2020 was a year of transition for everyone. While we were still defining our plans and goals for the year, we were stopped dead in our tracks and forced to adapt to new circumstances. Companies have faced challenges they never imagined they would face. They had to urgently resolve internal organizational problems and be creative in order to maintain their activities despite the obstacles. In 2020, the time had not yet come to think in terms of opportunities and projection into the future. But throughout the year, our way of consuming has gradually changed and new expectations have emerged from all sides, to favor local products and brands that are committed to human and environmental values. 2021 represents a turning point in marketing communication and offers a tremendous opportunity for companies to gain the trust of their customers.
Diversity & Inclusion
If there is anything that we already knew, but that has imposed itself on us forcefully over the past year, it is that we are all dependent on each other, equal in the face of a pandemic that has touched every corner of the planet. We have realized that the actions of some end up impacting others thousands of kilometers away. The world has shrunk, and united us in the face of a common threat, paving the way for an increasingly strong demand for intergenerational solidarity, acceptance of different lifestyles, respect for cultural origins and equality between men and women. We find ourselves dreaming of a fairer world, where diversity is not only accepted, but also welcome and a source of collective enrichment1. These considerations are leading politicians to take measures such as the recent decision in Germany to impose quotas for women on the boards of large companies2.
Beyond the necessary political awareness, marketers around the world must also recognize this strong aspiration for a more inclusive society and reflect it in both their communication and the positioning of their brands. The days of uniform communication that should speak to everyone are definitely over.
The representation of a brand must take into account the diversity of the audiences to which it is addressed.
Be careful, however, it is not a question of adapting the existing communication by simply changing a few images: the content and messages must be thought out and written to reflect the lifestyles, the cultural context and the specific interests of each audience. However, in order to avoid stereotypes that would be disastrous for a brand image, a successful message will generally focus more on the similarities between people than on their differences.
For communication focused on diversity and inclusion to be credible, it is the brand’s products themselves that must respond in a relevant way to the expectations of the different target audiences. Before starting such a campaign, every company should make sure that the products it is communicating about carry the values it claims.
Mission & Values
In this world that seeks solutions to an unprecedented situation, companies have a new role to play. Since the onset of the health crisis, many of them have thus been able to adapt and offer products and services that meet new demand, such as the production of health products, home help or even organization of click & collect services. The past few months have put companies back at the heart of a system that can only exist if all stakeholders are respected – employees, suppliers, partners, customers. Obviously, products and services are only relevant if they answer a need or meet a specific expectation, while respecting the environment in which they are offered.
This is how brands, and companies in general, which have all been impacted directly or indirectly by the health crisis, finally end up in having to communicate about their objectives and their mission. Employees themselves aspire to more equality and justice, agreeing on the same societal and environmental priorities, regardless of the continent on which they live and work3. Customers and employees alike expect companies to take a stand and commit to the values they stand for.
In 2021, even more than in previous years, the trust in a brand will be crucial when deciding to buy.
However, this trust is no longer based only on the competence of the products and services, but also on the ethics upheld by the brand. Customers and consumers, led by the millennial generation, are more inclined to buy products from companies aligned with their own values4.
Storytelling & Emotions
It has therefore become essential for brands to communicate their mission and values. To reach their audience, they will avoid using numbers and statistics, but instead use storytelling of coherent facts that speak to everyone. Communication around a new product or innovative service will thus focus on the history of its development, on how the company has identified a need and developed a product to meet it, while incorporating as much as possible positive elements on its social and environmental impact5. The way the story is told and the words used should be carefully chosen so as to allow the public to recognize the values defended by the brand6.
Of course, the effects of this communication will be magnified if it is seen as sincere and genuine. Compassion, emotional intelligence, collaboration, empathy are the essential qualities likely to trigger positive reactions and emotions from the audience. In a time when everyone is looking for reasons to smile, a touch of benevolent humour can also help bond a company with its customers, making them want to watch its ads, read its articles and share the links with their network.
Maintaining a connection with its customers has become a major issue for every business.
