The Internet user is, at present, primarily a consumer of content. Based on this premise, it is possible to deduce the value of quality content for the branding of a brand that wishes to acquire notoriety and become a benchmark for its consumers.
As experts and professionals at Qweb remind us, content marketing allows you to seduce the audience by fleeing aggressive sales techniques, increasing contacts, web traffic, presence in social media, improving search engine positioning (SEO), branding and online reputation.
The first question that a brand must face is to decide what content it is interested in promoting and find the point of confluence between these and those that the consumer wants to receive. However, the real puzzle lies in how to raise these contents to be attractive and get enough feedback. Thus, content marketing should not be limited to addressing what the brand should say, above all it should capture “what users want to hear”. Through it, we can establish contacts with our clients and take the pulse of their interests or expectations by collecting (and considering) their testimonies and opinions.
The mastery of the art of persuasion and the pen are indispensable, although it is true that there are some recurrent contents that help to generate confidence and have many options to succeed in social media. A good example is the guides or articles of advice which explain «how to get the most out of …» a product or service that arouses interest among users.
The penetration of this strategy is such that more than 80% of brands already make, consciously or unconsciously, content marketing on their website or on social networks and platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, among others.
The companies concentrate their efforts on the generation of Articles to position the brand (79%), content for Social Networks (74%), content for corporate blogs (65%), News Bulletins (63%), Success Cases (58 %), face-to-face events (56%), videos (52%) or white papers (51%), according to data provided by the New York agency BlueGlass Interactive.
The referrals and reviews in specialized blogs are other of the most relevant contents at present, given that more and more users are diving seeking analysis and opinions of experts before trusting in a product or service; and the more independent they are, the more confidence they generate. Covert advertising articles usually generate indifference, and even rejection, if they are detected as self-hype or self-promotion.
ROI and Corporate Blogs
An adequate content marketing strategy will increase the visibility and traffic of your blog; besides becoming a channel for attracting customers and users.
If the contents provide a real added value, this platform will contribute to turning the company into a benchmark in its sector. But, following Carlos Bravo (CEO of Coguan and Guerrilla Marketing expert), corporate blogs aim above all to “build trust among users and get new contacts when doing business with advertisers and online advertising supports.” According to this author, these can generate a negative, medium and positive ROI, depending on the degree of acceptance of the contents.
Articles, videos, bulletins, etc., can provoke such negative feelings that they lead to reactions such as blocking, ignoring or trolling (in slang, “attacking the brand”). All of them are very harmful for a brand, because while the blockade directly eliminates the opportunity to reconnect with that user, each of the ignored contents implies that a part of the investment is going directly to the sink.
A user-troll, in addition, can open a crisis if it is beyond our control. In the latter case, reacting on time and redirecting the situation is crucial. In addition, if you have loyal followers with quality content, discussion groups will probably be generated between the defenders and the detractor, which could even translate into positive publicity and virality (a challenge successfully overcome!).
The first opportunity to engage the user is the choice of a headline or an attractive design for the blog, so that the first visual impact is positive. We have a few seconds to ensure that the user does not discard our content and we have to impact him immediately (“in the art of seduction, an attractive look is the first thing that comes through the eyes”).
The next step to seduce him is through the physiognomy of content, that is, the structure and organization of ideas, the message that is conveyed directly and implicitly (“that drop of eyes at the most opportune moment”).
Failure to meet initial expectations will make you fall into the ranking of trust as an expert. However, when the user invests some time in commenting on the contents of a blog, it is because they have achieved a more intense reaction.
However, the true triumph of the corporate blog will have arrived when the contents are shared / disseminated by others, because they consider that they really add value. In addition, the generation of quality content leads to an increase in followers / subscribers and branding (the brand will be more popular).
Contents generated by third parties
In this section we could mention as a recommendation the creation of personalized RSS of interesting sites for our followers. Thus, sharing quality content generated by third parties will help to interact with them, involving them and, therefore, contribute to nurturing that trust.
The conversion, the ultimate goal
Converting our follower into a client is not only achieved by producing content of interest, this is only the first step of an ascent towards the Olympus of Conversion.
If we want our content to have a high power to generate sales (of products, services, and even ideas) it is important that they reflect the achievements of the company and its concrete results, appealing to objective data that confirm our supremacy in the sector. (for example: “We have managed to increase the sales of 60% of our customers”, “Our platform is interesting for advertising because it receives 50,000 visits a week”, etc.).
Participate in specialized contests, forums, conferences, events, fairs, etc. It is also key to positioning the brand and, of course, it is essential to reflect it in our contents. So important is what we do, like informing others about it.