share with their family and friends via popular social networks.
According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing, but generates three times as many leads.
Let’s consider a common dilemma many people face. Sam just moved to a new city and needs to find an eye doctor. She goes to her favorite search engine website and begins her search. There are five eye doctors within five miles of her new apartment and they all have pretty good reviews. Sam visits the website for the first eye doctor from the search results. The website is pretty plain and does not offer a lot of information. Unimpressed, she tries the second eye doctor’s website. It is super fancy and looks very expensive, but it does not have a lot of valuable information about eye care and eye exams. Still unimpressed, she visits the third eye doctor’s website. This one is different. It is professional and offers an array of free tips about eye care, contact lenses, etc. It even has a short video of the eye doctor explaining what someone can expect during a routine eye exam. The doctor in the video appears to be professional, knowledgeable, caring and inviting. Sam has a pretty good feeling about this eye doctor’s office. She downloads one of the PDFs that explains the differences between single-day and 14-day contacts and watches one more video about dangers of wearing contacts longer than prescribed. She is sold. This eye doctor’s website has an abundance of free content that is focused on educating potential patients, which is a sign that this eye doctor genuinely cares about eye health. Sam calls and makes an appoint for an eye and contacts exam.
Just like Sam in the above example, most people search for free information online when deciding whether or not to buy a product or service. At the same time, organizations create and publish free content to satisfy people’s needs and wants, and eventually win their trust. Organizations with the most valuable content appear to be the most credible and therefore voices of authority in their respective industry. People trust them and want to do business with them. It is a win-win for both sides.
Content Marketing Strategy
In order to become a content marketing superstar, you need a plan of action. This is where Kapok Marketing comes to the rescue. We help you determine what types of content are best suited for your target audience, who will create the proposed content, and how and when the created content will be published and distributed. We ensure your content marketing results will be tracked and analyzed properly so you can use that information along with an action plan to improve and evolve your content marketing strategy with time. We also spend a great deal of time focusing on your target audience, their wants and needs, their personalities, and decision making process and style. For example, people who are in the market to buy their first home take significantly longer to buy a house than someone who is in the market to buy a new vacuum.
Content Creation and Management
Once you have a content marketing strategy in hand, you are ready for the next step in your journey of becoming a content marketing superstar. This is when we start planning and creating the various types of content your organization needs. We begin with content conceptualization and move into the production stage once we are happy with the general goal and look of the proposed piece of content. For example, a blog post about the best ways to keep curly hair frizz-free during the humid summer days would be a great blog post for a local hair salon. A short video of one of the salon stylists showing people how to do a simple fishtail braid would also be great. The video does not have to be an expensive production. Instead, it can be a simple 60-second video recorded with a cell phone. All created content is available for the client’s review and feedback before it goes live and is promoted online.
Content Distribution, Promotion, and Tracking
It is not enough to only publish newly created content on your website. We take it to the next level by increasing its exposure via social media, paid ads, search engine optimization, and email marketing. All of the content is shared and promoted using the correct format for each platform to make sure that it receives the highest reach possible. We also use keep track and analyze the performance of each piece of content, and provide the gathered data to the client. This data can be used to determine what content is resonating with your audience and fine-tune future content to perform even better.
Content Marketing Training
If you prefer to do your content marketing in-house, we can provide onsite training for your marketing staff. We are ready to teach you and your staff how to develop a content marketing strategy, create and manage the best content, distribute and promote the created content, and track and analyze the results of your content marketing efforts. Our training sessions are based on your content marketing goals and can be as comprehensive as needed. They are in half- and full-day formats. We come to you at a time most convenient for you.
Kapok Marketing Can Help with Content Marketing
In case we have not made it clear in the above paragraphs, we love content marketing and we also love helping other organizations with their content marketing needs. It is one of the most powerful ways to build credibility and trust for any organization of any size. There is no better time to get started than today! Our team is ready to create the most awesome content to suit your organization’s personality and target audience needs.