A well-told, inspiring and positive emotion-triggering story allows a business not only to communicate its values, but also to show its customers that it understands their needs and demands, and can even help them to achieve their goals. Such a message creates lasting memories among customers and helps build a solid bond over time.
Conclusion
In 2021, effective marketing will evolve to adapt to the current demand for a fairer society, more responsible consumption and more transparent communication. Companies will have to communicate on their mission, their values and their societal and environmental commitments. Through messages likely to trigger positive emotions, brands will thus create a lasting bond of trust with their customers. Engagement, empathy and inclusion are essential aspects of a successful communication in 2021.
You did it! You have used the best of your experience and expert knowledge to design an ingenious product or create a whole new service. Congratulations! Now, how are you going to make your innovation known and understood to the world? Most important, how will you reach your target audience and help them realize that you can solve their problem or fill their need in a different way?
The success of your product launch relies on effective preparation. Invest the same energy and the same enthusiasm in the pre-launch phase as in the creation of your new product: this is decisive for your future sales. Successful product launch marketing requires 3 essential steps that cannot be skipped:
Step 1: Develop the product launch marketing strategy Step 2: Build the product launch marketing plan Step 3: Create the product launch marketing collateral
From target audience definition and communication channel selection, through product positioning and careful planning, until preparation of digital and non-digital material, here is a guideline of the most important product launch marketing activities.
Step 1
Develop the product launch marketing strategy
First and foremost, you need to clarify several key points relating to the launch of your new product, in order to develop a relevant market approach strategy as well as precise and effective communication.
Define your target audience
Your new product has been designed to fill an unmet need or answer a customer demand. This specific need or demand may be very regional or more global, and not relevant to all market segments. The first step of your product launch marketing strategy is to identify the relevant markets and segments for your new product.Afterwards, investigate the leading brands, the market evolution and the competition. What are the technical requirements, the regulatory issues and the current challenges?
At that point, you should have a better idea of who your target customers are. Divide them in different categories, and incorporate insights about their needs, motivations and interests. To go further and figure out who amongst your target audience is the best fit for your new product, take some time to create buyer personas. Put yourself in the shoes of your prospects and customers. Find out their position in the company, their way of working, and the size of their team. Explore their motivations, challenges, and pain points. Consider why they would need your product.
Gather as much information as possible so that you know exactly whom you are going to promote your new product to.
Determine the positioning of the product
Consider your new product features, take a look at competitor products, and examine how your new product solves a specific customer problem in a very different way. If your product is highly innovative and there is no comparable product on the market, think about the customer problem and the way they tried to solve it so far: how will your new product bring them a much better solution than the one they used until now?
The USPs (or Unique Selling Points) are the differentiators that make your product unique on the market. To formulate the value proposition, take the USPs and express in a few words what differentiates your new product from competitors’ products and how it solves a problem or answers a demand from the customers.
Take time to find the right formulation for the value proposition: if you are not clear about it, no one else will be.
Before you go to the market, you need to develop a messaging which includes all aspects of the communication about the new product. It encompasses everything from the tagline until the introduction to the customers, through presentation to the media. Use the buyer personas to check what resonates to your target customers.
Further develop your messaging by writing the story of the new product. Explain how you identified the need or demand behind it, and how you managed to develop a product to help customers in a unique way.
Select appropriate communication channels
Once your messaging and stories are ready, you need to decide which channels to use to spread the word. Take your buyer personas and find out where they typically go to when they need information. It’s a safe bet that they use at least one social media, but consider as well other digital channels, like your website, your blog or emails.
The benefit of using social media is that it can help you reach easily a wide audience.
However, make sure that you target the right one in order to generate useful leads. Otherwise, you may simply not awake the interest of the readers.
The best way to reach your target audience directly is still to send a launch email to your current list of customers, leads and prospects. If you do not own yet an appropriate email list, pay particular attention to your website.
An up-to-date website with valuable and relevant content helps you attract the right leads and convert them to customers.
In digital times, mailing may be a good way to differentiate from competition, create awareness, and arouse interest for your product. Sending a nice brochure, eventually accompanied by some small give-aways, or even a sample of your product if suitable, will make your recipients remember about you.
