Content marketing: everything you need to know and why you should implement it in your business

Nowadays, due to the large amount of networks, information and internet access that we have worldwide, knowing our customers and knowing how to sell to them has become an issue that we must pay more and more attention to. To achieve this, we have content marketing on our side.

Here's what content marketing is all about : what it is, what it's for, the benefits, why it's necessary and why you should start implementing it.

Let's get started!

Before we start: what is marketing?

Marketing is the set of tools, processes, strategies, knowledge and actions with which you recognise how the market behaves, what your customer's needs are and how they are satisfied by your product or service.

What is content marketing?

According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI): Content marketing is a marketing technique for creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience, with the goal of driving profitable customer action.

Who creates this content?

Usually, advertising agencies (external to the companies) specialised in this area or in-house companies (small groups focused on marketing within the same company).

Where is this content shared?

Distribution channels include social media, the company's website, mailings, apps, streaming platforms, print publications, among others.

What do you gain from content marketing?

Reach your target audience with content of interest that increases sales, company recognition, proximity and interaction with users, which in turn generates greater loyalty to your brand.

It's the perfect formula: interesting content + happy customer = guaranteed sales.

Why is content marketing important?

Today, the way we learn about products or services is different from the way our parents and older relatives did. In the past, long TV commercials, radio spots and newspaper ads were the most common way to learn about what you could buy. Now, although they are still used, for digital audiences, they are much easier to avoid.

Product sales and the need to get more customers, moved from physical to digital media, here lies the importance of content marketing: it is created thinking about how audiences interact with the virtual world.

4 Benefits of content marketing for your business

1. Create a community around your brand

It doesn't matter how big your niche is or how many customers you have at the start: every product and company has a story to tell, a raison d'être, so you will always have people to empathise with.

Nowadays, thanks to the virtual world, people can be reached more quickly and effectively, so community building around your brand can be easily created.

Whether it's because they share common values, they really like your company's product or service, or they identify with your publications, it's now easier to connect with your customers.

2. Show how your products or services solve your customers' needs.

Whether through videos, images, animations, podcasts or live broadcasts, you can present, however you want and however it is most convenient, all the qualities and benefits that your product or service has for your target audience.

As the company publishes this information, it becomes authoritative and accessible, providing potential consumers with a source that is both novel (in terms of format) and easy to use (by hosting it on your website or social media).

3. Establish closer relationships with your customers

Goodbye to communication being exclusively one-way.

Although commercials and guidelines are still used to sell products or services, social networks have allowed for quick and, in many cases, efficient communication when it comes to resolving doubts or reading the customers' annoyances or difficulties regarding the brand or the purchase of products.

Having direct channels of communication facilitates closer relationships and a sense of the company's concern for providing better services to its customers.

4. Nurture your potential customers

What does that mean? By giving them specific information about your product or service, its benefits and about your company (values, objectives, closeness to customers), they will have more knowledge of what they need, what they want and how they want it.

In this way, they will avoid products of lower quality or that, being more accessible, do not provide them in detail what they need. In this way, they will be able to make a purchasing decision based on what they have learned about their needs and the benefits you bring to their life with your products or services.

What is necessary for content marketing?

Content marketing is not just about writing and creating pieces that have an attractive or eye-catching design. To be truly effective, you need to map out a concrete path by which you can achieve this. That path is called a strategy and, without one, you won't know how much of your company's money and effort is paying off or not.

Every strategy, every content marketing must have the need to provide benefits to the company. How can this be achieved? By being clear about the objectives to be achieved and the metrics that will be used to measure its success.

Knowing how your consumer behaves will help you understand what motivates them to choose a certain product or service, this is called consumer psychology.

Objectives and metrics:

They are the first part of the strategy, the beginning with which you start to shape what needs to be done. They are also part of the end of the process, since, with the objectives in mind, the metrics can resolve whether or not they were carried out.

Objectives you can have:

• Reduce cost per sale.
• Increase engagement with the company.
• Increase sales.
• Generate more sales of a specific product.
• Increase customer lifetime value.

