By Frank Paterno, Published November 14, 2014
In today’s purchasing landscape, consumers are smarter than ever. They are more informed, more skeptical, more influenced by outside content, and less likely to fall into campaign traps. Marketers have come to rely on content to engage customers and prospects, establishing a brand trust that is vital to lead generation.
93% of B2B marketers use content marketing as part of their overall strategy. Having a strong content marketing strategy creates a relationship with your audience and target customers, which makes your business’ sales funnel more effective and ultimately converts more leads into sales.
Across industries, there are a number of techniques that brands can employ to have a strong marketing strategy and establish brand trust.
Be A Thought Leader
Any brand can publish product-related content, but the trusted companies are those that add value to conversations and are focused on helping their target audience. Create content that educates your consumers while showing that you are an authority and source of knowledge in your industry.
Your target audience is searching for answers to their biggest questions, and if your brand can provide those, it can become a main content source and stand out from competitors. Thought leadership also gives brands the opportunity to put faces and real people behind the brand name, which helps establish trust and strong relationships with customers and potential buyers.
Get Visual
Audiences become bored with large chunks of copy. Visual content is important to engage users, draw attention, and prioritize information. Designs don’t always have to be custom, but whenever your brand gets the chance, give your content that extra boost with visual elements.
For quick content turns, find innovative ways to repurpose content pieces you already have to make it more visual. These assets that have visual appeal will be easier for users to consume and more likely shared out by users as content they can depend on.
Establish a Company Blog
If you don’t already have one, a brand blog is a great tactic for generating leads. Blogs open the door to conversations, which are very effective for securing quality leads. A company blog should focus on providing content that is great for its readers, by keeping them interested and sparking their curiosity about the company and what it can offer.
Remember that consumers reading your blog may not even know what your product is. Use less actionable CTAs by asking people to follow you on social media or subscribe to email streams rather than signing up for a demo right away. This will lessen skepticism and leave them more open to conversations down the road.
Host Webinars
Webinars are an efficient way to get leads because users will provide their contact information in exchange for knowledge, often without any hesitation. The value that webinars provide consumers is so great that people are happy to give those details to companies. It also doesn’t hurt that they can participate from virtually anywhere.
When hosting a webinar, be sure to pick a topic that is specific to your audience, has a compelling speaker, and has the real-life application consumers are looking for. The value of the webinar is crucial to develop the brand trust you seek and become a dependable source of knowledge.
Leverage Industry Events
Industry events are another great way to put faces and real people to your brand name with speakers. Events also open doors to prospective leads so it is important to establish a strong voice and presence that consumers will trust. Content at events should provide value back to your target audience with the information they seek.
The real challenge comes with creating content that promotes your event in a way that the value lives on beyond the day-of. Consider interviewing speakers beforehand to promote the event, using a unique hashtag so consumers can track conversation before and after, sharing live updates via Twitter or the company blog, curating event-related content to share, and using photos to compile in a photo album.
The biggest mistake marketers can make is putting out content that their consumers don’t care about. Content marketing has become a vital part of the lead generation process to increase conversations and uncover leads.
Brands must attract, acquire, and engage a target consumer audience to grow business; building trust through content marketing is one of the best strategies to do so.
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