How to Build a Content Marketing Strategy That Converts More Customers
It doesn’t matter how incredible you or your products are. The only thing that matters for the customers is how you will resolve their problems. The main purpose of digital content marketing is to provide valuable solutions beginning with education and ending with your services or products. Honestly speaking, other marketing platforms can’t do this thing. It all starts with enticing content.
Now, you know the value of content. All you need to do is to develop a great strategy to create enticing content for your products and services. How do we resolve customers’ actual pain points? First of all, you need to set a target to resolve their pain points. Here, your purpose should be clear without any purpose of forcing them to purchase your products. If they need your products, then they will definitely buy them. If you resolve their problems, then sales will automatically come. Whether you have a team of professional content writers, you must build a plan to create the right content.
Below, we have mentioned crucial answers to some essential questions that can help to create an impactful content marketing strategy. So, let’s dive in.
What is a Content Marketing Strategy?
Creating and distributing content that gives value to your customers is referred to as a content marketing strategy. It means your customers’ pain points are the main subject of your content. It is a pool of information that addresses their problems. As a result, you can attract potential customers to your platform. This kind of content marketing is very helpful in boosting your customer base as well as your net income. Content marketing can quickly boost the demand for your products and services.
Is Content Marketing Really Helpful?
Compared to other methods, content marketing helps increase the conversion rate by 6X higher. Almost every B2B business uses digital content marketing to attract more customers. According to marketing experts, your chances of getting a customer’s attention will be higher with the help of valuable content marketing. This process could be time-taking, but the end results are always positive. The best thing is that you can use your digital content marketing strategy on other activities to boost their performance.
What is a Content Funnel?
When it comes to introducing your brand and products to your target audience, a content funnel can play a big role. It consists of three phases such as TOFU (Top of the Funnel), MOFU (Middle of the Funnel), and BOFU (Bottom of the Funnel). The main purpose of TOFU is to introduce your services and products to the MOFU, where customers can evaluate your products. BOFU is the last step of this funnel which highlights the post-purchase stage.
In the B2B segment, users often make buying decisions step by step. After addressing one problem, a new one comes. Your target is to offer high-quality content to your customers so that they can easily understand the worth and value of your products. It is like dating someone and introducing them to your family later. Sounds logical?
Marketing is all about building relationships, and content marketing play a huge role. Valuable content can add significant value to a product. That’s why it is crucial to understand the buying pattern of your audience so that you can effectively build relationships with them.
It is imperative to show your audience that your products can offer the solutions they were looking for. Some customers only look for solutions, but some go for quality. You should track your customers to figure out their requirements. As a result, you can improve your data and products. When it comes to conversion rate, Amazon has outperformed its competitors.
Harmonizing Your Content to Your Funnel
The importance of content in your funnel is crucial in converting your potential customers into loyal customers. You have to set your strategy carefully according to your customer’s perspectives. Below, we have discussed each funnel type in depth.
Top of the Funnel (TOFU) – Awareness | Content Marketing Strategy
This mainly focuses on increasing brand awareness. In this section, you have to highlight your customers’ requirements and show them how you can solve these problems. The following types of content will work best for this funnel.
· Blogs – If you want to show your expertise comprehensively, then you should create high-quality articles. You can also think about answering questions because it provides solutions and engagement at the same time. It is one of the most effective ways to educate your audience. You can also give them suggestions. It will ultimately increase engagement.
· Social Media Posts – If you want to highlight your products, then promote your products on social media platforms in the form of posts. Social media platforms are very helpful in this regard and can provide the right direction for your business.
· Infographics – If you want to present your content in a simplistic but appealing manner, you should consider infographics. It is really helpful for customers who are not interested in lengthy articles or blogs.
· Video Clips – Right now, video clips, especially short clips, are very attention-grabbing. They can easily increase the curiosity of the audience with their motion effects and appealing visuals. Plus, you can share your video content on your social media handles and websites.
It is excellent to attract a new audience that doesn’t know you. All in all, you have to show your business and increase the curiosity of your customers in this type of funnel. In this way, you can positively impact your customers, and they will remember you for a more extended period.
Middle of the Funnel (MOFU) – Consideration | Content Marketing Strategy
In this section, your audience identifies you and encourages the effort or services you offer. They make up their mind to take advantage of your services to solve their problems. The following content types are helpful in MOFU.
· Videos – Videos are very helpful content that can work for any type of brand of service. You can represent everything in a video and can educate your audience. You can represent your ideas and useful information in a video. This kind of valuable content will create all the difference.