In most B2B businesses, trade media are very important. Find out the relevant ones for your business and target those with the broadest distribution lists. They are the right place to publish press releases, adverts and promotional articles. In B2C, it is also worth learning which magazines are specialized in your field to reach out to them shortly before the launch.
Finally, trade-shows are generally an excellent opportunity to promote your new products. Both current loyal customers and potential leads will stop by and you will have the possibility to talk about your product. You may also be able to book some speaker slot in the trade-show conference program.
List the marketing collateral
Using multiple platforms to promote your new product increases your chance to create awareness with your target audience. Depending on the communication mix you want to use, you will need a bunch of marketing documents as varied as brochures, videos, FAQ, press release, web pages, articles, blog content, launch letters, launch emails, etc… Make a list so that you don´t miss anything.
Design promotional launch actions
Depending on the nature of your new product, samples may be a pre-requisite before customers take the decision to buy. If samples are not relevant for your business, consider the possibility for your customers to try the product, or at least to see a demo showing how it works.
At this stage of your planning, think also about giveaways, to be distributed during the launch event for example, but also later, when the customers should remember about your brand and product. Design something that is useful or nice and that customers like to use every day.
There are still many ways to get attention to your product.
Organising contests is a popular method to drive interest of your audience.
Indeed, it is interesting both for the participants – as they can win something – and also for you – as an efficient way to collect contact details of prospects. Once again, the selection of the right communication channel is essential to reach people with a real interest for your product.
Product launches are often linked to a commercial action. In agreement with the sales team, you could consider offering a discount during the launch period. Plan it already now, and discuss in detail the quantity and timing.
Consider pre-launching
Whatever makes sense for your business and product – beta-testing or a test marketing phase – pre-launching with the right test users and customers brings you valuable feedbacks. Choose the right timing, when your product is advanced enough to be tested and it is still time either to bring some modifications to it or to rethink your messaging.
Budget your costs
All those activities have a cost. Once you have a clear picture of all the marketing activities needed to support your product launch, it is time to budget your costs and list the resources you need to put in place. Consider how much you want to spend for advertising the product and the launch event, and promoting the product on social media. If you decided to hand out samples or give-aways, they need to be budgeted accordingly. If you have budgetary constraints, select the key marketing vehicle that will work best to reach your target audience.
In any case, keep in mind that you have to invest money in your product launch before you can make money with your product.
Set the product launch goals
Then decide about your product launch marketing goals and success metrics. How will you measure the success and ROI of your product launch marketing activities? Are you for example looking for press mentions? Do you want to attract leads on your website? Do you want people to subscribe to your blog? Use the experience gained after previous launches, if any, to quantify your objectives and the timeframe to get to it. Even if marketing goals are not sales goals, make sure your activities and objectives will effectively contribute to generate real sales.
If you have prepared all of the elements of step one, your launch strategy has a solid foundation and you have all the cards in hand to start developing your launch marketing plan.
Classify the tasks into categories
For a better readability and clarity, your marketing plan should be divided in categories, like launch event, social media, press, website, brochures, samples, give-aways, contests, pre-launch if relevant, etc…
List all tasks under these categories and then divide the tasks in sub-tasks. Make sure you don’t miss to plan any essential step that you could delay all the activities. Indicate the status of each task and sub-task (not started, on-going, completed).
Precise the timing
One of the most important aspect of the marketing plan is to evaluate the right duration of each task and define the right timing.
Organize the work in the order it needs to happen. To know when a task can start, you need to find out the interdependencies between each task: while some can be done in parallel, others need to be completed before the next ones can start. That way, you can adjust your timing as closely as possible to reality.
Assign the responsibilities
Each task and sub-task are assigned to a responsible person. Clear responsibilities, associated with a clear timing, allow to find calendar conflicts from the beginning and discuss the delays with the team.
Besides the task responsibility, you need to understand who should approve before you can move to the next step. Plan extra time to get the necessary approvals.
