Heinrich clients continually ask, “What is content marketing and why do we need it?” Content marketing, according to Joe Pulizzi, co-author of Get Content, Get Customers and publisher of the Junta42 blog, “is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience — with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”
To put it more simply, content marketing isn’t about selling. Instead, it’s about offering your prospects and customers information that’s relevant to them — in their jobs, in their personal lives, or both. This is one reason social media has become so huge: It’s the one place where content is all about “me” the individual versus “you” the company.
Does content marketing work? Yes! According to a statistic cited by Pulizzi, Roper Public Affairs posted data that shows:
- 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus advertisements
- 70% say content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company
- 60% say that company content helps them make better purchasing decisions
Here at Heinrich, we’re dealing with the content marketing revolution too. Many of our clients don’t know that we can develop and implement both their content and social marketing campaigns, so instead of telling you what others are doing, I thought I’d show you how we’ve been incorporating content into our own marketing mix:
1. Turned our e-newsletter into a blog.
Like direct mail, email marketing is the workhorse for many companies. Email is wonderful because you can measure response almost immediately, and because performing A/B split tests on headlines, images, or copy is cost-effective. However, email lacks social’s engagement. And as you know, our inboxes are overflowing, which has lead to reduced open and clickthrough rates.
For all these reasons and more, we turned the Heinrich Report e-newsletter into a blog. (Lucky for us, we implement and manage blogs for our clients, so this process wasn’t difficult.)
A blog offers many advantages over an e-newsletter as it allows:
- People to subscribe via RSS, which reduces inbox overwhelm.
- Marketers to produce content very quickly, an important consideration if you’re in an industry where you need to comment on current events or breaking news.
- Prospects and customers to engage with you through direct feedback.
The third point is the most important because it’s this engagement that builds trust over time. People who read your blog learn how you think, as well as how you handle positive — and not so positive — feedback. As the marketer, you have the opportunity to get to know people and, over time, turn those online relationships into business.
2. Became more engaged on Facebook.
For those of us who didn’t grow up with the Internet, using Facebook for business-to-business purposes has been a challenge because it’s just so . . . different from what we’re used to; however, that doesn’t mean you should ignore it.
Because Facebook is all about conversations (and definitely not about selling), it allows companies to show their personality — much more so than is possible with email or even a blog.
On the Heinrich Facebook page we’ve been experimenting with posting pictures of some of our office events and using questions and polls to conduct research. (Pay us a visit and give us a “like”!)
How does using Facebook help build trust? As with a blog, Facebook is a place where prospects can engage with you one-on-one. You can use the platform to ask questions — the way Netflix does about movies — or you can deliver information related to your products that your audience finds relevant.
Cabot Creamery Cooperative in Vermont, for example, posts recipes that incorporate its famous cheeses. In a recent post, someone asked the company to bring back its sliced cheddar “without animal rennet.” Gail from Cabot responded by saying the company uses a “microbial-based enzyme” in its cheeses. The customer replied, “Good to know!”
Not only is Cabot positioning itself as a company that cares about its customers and building trust, it’s also learning what its audience values, which allows it to develop products that meet people’s needs — and thus increase sales over time.
3. Developed a special report.
When I meet with my banking clients, I hear their pain with regard to content and social media marketing. As Pulizzi says, today’s customer expects a brand to be a resource of relevant information, not just sales messages, which is why Heinrich developed a new special report about content marketing specifically for financial services.
Whether or not you’re in financial services, download the report to see how we used nine real life examples of banks, credit card companies and insurance firms using content and social media marketing to reach out to their audiences. (Another report about how to incorporate social into direct mail is in the making!)
Special reports like this one help you build thought-leadership and trust. If the content is particularly valuable, others will pass it around to their networks (think Twitter and LinkedIn).
Content marketing is important because it allows you to communicate with people who have learned how to tune out overt advertising messages.
If you’re ready to develop or need help managing a content marketing campaign, Heinrich can help you. From blogs and social media to special reports and landing pages, we have the big picture perspective plus the tactical know-how to help you grow your business.
Feel free to give me a call at 303-239-5213. In addition to replying to blog comments, I also love talking to people on the phone.
