The goal of content marketing is to drive profitable customer action by establishing your brand as a trusted industry thought leader without direct product promotion or sales messaging. Quality content fuels the customer journey across increased brand awareness, consideration, conversion and loyalty.
There are many formats you can leverage to build your brand through content. These include:
- Blog articles and long-form posts that provide in-depth insights.
- Shorter social media updates also allow you to provide value while directing readers to your website.
- Videos and webinars showcase your subject matter expertise while connecting on a personal level.
- Infographics, ebooks and whitepapers are perfect for delivering more complex information in a visual, easy-to-digest way.
- Interactive content like surveys, assessments and quizzes also engage audiences while capturing helpful data to inform your approach.
- Podcasts and newsletters let you build relationships and authority over time.
Define Your Brand
The first step in using content marketing to build your brand is to clearly define what your brand stands for. Consider your mission, values, personality and how you want customers to perceive your company. This will establish a solid brand foundation and allow you to create content that aligns with and promotes your desired brand identity.
Create Killer Content
With your brand identity defined, start creating useful, engaging content that brings value to your audience while also reinforcing your brand. This content should educate, entertain and inspire consumers to take action. Focus on addressing pain points and providing solutions that map to different stages of the buyer’s journey. From blogs, videos and podcasts to ebooks, infographics and case studies – leverage multiple formats and platforms to reach and resonate with more customers.
Establish Thought Leadership
Position yourself as an expert in your industry by consistently creating original, high-quality content. Share insights, trends, tips and best practices that leverage your credentials and knowledge. Avoid overly promotional content and focus on providing value. Building thought leadership takes time, but earns customer trust and strengthens brand affinity. Submit guest posts, speak at industry events, respond to media requests and find other avenues to showcase your expertise.
Optimise for Search
Incorporate relevant industry keywords into your content to improve discoverability and search engine rankings. Optimise meta descriptions, images, tags, headings and links. This makes it easier for those searching for solutions to your products and services to find your content, directing new visitors to your brand.
Promote and Distribute
Use content writing services in the UK to generate some top-quality content. With a bank of stellar content in place, implement a distribution strategy across both owned and earned channels. Share content across your website, emails, social networks and other marketing assets. Pitch content to relevant third-party and media publications to benefit from increased exposure and backlinks, boosting brand awareness and credibility.
Monitor Performance
Analyse content performance by views, clicks, shares, backlinks and conversion rates. See what resonates best with your audience and double down on those content types and distribution channels. Continually test and refine your content marketing approach for optimal results.
Stay Consistent
Committing to an ongoing content marketing strategy is critical for success. Avoid mass content pushes followed by periods of inactivity. Plan and develop content on a consistent basis to remain top of mind. This demonstrates your commitment to customers and establishes your brand as a reliable industry resource.
