The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way people interact and carry out their daily activities. Social distancing and strict quarantine have also led to the realization that even after the pandemic has ended, we are not the way we were.
This is the new normal, and it’s here to stay.
As shoppers turn to the Internet to find products and make purchases, businesses and marketers are being forced to move away from traditional strategies and take a more interactive approach to connecting with their customer base. And that effort is guided by content marketing.
Content marketing is nothing new, but it’s sure to be effective and 69% of B2B marketers will agree.
However, if you have a content marketing strategy that is not producing the results you want, don’t give up just yet.
As long as your content goals match those of your customers, you’ll get the targeted sales and engagement you need to be successful. Therefore, when creating your content strategy, answer the following questions:
– What do your customers want most?
– Do your customers want to buy or make an authentic connection?
– Which platforms are your customers more active on?
The answers to these questions ultimately determine the strategy you should use.
Here are some key marketing strategies that can aid your content strategy to generate more traffic, increase brand awareness, and reach your target audience:
Building communities that focus on your product / service
Since the world entered The Great Lockdown, there has been a lot of uncertainty and unpredictability about business. However, creative managers and marketers have come up with important steps to virtually engage with consumers.
During the lockdown, people were using social media more than ever. Research shows that 57% of people have turned to social media channels and online forums to shop online and find out about new trends.
So, of course, it makes sense for companies to focus on growing online. Changing online isn’t just about having an active social media account, however. It also means having online communities, chat forums, and platforms with a high level of engagement.
Suppose your audience can’t engage with you in online communities or can’t feel attached to your product. In this case, they look for other companies (i.e. your competitors) that make them feel like they belong. With online platforms like Slack and Discord, brands can easily create their own community channels to interact with their customers. So there is no reason for you not to get involved with these statistics!
Building communities also dissolves the boundaries between businesses and customers and promotes a more collaborative experience. Rather than brands perpetuating the need for consumers to purchase their products, business owners and consumers can have a side-by-side conversation, coffee chat, or feedback session to welcome like-minded people.
For example, Sephora’s Beauty Talk community provides every Sephora user with a platform where they can share their experience with a product, create their own look, offer beauty tips, and much more! In fact, many people tend to be loyal to Sephora products because they have a friendly and dedicated community to be a part of.
Interactive communities offer you many marketing opportunities and at the same time enable you to have effective customer feedback and exactly what your customer segment needs. These online communities can drive sales, engagement, and ROI in powerful ways.
Reusing content for use on multiple platforms
Social media channels that drive sales and engagement have always had brands and marketers interested in building a viable social presence. But the outbreak has massively changed consumer trends. Instead of passively consuming content, people are actively creating it on various social media platforms. This has also led to social media influencers and increased competition for consistent development and publication.
What a lot of companies don’t realize, however, is that they may resort to lower quality content publishing to get higher amounts of content, which can do more harm than good. Instead of filling your feed with poor quality content, it is better to recycle and reuse your most popular content (like blog posts, videos, social media posts, etc.) across different platforms.
For example, let’s say your Christmas video generated a lot of engagement last year. In that case, you can turn it into a short Instagram post and republish excerpts from it. If you have a powerful blog post, you can turn it into an infographic or video as well. Add visually attractive features, GIFs, and memes to make your content interactive and engaging.
You can also use PosterMyWall tools to resize your content to fit different platforms, e.g. B. by turning a Facebook cover photo into an Instagram post. Similarly, you can also reuse older content or slogans to create posters and flyers as a throwback to the past.
Repurposed content works because the more social media channels you use in your marketing campaign, the more consumers you will serve. Every social media has a dominant consumer segment, like Gen-Z, the TikTok and the Millennials dominate on Instagram.
Take part in live video sessions and tutorials
Video marketing has always been an important marketing tool for companies. However, since the outbreak, video creation has reached unprecedented popularity. With the advent of platforms like TikTok, many brands and influencers are taking advantage of this low-cost opportunity to reach a wide customer base through videos.
Likewise, live videos on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram allow brands to create a more personalized connection with their audience by creating value-adding, helpful content. Most consumers believe that live video creates trust and transparency in a product and helps them make better decisions. Additionally, 56% of live streamers in the US and UK plan to continue watching live video even after the outbreak.
This makes it clear that the live streaming trend will continue for a long time. The sooner brands incorporate a live video strategy into their marketing campaign, the better. Fortunately, there are plenty of creative ways brands can use live video.
You can upload a weekly video to show the company behind the scenes before a big event or BTS of the product creation process. By watching BTS content, customers feel like they are being shown something exclusive. You feel part of the creation process.
In addition, you can also use a video strategy to create testimonial videos. These videos show all of the positive feedback previous customers have given your business and can show how using your product resulted in a positive experience for them.
You can also start a series of webinars or tutorials to help attract new subscribers to your channel and build the credibility of your existing subscribers. A series of webinars is typically more interactive than short, simple videos. It offers the audience the opportunity to participate in a Q / A session.
Check out our live design courses for tips and tricks on creating powerful visual designs. Our experienced designers Lisa Sinicki and Suzy Deline host these live sessions and at the same time answer the emerging questions and questions from our customers. Learn to make animated videos, gifs and posters for your brands – there is something for everyone!
Create SEO driven content
It is not possible to separate SEO from content. Ultimately, the search engines ultimately determine where and how your content is displayed. You may be able to blog and post consistently every day. However, if your post is missing all of the major SEO keywords, chances are your posts will not be rated by search engines that are being discovered by consumers.
With the right approach, your content can generate traffic to your website and drive leads. The general idea is that the longer your article, the more popular your keywords will be. An ideal length for an SEO-optimized blog post would be 3000 words – it can generate three times the traffic to your website and blog and attract four times as many shares!
It goes without saying that the amount of traffic you generate depends on the content you write and the use of relevant keywords that can attract both people and search engine bots.
Like a strong SEO strategy, content tactics focus on long-term sustainable growth. The initial ROI tends to be lower. However, staying consistent can lead to sustainable leads, more website traffic, and a higher ROI.
Selected snippets
Have you ever tried searching for directions on google and there is a small information box at the top of the page?
Chances are, you could click that box right away and not even scroll down to see what other links there are. The information box usually contains all of the answers users are looking for, in bullet points for better readability.
These information fields are known as featured snippets and are one of the most effective content strategies for 2021. Selected snippets pick up key points and keywords from a blog post and place this snippet at the top of a search page. Not only does this bring more traffic and visitors to your page, but it can also check your website’s authority on a topic.
For example, in the following example, direct bullet instructions were retrieved from tastofhome.com and presented as a featured snippet, with the blog post on top. And the reader will click on your link when looking for pictures and more details. This is how Google tells everyone that your content has authority.
Conclude
With nearly half of the world’s population using the internet, more and more people are being attracted to engaging with brands because of the content they offer. With technology moving at speed, smart businesses can leverage online tools and strategies to create videos, posters, and other interesting content.
These strategies have become necessary to get noticed.
It’s time to start 2021 with a strong content strategy that can improve your business. So what are you waiting for?
Get Started Today!