Metrics to measure your potential targets:

• Number of reactions to publications.
• Social media followers.
• New newsletter subscribers.
• Cost per customer acquisition.
• Number of sales made.

Buyer persona and market niche

Knowing what you want to achieve, the next question to ask is: who is going to help you achieve all this? And no, even if you think of the advertising agency, this is where the niche market you are in and the creation of a buyer persona comes in.

The buyer persona helps you generate detailed data on the habits, needs and problems of your niche.

Situation 1:

You are a dairy company planning to launch a yoghurt with no added sugars to increase your target audience.

Initially, your age range should be people between 20 and 35, especially women, who work or study and want to feel healthy.

This description can also be useful for a restaurant, a skincare shop and clothing shops, why? Because it is too vague, it does not define how your new product will help them in their daily life.

Situation 2:

To get to know these women in depth, we conducted a series of interviews with company employees, customers who filled out a product satisfaction survey and volunteers who passed through a selection filter.

After the questions, you manage to create the following profile: Ana María is a 26-year-old woman who works full time in a bank, enjoys going for walks on weekends and, as her daily routine is sitting in a cubicle, she seeks to eat tasty and healthy food that is not so expensive, as natural or low-sugar products are often beyond what she can use within her budget.

Having Ana Maria's profile, you know her needs: an easy-to-carry product that is not expensive. With this, you can bring out your yoghurt without added sugar in a 120 ml presentation.

The more detailed the buyer persona is, the more you will be able to create targeted actions so that all women with similar needs to those of your buyer Ana Maria will buy your new product.

Sales funnel:

In the sales funnel you will be able to determine which stage you want a certain number of posts to respond to, i.e. how many in the customer attraction stage, how many posts are considered necessary at the point where the customer is considering a purchase and how many posts will convert that consideration into a purchase decision.

Regardless of your goal, the conversion funnel works like this.
Attraction: you manage to get into your customer's view.
Consideration: your customer starts to follow you and become interested in your products or services.
Conversion: the customer generates the action you wanted, whether it's sharing the brand, talking about it, buying your products or services.

Content marketing distribution channels:

You may want to cover every channel in which you can communicate, but you need to consider their use and the need to use them.

Blog:

Here you have the opportunity to attract potential customers and increase traffic to your website organically and without resorting to search engine or social media advertising.

Social networking:

It is perhaps the fastest and most direct contact you have with your customers, it is the window to what you offer and the most effective means they use to search for your trends and content.

E-mail:

Although many consider e-mail marketing to be dead, the reality is different: informative newsletters and one-off offers by mail are a growing trend that helps to increase sales.

Search engines:

The important thing here is to know how to use keywords in favour of what you want to offer, to design attractive images that give value to the product or service and to create short and effective sentences.

Examples of content

To suit all tastes? The colours.

There are many types of content that every company can use to attract more customers or to build customer loyalty.

Below, you will see various types of content applied to different markets, taking into account where they will be published and whether they are paid or organic.

Where to host content?

As you might guess, content marketing needs a place to host everything it produces. When creating it, you need to consider which places on the web are the most suitable for each one and if it is going to be done by paid means.

Social networking:

It is the first place where many people think their content should be published. Why? Because there is a large audience waiting for them. Whether it is LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram, there is always a social network for every type of company and product or service.
In addition, they allow a wide repertoire of content: photography, infographics, videos, gifs, stories and much more.

Around 47% of shoppers view 3-5 pieces of content before starting the buying process.

Website:

You can also publish relevant content on your website that attracts your audience. Whether by creating blogs, courses, or exclusive content, having a nurturing website that is easily visible and has quality content will organically help you to be more relevant to search engines.

Companies with a blog have 67% more potential customers than those who do not generate this type of content.

Search engines:

Search engines are a model that thrives on organic and ad-supported search engine rankings. Organically, a page with valuable content, important keywords for your niche and a fast loading time is much more effective for positioning than one that lacks all this.

