Nobody likes a sales pitch. People do however like content - they like to be informed, to learn or to be entertained. That's the basis of content marketing - using written, recorded or live content to attract and retain customers and position yourself as a trusted resource.
Perhaps equally as important is that it rewards your customers for responding to your marketing. Instead of getting the same old sales pitch they get useful, informative or simply entertaining content.
It's precisely because it rewards people for their attention that it works so well when combined with other marketing strategies - and smart businesses can use that fact to kick-start their existing efforts. Let's try an example:
Suppose you run a nice upmarket café. Traditionally your marketing might include advertisements in the local paper or printed flyers and menus for you to hand out. In terms of content, it's pretty much a sales pitch along the lines of, "here we are, this is what we offer and isn't it great."
None of that really does anything for your prospective customer though. On the other hand, as a content-led business you can make a few small changes to those leaflets or ads that actually gives your prospects something of value - and increases the response rate accordingly.
Start by looking at your ideal customers, what do they want? Could they be interested in healthier alternatives? Saving money? Trying new things? In this case we'll assume that healthy eating is important to your customers, they want to know how to prepare wholesome meals with minimum fuss.
On that basis you could start by putting together a number of attractive recipes and suggestions for healthy eating. That kind of information is useful in itself and so will appeal to your market much more than a standard sales pitch.
With a strong content idea in place the next step is to incorporate it into those advertisements or flyers. Your ads can be recipes in themselves, designed to be cut out and kept (or at the very least say 'check out our website for healthy recipes options'). Instead of using traditional flyers or printed menus, you could opt for branded recipe cards - something that people will be more inclined to hang on to.
Done well, your great content makes you the place to go for healthy eating when your prospects couldn't be bothered to try those recipes themselves. And if they do put your recipes into practice you'll likely benefit from additional word-of-mouth - provided they taste as good as they look.
In short, if you start with a focus on creating valuable content to attract and keep customers, then bringing that content into your existing strategies is the prefect way to give flagging advertising and marketing campaigns a real kick-start.
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Mark Nagurski is writes regularly for both online and offline publications about small business marketing. He's also founder of The Really Practical Marketing Company. If you found this introduction useful you'll find more free resources, tips and examples online at >> Really Practical Marketing
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