As Jeffrey Zeldman notes, “Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not a design but a decoration. ” But what aspects of the content are important to the business, and why a strategy is needed to optimize the information.
WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING?
Content management is a form of marketing that focuses on creating, publishing, and distributing content for a target audience. Often used by business to:
-Take attention and generate users
-Expansion of the customer base
-Generate or increase online sales
-Enter awareness and trust for the company
-Create an online community of users
Content marketing attracts prospects and turns prospects into customers by creating and sharing relevant content. It also helps companies create sustainable loyalty, provides valuable information to consumers and creates a desire to buy products from the company in the future. In short, it builds trust and understanding with the audience.
The main focus should be the needs of potential or current customers. Once the company has identified the needs of the customer, the information can be presented in various formats, including news, videos, e-books, info sheets, email newsletters, case studies, Q&A, guides, photos, blogs, Content must be continually updated and supplemented to influence customer behavior.
Here are the main aspects that work to create successful content for business:
1. DEFINIng the aim AND SEGMENTing POTENTIAL TARGET CUSTOMERS
The goal defines the strategy. The first thing to start with is defining the customer profile and segmenting its features. This will later determine the style and channels you will reach the user. Definition is done by building the client’s profile according to certain parameters:
Geography – regions, climate, population, transport, infrastructure …
Demographics – age, gender, nationality, employment, education, marital status …
Psychology – lifestyle, social situation, personal beliefs, interests …
Behavior – status, sought benefits …
2. DRAW UP A PLAN FOR THE COMPANY'S CORE BUSINESS AND WHAT IT OFFERS ON THE MARKET
These are key issues for creating and managing the content of the company.
Main Activity – A description of the company’s core business must appear in many places in the content. Whether it is dealing with production, services or other activities, the company must be described in the text with all the features of the industry. It is helpful to have a synthesized text and an expanded version.
Ways of business – The ways the business reaches the user, whether through online store, distribution, business to business, selling directly to customers, stores, wholesale or otherwise. There must also be complete information on delivery, time and prices for execution. The more complete and accurate information you provide, the less you will engage in phone calls and emails for explanations.
Specification of products or services – What and how it is produced, types, descriptions, how to proceed when applying the service, and all other specifications that would help the user. Any information facilitate and at the same time helps the buyer’s decision. Explanations can include download formats, videos, photos, infographics, comparisons, tutorials and more.
Company facilities – Many companies nowadays rely on full transparency and share details of their activities. This happens to be a strong marketing tool, as it creates a sense of stability and builds trust. This information can include availability of facilities, machines, offices, buildings, everything the company has to offer for the creation and supply of the products.
Employees and company community – Employees are family members for the company. They are the link between production and customer. As a human resource, they also create a sense of truth and human attitude. That’s why it’s helpful in the content to have stories about employees and their personal qualities. Information on departments, suppliers, partners, and all company supporters may also be included. This creates the company community.
Achievements and history – IIt’s always good if you can brag with something. Information on business participations, competitions, certifications, and other related to performance achievements. First of all, this information increases the credibility of the company and creates supporters. Here you can also add a description of business history over the years and what are the achievements on the way.
Mission – Be transparent for business goals! The more direct you are with customers, the more loyalty you get. The mission of the company may be in terms of environmental protection, product innovation, training, promotion and more.
Contacts – Contacts with the company and employees must be an integral part of any content. All printed materials, webpages, advertising messages. How to connect should be clear and accessible at first glance. Sometimes only a logo and a webpage are sufficient as a reference.
3. MARKET RESEARCH
Successful companies have extensive knowledge of their potential customers and competitors. The market research is the information gathering process that will clarify how people you hope to sell to will respond to your current or potential products and services.
The study can be original information gathered through your own efforts to answer specific questions. This information is usually collected through surveys, observations, or experiments.
Another type of study uses existing resources such as company notes, publications, case studies, and books, and applies the information to answer questions. The goal of any market research is to get the information you need to make informed business decisions about launch, innovation, growth and marketing mix:
Product – Improve your product or service based on the findings of what your customers really want and need. Focus on functionality, appearance and customer service or warranties.
Price – Define a price based on popular profit margins, competitors, prices, funding opportunities, or the price the customer is willing to pay.
Positioning – Decide where to set up and how to distribute a product. Compare the features of different locations and the value of points of sale (retail, wholesale, online).
Promotion – Find out how best to reach specific market segments (teens, families, students, professionals, etc.) in the fields of advertising and publicity, social media and branding.
3.1 TRENDS and INNOVATION STUDIES
The research also greatly contributes to the design of successful content, web design and print advertising. The application tested methods in navigation design, user interface, banner layout, text positioning and trends contributes to a higher rate of goal realization.
By exploring different studies, you can avoid mistakes made by other professionals and emphasize the functionality of the content. For example, what methods to use to focus on the user’s attention, why the simple design is more functional, how less the user chooses, he decides more quickly, why some formats are used more than others etc.
Trends– research of design trends for the given niche, identity, web design, printed materials
Positioning of elements – exploration of the best practices for functional interface and planning of the main elements that can be included in the project.