Share your plan with the stakeholders
Share your product marketing launch plan with your entire team to keep everyone on the same page.
Coordinate the inputs, keep your plan up-to-date and upload it on a platform where all stakeholders have access. Use it to consolidate all your launch marketing and communication activities.
The final stretch before launching your product is to create all the marketing materials that you have defined in your strategy and within the deadlines you have set in your marketing plan.
Design the product visuals
Working on the design of your product brand should happen prior to the development of the marketing collateral. First step is to precise the look and feel around your brand. Define the colours you will use and the images that illustrate your message. Finally design a logo for your new product.
Create a full world around your brand, and check whether it is working in all the media and communication channels you intend to use.
These elements should be consistent to make your product easily recognizable. In addition, don’t forget to get professional photos of your product.
Make the printed material ready
You may have decided to combine digital and non-digital communication channels. Write the text of your brochures, set up the design based on the product visuals and get your documents printed.
At the same time, prepare your launch letter that will be sent together with your brochures to your current customers, leads and prospects.
Also devote time for writing the articles that will be published in trade magazines and finalise the adverts for the promotion in the press.
Prepare the digital material
Start with your website. Create new pages and start creating content to promote your product. If you launch a new product in a space where your company doesn’t have much authority, you may already post in your blog or news section to awake interest and excitement shortly before your product launch.
Prepare the engaging, educational and valuable content (articles, videos) that will be posted during the launch time on your website and social media. Just as your product meets a need, your articles should answer the questions that your prospects are asking. That way, they will become aware of your brand as a reliable resource and recognize you as an expert in your field.
By creating content that answers the questions of your potential leads and customers, relevant traffic will significantly increase on your website.
If relevant, adapt your ecommerce page. Write your product description and include all details needed to order the product in collaboration with the commercial team.
Prepare the launch email that will reach your customers, leads and prospects on the launch day. Increase the open rate with well-thought title and header. Optimize the text for readability with short sentences, keeping in mind what your readers should take away and what action you want them to take. You may consider sending pre-launch emails to announce that you will be launching a new product and create interest.
If not yet done, set up social accounts. Prepare your social media posts. Talk about the reasons behind your new products, your motivation to solve problems.
Be specific, and write messages that suits to the social media, resonates with your audience and are easily shareable.
Draft the press release
You can do more with a press release than just sending it to journalists. You can link it to social media and add it to the news on your website. Note that it will still appear in the results of the searching engines months and even years after the product launch. So, write it carefully. A great press release should tell your product story. Write an attractive headline. Put the most important information right at the beginning. Follow with secondary information and end with company description and contact details. If you have conducted beta programs during the pre-launch phase, include customer product endorsements in your press release.
Prepare your press pitch and train some internal key people for media interviews, like the product and business managers in charge of the new product, or like technical and scientific experts if relevant.
Write articles that you can supply to trade journals. If they are informative about your field, or if they are linked to an advertisement that you will publish in the same journal, you may be able to publish them for free.
Organize the events
Whatever event you have selected to launch your product, you need to prepare it well in advance. If you organize or participate to a physical event, such as a tradeshow or a conference, design your booth, prepare the promotional material, choose and train your speakers.
If you stage an online event by going live via video on social media, organising a webinar or showing a life demo, plan it in detail and give it a try before the big day.
In all cases, make sure your target audience hears about your launch event in advance via social media or trade press, and send them invitations per email.
Train the sales team
When a product is about to be launched, it is crucial to train sales and distributors on the product features and messaging. Make sure they understand how to sell the product to various buyer personas and prepare the slide deck for customer presentations. Prepare a sales pitch that stands out. Bear in mind that buyers might receive many requests every month about new products. Train your sales people to present it. Put together a Q&A to answer the questions customers may ask them. Don’t forget to train customer service teams as well on the new product details and provide them with necessary support materials.
Finally, inform all people involved in the product launch about the timing. Make sure that everyone is clear and aligned about what they have to do during the launch period. Ensure as well that your teams feel impatient and enthusiastic about the launch to come!