· Podcasts – Podcasts are getting hype these days, and you can incorporate them into your funnel strategy. Your audience can listen to your podcasts while they exercise, drive, etc. In podcasts, you can talk about the pain points of your audience and the solutions you are giving them in the form of products or services. It is a simple way to educate them and offers great engagement.
· eBooks – You can develop eBooks or guides to enhance your integrity. It is a fact that people love to get free things, and you can provide information in the form of eBooks.
· Webinars – People can interact with you with the help of a webinar. In this segment, you can discuss your strengths and focus on services. They can also ask questions, and you can replay them instantly.
It is not imperative to provide solution-based information. You just need to solve a particular pain point and share some possible solutions. The idea is to support and educate your audience.
Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU) – Decision | Content Marketing Strategy
At this point, your audience will start thinking about why they should select you or your products. In this section, you have to personalize your content to influence your audience’s decision. Here, you can use the following content formats.
· Emails – In order to focus on customers individually, emails are one of the most beneficial tools. You can send valuable content along with services and offers through email marketing.
· White Papers – With white papers, you can clear the concerns as well as doubts of your audience.
· Case Studies – It shows real and fact-based data about your business that shows how you solve problems. In this study, you can identify the challenge and offer solutions in the form of your products or services.
· Success Stories – To attract customers emotionally and personally, you can share success stories. It involves highlighting your achievements.
· Testimonials – Your satisfied customers can endorse or verify your products or services. It is a great way to build trust.
In this section, your products or services come into focus. Good content marketing can provide relevant information to your customers to convince them. It should focus on the pain points of your customers.
Post-Purchase – Retention Marketing | Content Marketing Strategy
After converting your potential customers into customers, you have to put all your efforts in building brand loyalty. It is hard to retain your audience, keep them happy, and engaged. The following content formats will help in this regard.
· Personalized Emails – With personalized emails, you can show your customers individually how much you care for them.
· Social Media Campaigns – With the help of social media campaigns, you can retain your customers by showing new updates, offers, and quotes.
· Blogs – Blogs are one of the best ways to inform your customers about upcoming features, developments, trends, and events.
· Webinars – Webinars offer instant support and education. You can instantly solve issues by introducing new solutions. You can also educate your customers on how to utilize your products more effectively to solve their issues.
· eBooks – With eBooks, you can keep your customers informed about industry practices and statistics.
How to Develop a Content Strategy?
The main goal of creating a content strategy is to bring potential audiences to your platform instead of going out and showcasing your services or products. The foundation of your content is based on real and reliable facts. Do not add fake data to entice customers. Your content should contain information that resonates with your customer’s requirements, issues, state of mind, and values. This is the only way to keep them coming back.
The 4 W’s of Content Marketing Strategy
Before creating a content marketing strategy, you must find out the 4 W’s of content strategy. Generally, they are 3 W’s and one H. By figuring out these; you can easily develop a valuable and relatable content strategy.
· Why? – You have to determine the purpose of your content in this section. Your purpose should consist of educating and supporting your customers. Determine what they want and what you can offer. Solve their queries by giving satisfactory answers. You can also provide the proper guidance to your audience.
· Who? – Who’s your target audience? Find out for which audience you are creating content. Who can take advantage of your content? Try to develop content that revolves around customer personas. In this way, you can effortlessly create relevant content.
· What? – What kind of content should you develop? This section should revolve around this question. In this section, you have to find out how you can build trust in your audience.
· How? – How to develop and distribute your content? This process involves content creation and distribution. You have to determine the proper channels to distribute your content.
1) Develop Buyer Persona
This persona showcases your ideal buyer. The main goal is to develop a buyer persona to uncover the needs and requirements of your potential buyers. You have to fulfill their needs, mainly to win their loyalty. You need to understand who can benefit from your services or products. Then, unearth their needs, desires, fears, pain points, and habits. It will give you a direct understanding of your audience. You can go ahead if you want to create more than one persona. It helps to create personalized and relatable content. So many services allow you to create a buyer persona online and for free.
2) Outline Your Content
You have to audit your entire content in order to efficiently strategize your content strategy. You need to develop a compressive overview of your content and mention every item highlighting the kind of message, target audience, content, and topics.
In content marketing, you have to target the right person at the right time. By mapping out your content, you can easily conduct the following things,
· Designate each part of the content to a specific segment in the funnel and ask whether it answers the questions correctly or not.