What is offered by competitors – understanding information about major competitors
Innovations – which modules and widgets can be inserted into the content to facilitate user experience.
4. CONTENT FORMATs
Content deployment ideas are numerous, and each format is a technique to improve user experience.
5. PREPARE A BASIC CONTENT info THAT WILL BE USED ON ALL BUSINESS CONNECTIONS & PLATFORMS
Content must also have a synthesized version. It is usually presented in the form of a presentation by emphasizing the main mission and objectives of the information. The production of core content assets is a great help for business communication and the success of the company’s visual performance. When you have it ready, it is easy to enroll in various online catalogs, business entries, blog posts, banners, and more. In my practice, I have identified the following aspects of a basic content assets:
Logo – logo available in different sizes and formats for application on different platforms.
Identity – Company style has certain font usage, color and form parameters that must be described in an easy to use guide.
Photos – The main presentation photos or illustrations of the content must be present as a business card on each platform. That’s why it’s nice to have them prepared, processed in the company style ready for use.
Text, descriptions – Basic short texts for product descriptions, company mission, presentation of main production and so on. are also assets that are used on different platforms.
Presentations – in electronic form or printed presentations can be used in direct marketing or as a brief summary of company values.
Business documents – business cards, forms, invoices, forms, envelopes, product labels, are assets that are used daily in business communications.
6. CONTENT STRATEGY FOR A COMPANY SITE
Whatever business you develop a business website is the main content platform. The marketing strategy for web content fundamentally includes:
Building platform – choosing a platform to build involves weighing the features this platform provides. One of the most used platforms is WordPress, which provides all the functionality and foundation for creativity and personalization of the website.
Site Structure – There are some basic pages that are nice to include in content planning, as the user likes familiar structures and tools. These are pages like ‘Home’ – ‘Services’ – ‘Contacts’ – ‘About Us’ – ‘Products’ – ‘Process’ and the well-known headers with menus and forms for filling in. From then on, each business requires a different way of applying the information according to the specifications.
Interface – The site’s interface is related to the layout of photo and text content, navigation, and focusing on the path the user is going through to reach the ultimate goal. Successful web design takes into account the size of the elements, the contrast between colors and elements, clear and accurate headlines, navigation buttons, implementation of various formats, etc.
Text – Text content is created on several main lines. First, it must clearly and accurately describe the products, services and mission of the company so that it is easy for users to track. Secondly, it should include key keywords and phrases to optimize search engines on the web. Last but not least, headlines and short descriptions of navigation must filter the most important information before the user chooses to read it.
Photos – The selection of photographs, illustrations and design elements should fit the style of the company and clearly depict the text to which they refer. High image quality contributes to the choice of the user.
Graphic layout – Graphic web design is of great importance for the balance of all elements – company style, text and photos.
Adaptability – Business websites need to adapt to a variety of mobile devices as a large number of users use their mobile phones for surfing.
Extras – Each business has specific services and a way of applying them. For optimal use of content, sometimes product filters, forms to fill in, downloads, plugins, shopping methods …
SEO, Search Engine Optimization – Site optimization takes place during creation by taking into account text, links, metadata, navigation, etc.,
Maintenance – upgrading banners with promotions, adding text descriptions, optimizing consumption and demand, cross-platform advertising campaigns with landing pages, blog posts, and more.
7. DIGITAL MARKETING
Digital marketing is a method of advertising by publishing online social platforms by applying methods of retaining attention and attracting loyal followers. The main tools are:
Social Media – Company presence in social profiles contributes to internet marketing promotion and brand awarness. Usually used as a marketing tool. When publishing content on social media, you should plan the topics you want to share, how to present your business activity, how to start a dialogue with the user, how to intrigue it to share your posts, how to make a relevant link to business pages, and the ultimate goal of purchasing the product or using the service.
Blog – business blog management also requires solid planning. Categories, themes, content links, seo keywords, inspiration
Newsletter – email database, synthesizing the most important information and shaping and eye-catching design
Others – forums, online catalogs …
8. PRINTED MARKETING
Printed materials are company assets that advertise, present and disseminate ideas, so they should be included in the content plan.
Catalogs – if you offer products or services, the company catalog is one of the first printed publications
Advertising materials – promotional materials such as leaflets, brochures, banners, posters are always needed for corporate participations and advertising campaigns
Branded gifts – these are things like branded pen, notebooks, folders, bags and other materials with printed company logo and information
Presentations – presentations are a representative sample of the overall content. The rule applies to them – ‘the shorter, the more substantial’.
Outdoor advertising – deciding on advertising content in different public places can be beneficial. As an example of vehicles, billboards, posters, bus stops, showcases and more.
9. DETERMINe THE BUDGET AND THE INVESTMENT UNITS IN MARKETING AND ADVERTISING
Budgeting is part of the strategy. When you invest in content, returns are time-consuming.
It would be appropriate to allocate the budget as prioritizing method by addressing the primary needs of the business.
10. MARKETING PLAN - A4 DOWNLOAD TEMPLATES
– Marketing content corporate website
– Managing content for social networks
– Planning content for blog posts
– Create a Newsletter campaigns
– Corporate printed materials
– Calendar of Content