Launching a new product is an adventure that needs to be carefully prepared. Well-planned product launch marketing activities are essential to the success of your launch. Do not skip the strategic part. Be accurate in the definition of your target audience, the determination of the value proposition and the selection of the communication channels.
Start well in advance of your product launch date to set up all activities and prepare the documentation that will be needed during the launch phase. Do not forget to train and align your teams before the big day.
With a good anticipation, you will just need to roll out the launch activities following your plan and the launch of your new product will run smoothly. In conclusion, plan enough time for the upstream activities: the better your preparation, the more likely your product launch is to be successful.
After the golden age of advertising as the best way to generate sales, it appears that customers and consumers expect now something different from the brands. Today, we all wish to make conscious choices before buying. We want to inform ourselves about our alternatives. Reading or watching content has become the new normal before making a purchasing decision.
And the result is clear: although content marketing costs are 62% less than traditional marketing, it generates about 3 times as many leads1, and conversion rates are nearly 6x higher2. Looking at such numbers, it seems obvious that in specific situations, content marketing makes the difference.
Whether you have just started a new business, you are about to launch a new product or service, you need to educate your customers, you want to position yourself as an expert or you are working in a very competitive environment, you will benefit from content marketing. Let’s discover how.
1. You’ve just started a new business
Build trust and brand awareness
As a fresh entrepreneur, one of your main preoccupations is probably to get your brand known. Content marketing is the most effective way of building awareness to your targeted audience.
By creating content that answers the questions of your potential leads and customers, relevant traffic will significantly increase on your website. Just as your products meet a need, your articles answer the questions that your prospects are asking.
If you publish consistent, targeted and quality content, your prospects come back to your page when they need information. They become aware of your brand as a reliable resource.
Learn to know your prospects
Indeed, engaging, educational, and valuable content contributes to create a relationship between your business and your audience. Moreover, it demonstrates that you know your topics and establish you as an expert in your field. You gain the trust of your leads and customers when you understand the issues they are facing and you bring them the right answers.
Being aware of your prospect’s issues is necessary to develop useful content. The other way around, content marketing also helps you to better know them. By tracking which content is the most successful, which articles people share, which eBooks they download, you are able to finetune your content strategy.
Content analysis is an excellent way to gain insights that you can use to create accurate buyer personas and better understand your market segments.
Be cost-effective
With time, your content is becoming very targeted to your prospects, making it more effective than traditional advertising, that rather reaches a broad, non-specific audience. It is now well established that content marketing generates about 3 times as many leads as traditional marketing and advertising campaigns1.
In addition, content marketing is not only great for lead generation, it’s also affordable. Even if you outsource your content marketing or need to hire someone, typically costs are less than the half of outbound marketing tactics.
Maximize ROI for small businesses
Small businesses, especially when newly launched, often rely on traffic on their website to find leads, convert them into customers and develop their sales. Efficient content attracts quality leads, who share the content they like on social media and within their network, participating in increasing brand visibility.
Content marketing is very powerful if it delivers the right message to the right audience and at the right time.
It is also proven to influence conversions. Once customers get used to come to your page to find answers to their questions, they are more likely to buy from you when they need a product or service related to those questions.
For small businesses, which need to optimize a limited marketing budget, content marketing is the preferred tactic. Since it is affordable and highly effective, it leads to an excellent return on investment over time.
If you are about to launch a new product or service, you certainly budgeted advertisement somewhere in your promotional plan. Although paid ads can still help to acquire customers, they are becoming less and less effective. Indeed, nearly half of all web users are blocking ads today3.
In 2020, customers and consumers wish to make informed choices before purchasing. This is true both for B2B and B2C. Answer questions, give information, be helpful without asking your reader to buy from you, and you build a relationship with your audience that becomes trust after a while.
Solve a problem
Your new product or service has been created to solve a problem or fill a need. Your targeted audience is spending time looking for a solution to that specific problem, mostly on internet. To attract qualified leads to your website, give them answers to their questions through well-documented, educational and consistent articles, eBooks, webinars or videos, without explicitly promoting your products or services.
