When offering content to users there are several aspects to consider: What information do they need? What kind of content we are able to produce? How them can access it? The user experience when talking about content marketing is as important as the quality of what is offered and can be the difference between a customer loyalty or lose it for good. That is why we must have it present throughout the development and implementation of the strategy and know how adapt it to each particular audience.
Content marketing is a technique by which you offer to users content and information that are interesting and useful. The main objective is to attract potential customers and retain existing ones. A committed customer will be loyal to the brand and its products, will be waiting for new releases and probably recommend to their acquaintances.
It is important to distinguish this from other practices. For example, content marketing does not seek to sell or offer products or services, therefore it is not a strategy whose results are seen in the short term and its goal is not to disrupt the activities of the user, if not return to the company a reliable source of information.
As mentioned above, the goal is to attract users and turn them into loyal customers. This means that it is not enough with the user to enter the company profile on Facebook or blog of the website, but also must remain in this consuming content and internalizing the information that the company is providing you. Therefore, a linchpin in any content marketing strategy is the user experience, which starts from the first time the potential customer comes into contact with the brand.
A key point is to decide what content is of interest and how it will be disseminated, for this is essential to know the audience well.
Audience
The first step is to define the audience, that is the target audience. Who points the strategy? How customers are characterized? This includes; gender, age, economic status, customs, etc. Based on this we must decide what type of content they find interesting, useful and easily accessible. For example, it is important to consider how much the average time users spend reading an article, not to overdo the length thereof and prevent readers is dropping by half.
Content Type
Remember that the goal of this practice is to return the company a leader in its area, therefore it is clear that the content generated should be closely related to the products and services offered.
Within content options can be mentioned:
- Sector information
- Tips and ideas when using the product
- Memorable quotes
- Ephemeris and its history
For example, if the company sells food products can share recipes, nutritional information on various food, fun facts or tips to keep organized kitchen.
Format
The content must be adapted to the user experience enjoyable. The manner by which it is presented is vital in the strategy; useless is to develop the best content if the user experience is bad. The user experience includes easy access to information, simple web browsing and proper exploitation of audiovisual resources. Consume information should require the minimum amount of clicks and possible actions.
In addition the different formats also allow reuse of content -at which can produce more with less investment of time- as long as the information has not expired and is still in force.ç
Depending on the type of information that can be distributed in different formats:
- Blog, checklist
- Short video, audio
- Images, computer graphics
- E-book
- Course, webinar
As is the case you can perform a series of articles on a certain subject and then generate an e-book that brings together all, as a compiled. Returning to the example of the food industry, you can also make short videos of recipes. But if there are statistics on what certain fraction of the population eat are presented, it may be better to present this information in an educational infographic.
Diffusion
Now, everything developed has to be disseminated effectively to obtain the greatest possible extent. Then you have to analyze the media -social networks, web, blog- and consider the most appropriate for the audience. It is not necessary to use all available channels to achieve the best reach, but study what the target audience frequents.
In summary
When properly implemented, a good content marketing plan, increases the credibility of the company -turning it into a benchmark in the sector- which results in increased confidence by consumers and increase their brand loyalty.
As with any strategy as this is further implemented, the results should be measure on the fly, to make changes and optimize it. It is advisable to try different thematic content formats in which it is offered and broadcast channels.
Content marketing is then to provide some users without asking anything in return, in order to generate a good reputation for the company. One must understand that their results will be long-term but -if the strategy was well implemented- the benefits will be great.
