Content Marketing Strategy: Definitive Manual To Apply In Startup

Content Marketing strategy: You want to buy a new cell phone and do an internet search for different models. After reading many texts showing the positive and negative points, he chooses what he considers the best.

This simple example demonstrates the “magic” of content marketing well. This strategy seeks to show the advantages of your products or services and thus attract customers to your business. It still goes further. Its good practices allow retaining and retaining consumers, who may even become fans of the brand.

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a strategy to attract, engage, and retain customers through relevant content. The purpose is to add value and show why your Company is a reference in its area of ​​expertise. Thus, a positive perception of the brand is established, which increases the generation of opportunities.

To achieve this purpose, the content must always have relevance and be distributed to the potential customer (lead) at the right time. Thus, it can meet the user’s search intent and improve the shopping experience.

This process becomes more apparent when you understand a sales funnel. The so-called pipeline is a strategic model that shows the customer’s purchase journey from the first contact to the decision.

In this context, content marketing seeks to optimize these steps and show that its products or services solve the potential customer’s problems. That’s why it’s essential to have as much information about him as possible, such as his: 

• challenges;
• wishes;
• needs;
• goals;
• Preferences.

Content Marketing And Inbound Marketing: What’s The Relationship?

It is impossible to talk about content marketing and ignore the so-called inbound marketing. This last concept refers to any strategy that captures potential customers’ interest without invading their space.

Hence, inbound marketing is also known as attraction marketing. He often uses digital media to create relevant content to attract and convert leads into customers.

This way, it manages to attract the target audience subtly and consistently. Given this purpose, four pillars of inbound marketing support this strategy. They are: 

1. attract customers to your startup with the help of relevant content;
2. convert visitors into leads and increase the chance of generating leads and closing deals;
3. sell, showing that your product or service is the best option for the lead;
4. Enchant, establishing a lasting and solid relationship, which generates new sales. Therefore, offering more exciting materials and quality service is necessary.

Therefore, content marketing is one of the inbound marketing tools. In any case, you will follow the same methodology and seek the same objective: attract customers, retain them and retain them. In addition, digital marketing helps to leverage your business.

What Are The Benefits Of Content Marketing?

Content marketing is already quite widespread in companies. To get an idea, 70% of brands adopt this strategy to promote their products and services. When considering investments in digital marketing, the global average growth is 14.7%. Why this data? The answer lies in the benefits of the strategy. Check out what they are.

Brand Awareness

Creating relevant content favors brand recognition. That is, the target audience knows your Company and your products and services. That way, there is a greater chance of remembering your Company when making the purchase decision.

For example, you can strengthen your business’ social and environmental actions through content marketing.

Lead Generation

Content marketing allows you to generate more leads as much as you already have a website, blog, and even a few leads. That’s because you will have a strategy capable of taking the suitable material to the right moment in the customer’s purchase journey.

Brand Engagement

The brand above awareness also leads to engagement. That’s because a solid relationship is established. Thus, the relationship becomes closer with loyal customers. This benefit also generates other advantages, such as increased interactions with your startup and the growth in the number of fans who recommend your brand to friends and family.

Market Education

Content marketing helps target audiences to understand how their market works, what products and services are for, etc. After all, the contents can solve customer doubts and teach what is necessary. This helps to overcome objections, contributes to loyalty, and increases customer satisfaction.

Sales Generation

All the benefits listed lead to the generation of opportunities, which translate into sales. Customers move through the sales funnel faster and are guided toward decision-making. Ultimately, they realize that your product or service is relevant and your brand is a reference.

What Are The Elements Of A Content Marketing Strategy?

To realize all the benefits listed, you need to implement the correct elements of content marketing. Below, we list them all and what they mean.

Editorial Planning

It is the basis of the entire strategy. It defines which objectives will be pursued, who is responsible for the activities, and which tools will be used to achieve the goals. The focus is editorial, so the purpose is to define which content will be covered during the month.

Story planning should always be based on the persona’s pain points, the stages they go through in the buying journey, and the right keywords. This makes it easier to stay focused and diversify the themes.

Also, remember that it is essential to define editorial metrics. Some examples are: 

• page views;
• shares;
• total comments;
• unique visitors;
• time spent on the page;
• linkbacks.

Persona

Represents your ideal customer based on actual characteristics. Thus, a semi-fictional character is formed. The purpose of defining personas is to create content in a targeted way.

Therefore, the idea is to make a very detailed description. This is the only way you will make the right decisions and produce the right content to help potential customers move through the sales funnel.

Now, you might ask: Does persona equal target audience? Not. The first term is more specific and detailed. Meanwhile, the second refers to a market share that may be interested in your products or services. Therefore, it refers to a demographic group.

Also Read: How to Generate Leads in Digital Marketing