To attract the right leads, your content should align with your product or service: both are there to answer the same questions, solve the same problem and offer appropriate solutions.
Sharing your knowledge positions you as an expert in your field, builds trust with your prospects and increases their awareness for your brand. Efficient content marketing efforts result in attracting qualified leads, stimulating their interest for your solutions and converting them into buyers.
Generate qualified leads
With launching a new product or offering a new service, your ultimate target is to increase sales. To achieve that, you need to attract qualified leads that are likely to buy from you. Content marketing helps to build awareness and increase traffic with users who are searching for your particular offer on the web.
By publishing the right content for your target audience, only people who are really interested in your business see it. It means that you are avoiding a profusion of unqualified leads that you may generate with other marketing tactics. Your sales team can focus on following up leads with ideal buyer profiles, saving time, energy and money.
Improve lead conversion
By reading your content, your audience collects the information they need to make an educated purchasing decision. At the same time, their connection with your brand increases. It is only natural that they reach out to you the day they are ready to buy.
To facilitate the process, your content should guide your audience throughout the customer’s journey until purchasing: awareness, consideration, and decision.
In the awareness stage, your visitors have just realized they have a specific problem. You provide them with general blog articles that explain ways to solve it. While reading your content, your visitors recognize your expertise and start to trust your brand.
In the consideration stage, your visitors evaluate the different solutions to their problem. At that point, they come back to your website and look for more detailed information, like longer articles, eBooks or videos. They already consider your brand as a potential resource to help solve their problem.
In the decision stage, your visitors are now able to make an educated choice, and see your brand as expert in the field. To simplify the conversion of your leads into buyers, your content should always include calls-to-action. CTAs guide users to a landing page like the description of the relevant products or services, and finally to your contact page: your leads are ready to make the last step.
You did it! You used the best of your experience and expert knowledge to design an ingenious product or create a completely new service. Congratulations! Now, how will you let the world know and understand your innovation? Most important, how will you reach your target audience and help them realize that you can solve their problem or fill their need in a different way?
Highly innovative businesses request more than just communication: they need customer education.
Targeted content is an excellent platform to provide explanations about unique ways to solve a specific problem.
Publish targeted content
People looking for information around that problem will naturally land on your page. This is the best opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and show that you can provide answers. Without directly promoting your products or services, you provide your visitors with free content especially designed for the purpose of educating them about a specific topic and innovative solutions.
Build understanding and trust
With such type of content, you are not only educating your audience, you are also building trust in your expertise. Customers’ trust is important for all companies, but it is crucial if your solution is brand-new, so that people follow you and are ready to try something they never tried before.
In order to build trust, your content needs to be very informative and educational. Your articles, and more generally all material available for your audience, like eBooks, videos, etc… should explain the context of the problem, tackle the opportunities and challenges, the pros and cons of the different solutions available, and give all information necessary to help understand the innovative part of your solution.
Convert prospects into advocates
Your content should be designed to support your brand through all stages of the buyer’s journey: awareness, consideration, decision, loyalty, and advocacy. Depending of the stage, your potential customer has different questions about the product or service that you are offering, from looking for general information in the awareness stage to commercial details in the decision stage. In addition, each content should include a well-timed call-to-action.
Even after the purchase, your content still has a role to play. To ensure customers’ loyalty, continue to publish information they may find useful, like how to best use your product. As marketer of a brand-new product or service, you may especially rely on word-of-mouth to develop your sales.
In the advocacy stage, make sure that you provide your customers with content that they can easily use, forward or repost to recommend your product.
Throughout that process, your leads and customers share information about themselves, that allows you to offer personalised content and nurture your relationship with them. Informed, educated and satisfied customers are your best brand ambassadors.
You are working in a challenging field with major or sensitive issues, like health, nutrition, science, security or safety. Or maybe you offer high-tech or complex technical solutions. To gain the trust of your potential customers, it is key that you demonstrate that you are an expert in your area. Even if not the only one, content is an excellent way to showcase your expertise.
