Content Marketing: 5 steps to create impactful content

Content marketing is about creating digital contents using online media that impact the targeted audience to make an impression about a brand. Digital technologies play a vital role in all business sectors and have an enormous impact on developing sustainable relationships with customers. There could be several instances where we decide to buy a product and purchase it immediately after visiting the brand website for the very first time. What an effective content marketing the brand has implanted in their website!

Why are digital contents imperative?

Despite having numerous options for every product, it is challenging to convince customers to buy their product with the awareness that one can get on digital platforms. It is a fact that 87% of shoppers search on digital contents before talking to a sales rep on a specific product. A company either succeeds or fails in choosing the right content to create. The usual confusions are:

• How many write-ups like newsletters and blogs to make?
• How often should it be posted on web pages?
• What are the contents that can be shared on social media platforms?
• Should the content be in the form of a video? If so, what should be the duration of the video?
• How much budget should be allocated for digital marketing in a company?

Every single query must be intelligently planned and executed to face real-world business competition. Strategic digital business transformation services are necessary to innovate and implement contents for marketing. The service providers should have ideas to introduce schemes and services to gain customer satisfaction. The companies can collaborate with specialized digital solution agency to nurture the advertising sector to produce vivid and attractive digital contents. In business terms, such procedures are called digital transformation strategy.

Before jumping to content marketing, it is critical to understand each stage of a customer’s purchasing journey:

Brand recognition – Even if a customer does not need a specific product, the brand’s name will attract them to it. The brand craze is a crucial factor that drives the desire to purchase a product just because it is eye-catching.

Product information – A customer will intend to instantly research a product well and compare it with alternatives before purchasing.

Comparing brands – A clever customer constantly compares products between different brands, learns more, evaluates the quality and the value for money before buying.

Purchasing – Before making a purchase, the customer will compare the pricing and benefits of similar products, look into warranties and customer reviews and then buy the product.

After purchasing – Only upon attaining satisfaction with the product quality and customer care benefits, the customer will become a brand advocate.

Content marketing funnel

A content marketing funnel is a step-by-step guide to the content flow that makes a customer want to pay and buy the product and services. It is basically a technique that makes people aware of the product and services and attracts targeted customers to purchase them. The content marketing funnel starts with spreading awareness and narrows down to educate, enchant, enroll and make a new customer. These digital transformation strategies are also called TOFU, MOFU and BOFU, which stands for Top Of Funnel, Middle Of Funnel, and Bottom Of Funnel strategies.

Here is a detailed view of the steps to create impactful digital content:

1. SEE Brand Awareness

A famous brand needs less effort for advertising and marketing. However, other brands need to break through the hurdles and entertain the audience with content creations. The following tips can help a company achieve this:

• Making storytelling videos and making them viral on digital platforms like social media applications.
• Conducting contests online and providing promotions for first-time purchases.
• Providing short and sweet tips to customers.

2. LEARN Brand Engagement

The second stage of the marketing funnel is to educate the audience on how trustworthy your brand is. Since educating someone is a lengthy process, the brands must work out a timescale to keep the contents precise. Here are some tips for creating such learning contents:

• Make articles on how to use the product.
• Provide in-depth guidelines.
• Post tutorial videos at regular timeframes.

3. DO Lead Generation

The third stage of the marketing funnel is to build a fan base for the brand and have its community. The main aim must be to enchant the targeted audience to become a part of the brand or a member of the brand community by providing them with valuable digital contents. This step will start bringing paying customers to the brand. Here are the tips to woo customers:

• Publish eBooks and newsletters.
• Conduct webinars to the targeted audience.
• Give tools, templates and checklists for customers to buy.
• Conducts events, workshops and courses to involve and engage the audience.
• Offer free trials and subscriptions to the digital resources.

4. BUY Customer Acquisition

The fourth step of the marketing funnel is to enrol the audience to become paying customers, subscribers and members. The customer acquisition will only take place gradually but may speed up over time depending on the applicability and desirability of the offers given. The attractive sales, offers, bonuses, price-saving combos, freebies, etc., must be presented at this stage to welcome more customers.

5. CARE Customer Loyalty

The final step of the marketing funnel is to cultivate brand loyalty among customers and create advocacy. The brands must create a sensation for the customers to feel that they are a part of the community. These customers must be enlisted to become brand advocates. It is always a wise choice to take considerable efforts to retain the existing customers rather than developing new ones. Here are some tips to be followed:

• Prioritize the buying customers and give them the best possible customer experience.
• Generate personalized digital contents to be sent to the existing buying customers by emails.
• Build a unified online community and have regular interactions.

Customers these days have a lot of perceptiveness because of the ease with which they get access to digital contents to gain awareness. Making suitable digital content to answer their questions is the best means to enhance the customer relationship and earn their trust.