The buzz word these days is Content Marketing. But what
exactly is it and how can a business implement its use to bring value to their
customers?
Basically, content marketing is publishing information
through various media outlets that will educate your customers. The benefit of
publishing good content is that your targeted audience will come to rely on you
as an information resource to base their decision making upon. It is important to understand that content
marketing is more than just information about your products or services, but
relevant and useful information that will be used to develop opinions about
your business and help to build a relationship with your customer. Think about
how often you search for information before making a purchasing decision? Your
customers do the same, so it is important to position yourself to be a credible
resource for your customers.
I am sure you are thinking “sounds like a great idea, but how
do you go about publishing relevant content”? As usual, it takes some planning
and the first thing you need to do is develop your content marketing strategy. There
are four main areas to consider when doing so: Audience, Media, Timing and Topic.
Audience:
Who is your intended audience? This relates back to who your
target customer is. You need to understand your customer, what their needs are
and their purchasing patterns are. I tell my clients that you need to know your
customer like you know your mother. What do they like and dislike? Who do they
go to for an opinion prior to making a purchasing decision? Where are they
located? What is their age, income and education level? Once you understand
your target customer, it is easier to determine what media to select, when you
should publish content and what topic would be of benefit to your customer.
Media:
Where does your target customer go for information? Would they read a newspaper, look for on-line
reviews, articles, videos or blogs? Do they reach out to their friends and
families for recommendations? Would they like to get their information
delivered to them in an on-line newsletter? If you are not sure, ask them when
you see them or send out a small survey. Or, just research the various social
media resources and see who are using them.
By “googling” the various types of social media for statistics on who is
using them you can determine the best media to publish content on for your
target customer.
Timing:
How often should you publish? Depending on what medium you
are publishing to will dictate how often you need to publish your content.
Twitter and FaceBook could be several times a day, blogs at least weekly, LinkedIn
can be every couple of weeks, and on-line newsletters can be monthly or
quarterly. Realistically, think about how
often you can develop content and publish it? This is a big task and often it
needs to be delegated or shared among several people. Starting a weekly blog may seem like a good
idea at first, but remember there are 52 weeks in a year!
Topic:
Most importantly, where are you going to find relevant
content? After publishing for a while you can run out of ideas to write about.
Places to look for content are trending topics, newspapers, blogs, or your
customer’s tweets and posts. What are they talking about and interested in?
This is where you can find topics to publish content on that will be of
interest to your target audience.
Remember, developing and implementing a content marketing
strategy is a lot of work, and requires planning, but the rewards can be
tremendous! If you would like more information on how to develop a content
marketing strategy, call the SBDC to schedule a consulting session or look on
our FaceBook page www.facebook.com/AthensSBDC
for up- coming classes, tips and trends for business owners.
Laura Katz, MBA, is a Consultant at the University of
Georgia Small Business Development Center and specializes in marketing and
business development. Ms. Katz can be contacted at: 706.542.7436 or lkatz@georgiasbdc.org.
