The Magic Of Content Marketing

Content Marketing is one of the channels for startups to grow. Well-constructed content attracts the right customers. Discover 5 Content Marketing best practices to get your business off to a good start, and find out why it's inappropriate to propose before the dinner is over.

Content Marketing in numbers

According to HubSpot statistics from previous years – up to 82% of marketers are actively using Content Marketing, and 70% are actively investing in it. According to WordPress data – every month, 70 million new posts and more than 77 million comments are created worldwide. That's a gigantic amount of diverse content that reaches a huge audience.

I use the term „content” on purpose, instead of „words”. Content can be textual, graphic, video or audio.

Content Marketing – one of the definitions

According to The Content Marketing Institute* Content Marketing is a specific marketing approach that focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content. The content is supposed to attract customers, interest them enough to become members of our community and, ultimately, persuade them to buy our product or service. In short: content is supposed to help us make money.

How does the content work?

Why do we create content at all?

• Because we want potential customers to learn about us.
• Because we want potential customers to become interested in our products and services.
• Because we want them to go from being potential customers to simply becoming customers and buying something from us.
• Because we want them to become active members of our community and recommend us to others.

Let's imagine the following situation.

• Mr. X has a problem – he is looking for product Y. He spends hours digging through the Internet and comes across your blog.
• From your posts, it appears that you are developing exactly such a product.
• Your post is so well written that it encourages Mr. X to take further action – to sign up for the waiting list. So he goes to the specially created landing page and clicks on the "I want it!" button. Congratulations, that's your first conversion!
• So you keep working on your product, and in the meantime – you send Mr. X other content to make him remember you. Maybe pictures, screenshots of the stages of work? 
• When you finish working on the product – you immediately inform Mr. X that he can already buy it. You announce it everywhere you can be seen and heard – website, mailing, Social Media. You may even team up with someone to announce it.
• A few clicks away, Mr. X enjoys your solution and you enjoy the profit. Now Mr. X is on the list of honor and will get more content – about updates, changes, plans for further development. As long as not too much and not too often, so as not to lose your subscriber. You can send him a survey asking him to evaluate the product / sales processes, or asking him to give feedback.

Could this story have happened? Of course, it happens all the time! Customers search, content entices, creators sell. Non-stop.

Will the content earn itself?

For content to monetize, it needs to be valuable, relevant and consistent, and address the needs of customers who want to spend money with you.

If you create exactly the kind of content mentioned above, you will easily build your sales funnel with it. At each stage of the funnel, you will provide different content, using different distribution channels.

1. The top of the funnel is the attention getting stage, so focus on education, product information and discussing issues that customers may be facing. 
2. When you manage to acquire comments, referrals – serve up more expert content. Maybe you can organize a webinar? Create an interesting PDF to download?
3. The activation stage is building a community (followers), including mailing lists and subscriptions. Here, the content will need to reassure the customer that they did the right thing by choosing your services and products.
4. What you show and convey at the retention stage will turn into further conversions. This must include sales and circular texts, comparisons, and sales-supporting content (e.g., a list of arguments for your products / services, which you will only share in a personalized message, not in the landing page content).
5. The revenue stage should be accompanied by content with the message „you made the best choice”, „you chose an expert”. If you build trust here and let yourself be remembered positively, you can count on positive feedback.
6. Fill the recommendation (after-sales) stage with content: „thank you for choosing us”, „what else can we do for you”, „we are here to help you”. Include requests for feedback, surveys, ratings – you'll gain hard data from which... you'll create further content.

Which content format to choose?

What form of content will reach your client? It really depends – on many factors, including:

• on the product/service specifications;
• on who your customers are – taking into account industry specifics and demographics;
• on the chosen distribution channel;
• on your financial resources – texts written for SEO are like wine – they age and gain strength, while PPC campaigns resemble champagne – they are expensive and quickly go to the head (of the audience!);
• on what you want to communicate in the first place.

In our list, you will surely find a form of content that meets your needs.

5 best practices to get you started

Your content will work for you if you let it – tailor it to your audience, properly dress it in form, and send it out into the world through the right channel. And where's the magic from the title? In the conversions!

Use these 5 best (and proven!) practices, for a good start to your content journey.

Split content into core and promotional ones

Identify those forms of content that will best correspond with your product/service, but be sure to consider your target audience – their demographics and needs. Choose a maximum of 2-3 types of content that will be your core content. Create them on a regular basis, and to them, you will occasionally create promotional content.

Example:

• core content = blog post "Why doesn't your content marketing work?"
• promotional content = SM post with an invitation to a webinar "Why doesn't your content marketing work?" (Facebook + LinkedIn + Twitter)

Manage creation time

Don't waste time creating content that will be useless. Not everyone needs to shoot videos, record podcasts, or pore over specialized sources to create an expert post. Set your Content Plan and its timing guidelines and stick to them. Limit yourself to those forms of content you clearly defined at the beginning – repetition is also a form of credibility building.

Tailor content to your audience's needs

The content must be adapted to the level of the audience each time. It is not just about the language and style of communication, although these are undoubtedly basic elements. Content must be tailored to changing information needs and to the stages of the decision-making process.

Avoid the conversion gap

Treat the content like an exquisite engagement dinner.

• First something light – an apéritif, a cold appetizer, an SM post, an invitation to a webinar.
• Then something more substantial, a hot appetizer – a blog post.
• After a light warm-up – soup – filling, but also leaving a space for something a bit more concrete – mailing list, subscription.
• Main course – „visits” on a sales landing page.
• Content consumed? That's still dessert – landing page content to encourage buying, nailing down objections, social proof.
• Finally, the digestif – the „I'm buying!” CTA, and then your official proposal – conversion! And they lived happily ever after.

Don't try shortcuts! Not only will you lose credibility, but also the chance to build a lasting relationship. Forever. Selling is like a ring – serve it in a beautiful package, in a nice atmosphere – don't drown it in the soup or stuff it in the dessert!

Update, recycle, replicate

• Be more eco-friendly, recycle your content! Already having a blog post? Turn it into a presentation and use it during a webinar. Having a recording of a webinar? Turn a long video into several short ones, turn it into a digital product, sell it in parts, or take screenshots and add it to SM posts.
• Search engine robots love changes, so add updates to blog posts.
• Don't be afraid to replicate posts on SM using sequences – e.g., „I'm inviting you to a webinar in 10 days” / „I'm inviting you to a webinar in 3 days” / „I'm inviting you to a webinar tomorrow” / „I'm inviting you to a webinar in an hour” / „The webinar is starting!” / „Thank you for being with me on the webinar”.

One final piece of advice

The world of marketing does not exist without content and still uses the „encourage / care / propose / sell / count profits” scheme. And although the formats and tools are changing (about how to measure the effects of content – another time), the statistics say clearly: content was, is and will remain important.

And that final piece of advice for a good start? Be patient. Publishing even the most valuable content does not guarantee immediate conversions. But without that valuable content, no one will pay attention to you at all.