After a jolting 2020, you may be wondering what direction your marketing strategy should adopt. Should you cut expenses and reduce your marketing efforts? Should you maintain the status quo? In his recent article, Paul Connolly, Founder & CEO of The Copy Bear, argues that doubling down on your content marketing efforts is the best approach, and based on the marketing results Liger has seen with our clients, I agree.
Prior to 2008 (we’re talking pre-smart phones), buyers followed a linear customer journey in the sales cycle: awareness, exploration, comparison, and purchase.
With the introduction of smartphones, ubiquitous Internet, and social media, a tremendous amount of information is readily available at consumers’ fingertips. Buyers move in and out of the buyer journey, visiting social media, news sites, reviews, competitors while in a physical store, through each phase of the cycle. meaning you don’t have the control you once had over how they are making their decision. In order to be successful, you need your company (and your content) to show up everywhere.
With the new challenges of today’s market, it is now our job as marketers to replicate the organic and in-person touchpoints that are now more difficult or even impossible to come by due to the pandemic.
This is done by delivering well-crafted and targeted content for each stage in the buying cycle through an effective content strategy.
The good news is you likely have the majority of the work done to get started. Before you spend hours upon hours strategizing and creating new content, try these 2 tips to get the most out of content you already have on hand.
- Reuse, Refresh, Revamp
You probably already have a portfolio of content around your products and services, but due to COVID, they may not be relevant anymore, at least not totally. There is no reason to completely throw these out. Instead, try editing them to come at the information from a different angle. This way, you won’t spend as much time trying to create an entirely new piece that says essentially the same thing.
- Convert Your Tell Content to Teach Content
If you take a look at your current content, you’ll probably find you’re ‘telling’ your customers about your products and services and why they’re the best. Instead, convert that content to educational pieces that give them confidence as informed buyers. Your content should show you know your customers, you know their problems, and you know how to solve them.
Your marketing strategy does not have to be complicated, but it should reflect the way the market and consumers are changing. As buyers now enter and exit the customer journey seemingly at random, you must ensure you are meeting them where they are, when they are there, with content and resources for each stage.
Luckily, you likely already have content that can be reworked for the post-Covid world. And even better news? Content marketing provides the largest ROI for each dollar spent compared to any other marketing tactic. Not a bad deal.
If you’d like to chat about creating a marketing strategy that addresses your company goals, connect with Liger here or find 5 more ways to capitalize on content here.