In today’s media environment, which is action-packed, speaking to the right customer at the right time is of prime importance. Entrepreneurs try to reach the consumer in a very boisterous online space using content marketing tools. Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs limit their communication with the customer to informing their customers about the range of services or products. There are very few who systematically build a relationship with the consumers.
In order to be clearly heard among the ocean of competitors, you need a content strategy. It will take you through three stages in communicating with the customers: Identify the business in the customer’s mind, maintain communication and build trust, and meet the consumer’s expectations through the provision of quality services. So how do you effectively address these three objectives using effective content strategies with the help of three major online marketing tools?
Social Media Content Strategy
Any content strategy, and especially a content strategy for social media, should start with a mission statement. More often than not, social media is the first place where your customer sees your brand and product. Objectives could be as follows:
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Marketing
To increase customer awareness, the number of customers or awareness of the product, its range and advantages. For example, investments in the content on our Facebook page increased the number of followers and provided customers’ engagement by 30%, therefore the number of link clicks grew from 10 with 1,347 followers to 33 with 1,728 followers.
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Communication
To inform about the values of your business and its founders, to identify and effectively manage customer pain points, to explain a solution that your product proposes or to compare before/after situations related to the use of your product;
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Media
To increase target audience outreach and engagement levels, to transfer subscribers to other social networks or to maintain communication. Each channel has a specific price of lead and purchase, and it’s different for everyone. The quality and the purchasing power of such leads will also be different. Your task is to test different channels and to choose the one that brings the best-quality leads.
The next part in building a content strategy is analyzing your competitors’ content and customer behavior on their pages. Don’t skimp on this part, although it may not be too pleasant. Learn from other people’s experiences, and you will see how subscribers perceive particular content and. This will help to establish the logic of your publications, consistency and themes.
Although a content plan is a very flexible thing, and changes depending on customer experience, you need to make all the ideas clear from the beginning. The more time and creativity you invest in the initial plan, the easier it will be for you to follow through. Write down the percentage of each type of material, so you don’t publish monotonous content, as well as your hashtags and approximate text introductions.
Also set your desired plans for the number of followers, their perception and reposts and keep track of them, especially at the beginning of the journey. It is also a good idea to make a short list of niche influencers to contact for your website’s promotion which often may be a free option. Social media enables you to react to the changes quickly, so don’t be afraid to experiment with your approach and tools. Just focusing on our content but not the number of followers of our Instagram page we organically increased engagement by 37%.
Email Marketing Content Strategy
With the help of an email marketing strategy, you can achieve goals that can’t be achieved with social media. Those who shared their emails with you are a warm audience. They may not have made a purchase decision yet, but they’re already following you and your brand.
Imagine you’re at a “flowers-and-candy” stage of your relationship, right after your first date. Personalize your emails, don’t push too hard, talk about yourself, ask for feedback, listen to it and respond shortly.
You can use email marketing for surveys, promo codes, discounts, limited offers or early access.
Don’t forget to use statistics. See what percentage of your subscribers and users opened emails and took the desired action. Analytics will help you understand which emails are better received by your audience, which offers they like, and which particular tone they perceive better.
Website Content Strategies
A content strategy for a website is different from any other strategy, as you need to focus not only on the client but also on the search engines.
To create a content plan for your blog articles, write down your keywords, query frequency and your SEO goals. Think about how a user types their query into a search bar: spell out all the possible variations, even the ridiculous ones.
You can add links to external sources on your website. Your content strategy should stipulate how often and where the user should be redirected from the website.
Show your expertise. You can share more in-depth information, talk about your cases and interview your clients on the website.
Use the feedback boxes, be available all the time and show the users that you keep taking care of them after the sale.
You should remember that SEO and promotion of your blog is a long-term game, plan at least for a year, so investing your time and money will pay off after a while. We started to notice the first results of SEO in 6 months only, don’t be afraid.
In conclusion, I want to remind you that the purpose of content is not only to engage new customers but to give the customer an opportunity to find answers to their questions. You must create unique value in the customer’s mind. Don’t create empty messages to the marketplace, no one can afford that kind of emptiness right now. Use three resources to go through three steps of communication with a customer and stay with them for a long time.
About the Author
Katerina Sukhenko, founder & CBDO at Postoplan – a free marketing platform to create and publish content in social media and messengers. She’s an experienced marketer with 6 years of international experience across Europe, the USA & China piloting & analyzing marketing and investment projects for SaaS companies. She leads the company’s global development and finding new business opportunities, including raising investments.
