4 Steps To Great Con­tent Marketing

The buzz­word “Con­tent Mar­ket­ing” is a new term for an old con­cept - it is about build­ing a re­la­tion­ship with a customer. 

It means find­ing a way to com­mu­ni­cate the value of your prod­uct by find­ing out what your tar­get au­di­ence is in­ter­ested in, and why.

Just like meet­ing some­one on a blind date, if the at­trac­tion is there you can build on it by find­ing out what is im­por­tant to the other per­son. It is what is said, and how you say it, that is important.

B2B  mar­ket­ing is more spe­cial­ized and com­plex than sell­ing straight to a con­sumer.  When sell­ing from one busi­ness to an­other busi­ness, you can­not al­ways know who is mak­ing the de­ci­sion to buy your prod­uct, how many opin­ions will weigh in on the de­ci­sion to buy your prod­uct, which, if any, of your com­peti­tors they are also con­sid­er­ing. You must be sure of your facts about the po­ten­tial client’s busi­ness be­fore you go in.  It is as if you are on a blind date with the blind date’s best friend, who is vet­ting you be­fore her friend meets you. 

The right con­tent is so im­por­tant for your mes­sage.  This line of mar­ket­ing is very much de­vel­op­ing a re­la­tion­ship. It takes work and it is on­go­ing.  Here are some step-by-step  to help you find a sus­tain­able and, im­por­tantly, gen­uine source of dig­i­tal con­tent for your marketing.

1. Know What You Want And Who You Are Talk­ing To

This is Sales and Mar­ket­ing 101.  Be­fore we start any mar­ket­ing cam­paign, we need to look at what we are look­ing to achieve from our new mar­ket­ing cam­paign. Typ­i­cally, the de­sired ef­fect of the mar­ket­ing cam­paign would be lead gen­er­a­tion and in­creased profits.We want to at­tract peo­ple and mo­ti­vate them to buy our product. 

So,  who do we want as our clients?  What are they like? 

Look at what you are of­fer­ing.  What prob­lems does your spe­cific prod­uct or ser­vice re­solve?  You need to learn all about your cus­tomers for ef­fec­tive and sus­tain­able con­tent.  You will want your con­tent mar­ket­ing fo­cused, not on telling what you can do, but about your ser­vice; that you lis­ten and care. 

• What is­sues or prob­lems are they find­ing frus­trat­ing or tak­ing up time? 
• What are they spend­ing money on that they prob­a­bly wish they weren’t? 

You have the so­lu­tion and can the mar­ket­ing cam­paign is to prove so.

2. Know Who You Are And Who You Have Up Your Sleeve

Today’s ef­fec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion is about in­te­gra­tion be­tween Sales and Mar­ket­ing. Find out about the cus­tomer from the peo­ple at the coal­face - be it in store, out on the road or over the phone. 

• What are peo­ple saying? 
• Is there a prod­uct that con­sumers are re­quest­ing more often?
• What com­plaints or ob­jec­tions are they fielding? 

It shouldn’t be sur­pris­ing that your sales peo­ple can come up with new and in­ter­est­ing things to share about the com­pany and its clients.  With time, you will see that tap­ping into Sales and your em­ploy­ees for con­tent will prove fruit­ful - and have a lead-on af­fect of mo­ti­vat­ing your em­ploy­ees and help­ing them feel val­ued and ex­cited about con­tribut­ing to the pub­lic face of what they do every day. 

3. Mea­sure Your Suc­cess And Build On It

If some­thing works, build on it.  Turn a blog into an ebook, a dy­namic sales pre­sen­ta­tion into a YouTube video on your web­site.  Mea­sur­ing your con­tent mar­ket­ing suc­cesses, and those not quite as suc­cess­ful ef­forts, will help guide you as you learn what tunes your au­di­ence into your prod­uct and brand. 

4. Great And Pow­er­ful Friends

Re­mem­ber, con­tent mar­ket­ing must find an au­di­ence to work. 

Find other busi­ness blogs and groups in your in­dus­try, or­ga­nize to cross pro­mote your blog ar­ti­cles or ebook. This tap­ping into the other busi­ness’ net­works ben­e­fits both your busi­nesses and can cre­ate an­other cus­tomer, in the other busi­ness it­self.  Im­por­tantly, find those groups, fo­rums and blog sites for busi­nesses that you think your con­tent will help - af­ter all, they are your tar­get mar­ket as well.  Ty­ing your busi­ness to in­ter­est groups will spread your mes­sage further.

If your con­tent is ef­fec­tive at con­vey­ing your mes­sage, you are ef­fec­tively build­ing your re­la­tion­ship with your busi­ness customer.