· It helps to discover gaps in the funnel. As a result, you can easily decide what to include, exclude, or re-adjust.
3) Find New Opportunities for the Content
Finding new ideas is one of the most challenging feats that every content creator experiences. If you are creating a content marketing strategy, then you have to come up with new subjects, topics, and ideas every time. You can’t survive on a particular idea or topic for a more extended period of time. With new ideas, you can create valuable content for your customers. All you need to do is to target all the personas and cover all the stages. You must figure out what your audience wants to see or listen to. Here we have mentioned some essential factors that your audience wants to see,
· Social Listening: You need to discover the latest trends and hashtags on social media to see what people want. In this way, you can find a specific topic for your content marketing strategy.
· Groups and Forums: Do your research to find out what people find in industry-related groups and forums.
· Competition: Check your competitors’ performance or content strategy to check out what they are doing to attract their audience. See the response of their audience and make your content strategy accordingly.
· Content Performance: You should monitor the performance of your content using web analytics.
· Customer Support and Sales: You can take the help of your team members and sales representative to find the ongoing concerns of the audience.
4) Develop Your Content Summary
You need to create a brief summary of your content highlighting your key points and main topic. If you are exploiting a video marketing strategy, each of your videos should start with the same intro. This is necessary to get recognized. You can define certain guidelines for creating a summary of your content. You should cover the following things to develop your content brief,
· Type of content
· Purpose
· Target customers
· Keywords
· CTA
· Funnel stage
· Length
· Main topics
· Links
· Competitors’ content
5) Incorporate SEO into Your Content
When it comes to digital content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) plays an important role. It is helpful to bring organic traffic on your site or channel. They help to rank your content in a better way so that your target audience can easily find it. In order to target the potential audience, you have to conduct keyword research to get recognized. You can add internal links to your content to strengthen it in terms of SEO. The entire content marketing is based on this structure.
There are so many advanced keyword research tools out there that you can use to improve your rankings. They are very useful in driving organic, and you can take the lead from the competitors.
6) Choose the Right Distribution Channels for Your Content
If you have successfully created content with the help of this article, then it is impressive. Now, you have to present your valuable content in front of the target audience. It could be an intimidating process but not for tech-savvy people. However, this process requires maximum planning.
Before distributing your content, evaluate the outcomes. Choose the proper channels for distributing your content. You need to figure out where people usually hang out online. Targeting any platform with the maximum number of users will give you and your content the correct exposure. If you can afford paid media, then you should consider this.
It is worth remembering why you have created specific content. You must define your target audience and their pain points and include solutions in your content.
7) Navigate Your Content Strategy by Creating an Editorial Plan
The success of this kind of marketing is heavily based on consistency. If you are not consistent with your posting, then your audience will no longer remember you. In order to maintain the flow, you have to strategize your content publishing strategy. In this matter, you can take help from a content calendar and an editorial plan. It helps you to obtain your goals by meeting deadlines and tasks.
You have unlimited data in the form of content. How efficiently you post it to stay in the competition is up to you. Your team has to set a particular frequency with your team to utilize your content strategy in the right way. The schedule publishing details in your content calendar are to be consistent. You can also develop a separate social media calendar to plan it more effectively.
8) Make a Checklist for Your Content Marketing Strategy
To be honest, creating a content marketing strategy doesn’t involve any rocket science. But it is not that easy. It varies from business to business. You have to include key points and keywords in your content to get the maximum advantage. The following steps will help you to create a checklist for your content strategy.
· Develop buyer personas
· Do keyword research
· Outline your content
· Choose distribution channels
· Set specific goals
· Creation of content
· Set a particular budget
· Track content performance.
9) Monitor the Data
It is imperative to track your data to understand what is working for you. You should monitor your traffic, metrics, engagement, and conversion rate. However, you have to use the correct data in this regard to get the right insight. Clearly define your goals and set a particular target for your content marketing strategy.
10) Review and Optimize the Performance of Your Content
A content marketing strategy is like a circle that never ends. After creating content and publishing it, you have to track your content in order to analyze the performance. As a result, you can make improvements accordingly. Follow the latest trends to find out what’s trending out there. Then, create trending content to drive organic traffic and engagement on your site. All in all, analyzing and optimizing your content is crucial.
Do you want more advice? Do you have good practices to share? Express yourself in the comments.
Moreover, if you want any help in writing content to drive more traffic and boost conversions, get in touch through Contact our team.
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