Between March and April of this year, the e-commerce industry has experienced a decade worth of growth. As consumers continue to take their business online, content marketing has never been more important.
While it encompasses a broad field, content marketing is a crucial part of online customer service in today’s world, and it’s quite simple when boiled down to its base components.
Building a successful content marketing campaign
Successful content marketing engages consumers, enticing them to read or watch more. While this can be achieved in a number of ways depending on your industry, it will require high production quality and a lot of thought. Producing informative content focused around answering customer questions will demonstrate your organization’s expertise in its field and help develop a sense of trust. More personable content can help build an emotional connection towards your brand. This may be done through storytelling centered around the customer experience or content demonstrating your organization’s values.
Before planning your campaign, it’s important to understand the difference between content marketing and copywriting. Content writers aim to produce organic traffic, attracting customers to the brand through the value of the content itself, and building brand awareness in the process. In contrast, copywriters aim to produce immediate sales through advertisements. As more consumers than ever turn to the internet for their goods and services, the focus of brands must reflect this if they hope to compete. To be successful, content marketing must be unique and offer some value to the person consuming it.
The importance of content marketing
For many business owners, the value of content marketing is not immediately apparent. This is an understandable view to hold: it doesn’t aim to produce immediate sales the way copywriting does. However with more and more business being conducted remotely, connecting with consumers will be next to impossible for businesses that do not evolve to meet the new climate. With more and more brands competing for attention online, it’s difficult to build and maintain customer loyalty.
This is where content marketing comes in. Producing valuable content can in itself be a form of customer service that will build a sense of trust towards your business. Answering your customer’s most commonly asked questions, sharing expertise, or providing an insight into the workings of your company in video or blog posts are examples of excellent content marketing. These build an emotional connection between the customer and your business, while at the same time acting as customer service.
Content marketing has exploded over the last few years for good reason. The world’s biggest brands understand its effectiveness in increasing awareness and connecting with the consumer. While the methods you choose will depend on your aims as a business, the foundations of content marketing remains the same. Producing quality content that organically engages consumers will always prove beneficial.