When they are advertised, they can appear in the searches that potential buyers carry out for a specific product or service.

They are the perfect support for content marketing.

Mails:

Mails are both a format and a messaging network service. Nowadays, it is used to offer exclusive promotions to frequent and potential customers. In this way, you can build customer loyalty and attract those who were undecided.

Formats

Thanks to the different places to publish content, the variety of content has been increasing:

Podcast:

Content that is increasingly on the rise. Through it, expert speakers present all kinds of topics to all kinds of audiences. Highlights include entertainment through comedy; education on current and complex issues; and expert discussions of different positions.
A format that is growing in audience and has a lot to offer.

The figures don't lie: in 2020, podcast consumption among 14-64 year olds was 41%.

Infographics:

They show valuable data and information in a way that is easy to understand. Easily developed concepts, simple language and an eye-catching design - these three make up a good infographic. Their importance? It allows the whole audience to get to know an educational and/or complex topic quickly and easily.

Videos:

Along with images and photographs, it is one of the contents that never loses its relevance and that, thanks to the technological advances in audiovisual production, continues to be one of the best ways to present products, services, benefits and brands.

Did you know that 69% of consumers prefer to see a new product on video rather than in other formats?

Photographs:

Another classic of classics that will always remain relevant. Photographs allow a quick and concise demonstration of the benefits of a product or service. It shows before and after, after the use of a specific product. It is also much easier to obtain than a video.

Blog:

Another conventional medium that, by providing so much information and being able to use images and other resources within it, remains relevant in 2021. With blogs you have a universe of possibilities and ways to position yourself organically in search engines.

Studies confirm: 82% of companies that have structured, frequent and informative blogging as part of their content strategy see a positive return on investment (ROI).

Organic or paid?

This question is necessary in order to decide which site to use. Paid content ensures that there will be a greater number of leads.

However, it should be noted that for a marketing strategy to be effective (increase sales, increase the number of followers, finish auctions of a certain product), it is best to handle both organic and paid content.

Did you know that quality content is attractive and responds to the needs of your company?

The best formula: organic and paid content

They are the allies you need to attract new customers and continue to delight the ones you already have, why? Because they are two direct channels for attracting customers.

Situation 1:
You are a company selling jeans for men and women, you post several times a week, between regular posts, questions and answers and satisfied customers. You currently have several ads on Instagram: one focused on pregnant women (new product), one on men and one on women.

With three customer segments, you will catch a large number of potential users. However, in case they want to know more about your company or products and can't find enough content, you're in trouble.

Instead, if these three potential customers go to your profile, notice that you have featured stories by gender (women's and men's products) and several posts about the new jeans for pregnant women, they may quickly move from considering buying from you to doing so.

Inbound marketing and content marketing

Inbound marketing is here to stay: it is one of the most important customer acquisition methodologies today, do you know why? Because it avoids the invasion of the digital spaces of the potential customers you want to attract with your content.

Content marketing must respond to the need to attract new customers without abusive intrusion to networks and user search. How? Informative images, videos with promotions, infographics explaining the benefits of the brand and much more.

Inbound marketing is the what and content marketing is the how.

Content marketing: how do we do it at Digital 57?

Case 1: Annabella

Annabella is an American company specialising in buffalo milk-based products. It approached us with the challenge of using digital media to promote the sale of its high-quality products (A2 milk) in the US market.

To achieve this challenge, Digital 57 created a content marketing strategy to demonstrate the differential values of the yoghurts, mozzarella cheese and arequipe they sell. We strengthened the content of the blog and its social networks, highlighting the benefits and uses of the products for the community that buys them and wants to buy them.

To learn more about our Annabella success story read more here.

Case 2: Location World

Location World is a multi-Latin company, focused on GPS satellite tracking services for all types of vehicles: from motorbikes to heavy cargo. For them, their main need was to start attracting new customers who had a large vehicle fleet.

To achieve this objective, at D57, we set up a content marketing strategy with which we seek to strengthen your blog and social media content, to improve search engine positioning and communication channels with your customers.

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