Each time you publish articles and other educational material, you are demonstrating your experience and expert knowledge. You show your audience that you own your subject. They realise that you know the context, the issues, the challenges, but also the opportunities, and you are able to give valuable information and answers.
Focus on quality over quantity
While it is important to publish regularly to keep the interest of your leads and attract them on your website, if your objective is to be recognized as an expert, you should pay particular attention to the quality of your content and all material you make available to your audience.
Whether you are working in a field that is sensitive (like health) or very technological (like cars), your potential customers want to know that they can fully rely on the information you provide.
The same is true if you are working in B2B, when the quality of your customers’ products strongly depends on the quality of yours.
Build brand authority
Regular, consistent and high-quality content brings leads to your site and builds trust in your expertise. Over time, your content is commented, shared, reposted and back-linked, increasing your brand exposure and authority. In addition, you can further enhance your brand authority by asking industry or health organisations to approve your content, or collaborate with key opinion leaders or influencers.
Creating useful, educational content, together with being active in your community, can bring your audience to consider you as a thought leader in your industry.
Publishing quality content also helps build your website authority online. When the traffic on your website increases, search engines are likely to rank it higher, contributing to boost your brand visibility further.
Turn visitors into customers
Whether in B2B or B2C, we all want to deal with experts who understand our needs and issues, and are able to bring the right solutions. Make sure your content meets the expectations of your potential customers, and they will naturally turn to a brand they trust when they are ready to purchase.
Whether you own a local small business that needs to compete with major brands selling similar products, or you are working in a field together with many other players, you are looking for the best way to set your brand apart from its competitors.
Content marketing helps to show your audience what makes your company special and different from its competitors. Based on the information they receive from you, your potential customers will make a conscious choice between you and your competitors.
Develop your brand personality
Your brand personality plays a role in the purchasing decision. How do you want to position your brand? Serious, professional, fun, committed to a cause? Your content should reflect your brand personality.
The type of content, the tone you use to write or speak, the way you structure and present the information, that all contributes to anchor your brand’s personality in the minds of customers.
Connect to your target audience
Your brand is unique and so is your content. They especially resonate with your target buyers and show them what makes your business special compared to competitors.
Keeping on creating content around the value of your brand establishes a relationship with your target audience. Over time, you attract leads who understand better and better what differentiates you from the others.
Once it is time for them to purchase, they choose a brand they trust – in this case yours – over a competitor’s brand.
Cultivate customers’ loyalty
Satisfied customers strongly contribute to a positive brand reputation. The service you provide after the purchase participates to their satisfaction.
Publish contents that are useful to people who already bought your products, like guides, how-to videos or other types of visual contents explaining how to get the most out of your products or services.
Moreover, repeated sales probably represent a significant part of your company’s revenue. Helpful content helps you to strengthen your relationships with current customers, encouraging them to rebuy and making brand advocates out of them.
When your content is informative, useful and valuable for your customers at each stage of their buyers’ journey, they share it on social media. It generates backlinks and more traffic on your page. Your website’s authority increases and it ranks higher in search engine results. So, keep your site content relevant and up-to-date. Don’t forget that your competitors are probably doing so as well!
If your business is in one of the situations mentioned above, it is easy to understand how content marketing can make the difference. An efficient content marketing strategy develops your website traffic, propels your business to the top of search engine results, increases your brand visibility and finally boosts your sales.
Now that we all want to make more conscious decisions before purchasing, it is time to make informative and educational content available to your customers. Give information and answer questions around specific issues related to your business. Post it in different places to attract the relevant audience. Establish your brand as a trusted authority in your industry and yourself as a thought leader. Boost your visibility, build strong relationships with your leads and convert them into buyers. Keep on publishing consistent and high-quality content, and you will be rewarded with customer loyalty.
Content marketing is a long-term strategy that requires a variety of formats, valuable content and well-timed publication in the right places. Whatever the size of your business – start-up or market leader, start now and develop a content strategy with the clear purpose of connecting with your targeted audience. Content marketing is more than a trend, it is the foundation of your digital marketing strategy. It is riskier to do without it than to invest in it.
