Content Marketing: Building a relationship of trust by Laura Lynch
Valuable content, delivered for free, in order to establish a relationship based on trust.
What’s the best way to kill a bad business? Good marketing.
Your content has to be worthwhile • If it’s not providing value to your audience, they’ll go elsewhere • If your content is misleading, you damage the relationship of trust you’re trying to build • No amount of good advertising or marketing will make up for a bad product
Your content is not about YOU. Common mistakes include: Constantly selling • Talking only about your • products and services Talking above the heads • of your audience
Put your audience first • Their attention is a gift • Don’t waste their time with bad or misleading content • Focus on being of help to them
What is the purpose of content marketing? • The main goal is to establish trust and brand awareness. • You don’t expect to sell the entire time: if you do, people will grow tired of you. • Instead, you’re trying to position yourself front-of-mind for when someone becomes ready to buy. • In the meantime, you’re putting yourself forward as the best person for the job based on the quality you’ve already delivered.
Can anyone do content marketing? • My budgeting app convinced me to sign up for their newsletter so that I could get updates on their vlog series, so: probably yes. • But to demonstrate, I’ve tried to come up with a really subject to try out a content marketing scheme. • Therefore:
How do you do it? • I’ve come up with a content marketing strategy for a mid- sized tire company, based in southeast Michigan, named Terry’s Tires. Terry’s Tires can’t expect to be selling tires to any individual customer • more than once or twice a year (because of how long tires last). How can Terry’s Tires build the best relationship with their audience? •
Know your audience • Who are they? (Age, education, knowledge level, B2B or B2C) • What are they looking for? • How can you help them? For Terry’s Tires: • Independent car owners (post-college to retirement) • Not gearheads • Local pride
Potential content streams • Blog/vlog • Social Media • Facebook? LinkedIn? Instagram? Twitter? • eNewsletter • ebook • Podcast
For Terry’s Tires: • Start with a blog • Broadcast on Social Media (Facebook and Instagram) • Potential for a future email newsletter
What can Terry’s Tires blog about?
Think beyond the obvious: inspire • Tires will only get them so far. • It’s important to think about your market more generally • What can your services help people DO? • So for Terry’s Tires, what can tires DO for their customers? • Where can tires take them?
What about other car stuff?
What about where you can go?
How do you know if it’s working?
Establish your criteria for success • Brand awareness • Increased foot traffic • Sign-ups to email newsletter • Growing social media following • Higher-quality leads filling out a contact form
Be willing to experiment • Try different times/days • Test different content types • Consider your method of delivery (platform)
Content Marketing is like a workout • It takes time and patience as you establish a routine that fits • There are no shortcuts, it is hard work • Don’t count on your content to go viral • Like a workout, there are extra benefits…
Added benefits of content marketing • SEO • Extra resources for customer service • A place to interact with your customers (even if they don’t follow you) • You become better at your job
Recap • Being a good content marketer means delivering value without obliging your consumers to buy • Value usually comes in the form of information , instruction , or inspiration . • It can be delivered in any number of ways: through blogging, social media, video, podcasts, email, etc. • You use people’s engagement with content to measure interest: who is worth following up with? • Be persistent and customer-focused at all times.
Valuable content, delivered for free, in order to establish a relationship based on trust.
Thank you! @darjeelingblend
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