Is content marketing a valuable marketing channel for your small business? – PR News Blog

Broadly speaking, a marketing channel describes the path taken by a good or service from production to consumption. There are many types of marketing channels small businesses can take advantage of: cold calling, email marketing, door-to-door sales, industry events, display advertising, and content marketing, to name a few. -ones.

It is this last option, content marketing, that this article will explore. Specifically, this article will walk you through how to determine if content marketing is a good fit for your business’s marketing needs.

But first, some definitions are in order.

What exactly is content marketing?

Content marketing is an alternative approach to the traditional “sales pitch”. Instead of convincing potential customers that they directly need your products or services, content marketers provide useful and relevant content that helps answer potential customers’ questions.

By engaging with your content, the customer decides for themselves whether to purchase your goods or services. This is the beginning of marketing!

Effective content marketers anticipate the types of questions their customers might ask. By designing content that answers these questions, content marketers guide customers through the buyer’s journey to realizing that your good or service is the best solution to their problem.

Essentially, content marketers use unconscious branding throughout the buyer’s journey to do the following:

• Associate your brand with authority by positioning your brand as a company that provides quality answers
• Provide real solutions to customer issues through different types of content: blog posts, videos, infographics
• Ease the process of resolving customer issues with a well-designed, search-optimized website
• Builds a community of customers who regularly interact with new content, which helps maintain brand loyalty

But what exactly is this buyer’s journey?

Explain the buyer’s journey

The buyer’s journey is a model that helps marketers conceptualize the rational decision-making processes in the minds of buyers that lead to a purchase. It can be loosely related to the literary concept of the hero’s journey, which is a pattern that follows the growth and development of a character as it progresses through a story towards the conclusion.

For our purposes, the hero’s journey is an effective literary tool that helps storytellers emotionally engage their audience by putting the audience in the shoes of the hero.

Similarly, the buyer’s journey is a map that helps marketers imagine the mindset of potential customers as they move through the marketing funnel towards conversion.

The three stages of the buyer’s journey

Most digital marketers divide the buyer’s journey into three distinct phases. However, some marketers see the value in further breaking down the buyer’s journey. We’re going to stick with the traditional three-step buying journey.

For more information on how marketers extend the buyer’s journey beyond three stages, check out this Resource.

Great content marketers will create content that addresses the top concerns of potential buyers every step of the way.

Step 1-Sensitization

This stage of the buyer’s journey sees our potential customers realize they have a problem. Either they are missing something or they need some kind of service to fix a problem. During this stage, the buyer will start researching their problem, usually through a Google search.

Here are some search queries that represent questions that potential customers might ask:

• “Why does my TV have a weird sequence?”
• “What kind of dinner is good for the 4th of July party?”
• “What should I do if my boss refuses the leave request? »

Good content marketers will have anticipated questions like these already. They will have already curated quality blog posts, videos, or infographics explaining these issues so that when the potential buyer searches for these queries, the content marketer’s useful and valuable content will appear on the search engine results page. search (SERP).

Here are some examples of content that answers the above queries:

• A blog post by an electronics repair company—”What is this strange sequence on my TV?”
• A YouTube video made by a local catering company—”Easy 4th of July Recipes for the Big Holidays”
• An infographic by a labor law attorney—”What to do when your boss refuses leave”

2nd step-Consideration

During this stage, the buyer delves into the solutions and evaluates the options that will be most useful to him. Buyers can explore the topic further or research alternatives to try and decide which option is best for them. What is acceptable is based on many varying factors like a person’s budget, tastes, time constraints, etc.

Here are some questions a thinking-stage buyer might look for when exploring solutions to their problem. Notice that the questions become more specific. This reveals that the buyer has become relatively knowledgeable about the issue and is now exploring particular solutions that best meet their needs.

• “Is it cheaper to fix a TV or buy a new one?”
• “Best Ways to Plan and Cook a Quick 4th of July Dinner”
• “How do I know if I am a non-exempt employee”

In the first example, the buyer is clearly concerned about price. In the second example, the buyer needs to quickly plan and cook a meal for a party (maybe it’s July 3). In the third example, the buyer learned that his boss’s refusal to give him time off depends on his job classification.

Here are some examples of content that specifically addresses these consideration step queries:

• A YouTube video made by the same electronics repair company—”Is it better to buy a new TV or pay for repairs?”
• A blog post from the same catering company—”When should I call the caterers – How to get a full meal in record time?”
• A youtube video from the same law firm—”Are you an exempt employee or not? What is the difference?”

Step 3—Decision

At this point, the buyer must decide. They’ve done some research and all that’s left to do is pick a brand to line up with. Content at this point in the buyer’s journey typically directs the buyer to a service page or payment portal on the company’s website.

Examples of decision stage content are customer reviews, comparisons, and tutorials. Typically, Decision Stage content appears as review videos or blog posts, but can also appear as podcasts or interviews.

Is Content Marketing Right For Your Business?

Content marketing is a valuable marketing channel for many businesses, but it’s not right for every business. Content marketing is a must for businesses that can answer customer questions by providing useful information.

How many people are curious about the intricacies of moving furniture? If you own a moving company, you’re probably wasting your marketing dollars hosting a blog. However, if you are a lawyer specializing in workers’ compensationit’s a safe bet that people will turn to google to ask their questions about workers’ compensation.

Is content marketing a good strategy for your business?

Roni Davis is a marketer, blogger, and legal assistant operating in the greater Philadelphia area.