Content + Marketing = Business Success
Here at Brand Viva, we like to say that “we take the frustration out of content creation.” But what exactly is “content creation” and why do we think it’s the best form of marketing?
What is content marketing?
Let’s get the definition out of the way.
Content marketing is a “strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
Okay, now let’s break it down.
noosa and discovering “a clearly defined audience”
As I’ve written before, you gotta have a brand. You need to know who you are, why you do what you do, and the specific audience you’re doing it for.
If you don’t know who you are, then you’ll never be able to define your audience. And good content marketing — marketing that’s successful in driving profitable customer actions — has to be tailored to an audience.
To discover your audience takes research, time, and empathy. But only after you’ve figured out who you are and why you exist.
Let’s take noosa yoghurt as an example. If you navigate to their website, then one of the first things you’ll see is this:
we’re noosa, and we make yoghurt. but not just any yoghurt. ours is thick and velvety. sweet and tart. it’s a labor of love that starts in small batches on the farm and ends in a delicious scoop on your spoon.
From this, you can tell that noosa doesn’t hold to conventional punctuation. That might be a strange thing to notice, but it conveys to their audience that they’re not a conventional company. In other words, noosa ain’t no Yoplait.
The second thing that comes across is that noosa really loves yoghurt. They love it so much in fact that they’ll go to extreme efforts to make it correctly. They’re part of the farm to table movement and they care about crafting an experience for their customer with every batch they make.
Finally, they care about you, the customer. Whether you like it or not, you’re their end goal.
noosa knows who they are, why they do what they do, and the specific audience they’re doing it for.
If I had to guess, I’d say that noosa did some serious market research and tailored their brand, image, and content to healthy, environmentally conscious, and community-focused individuals. All of which is conveyed in a simple brand statement.
To summarize, if you want to “retain a clearly defined audience,” then you first need to get straight on who you are and why you exist. Then, and it’s no easy task, follow up your branding with a little research to discover your target audience.
Create and distribute valuable, relevant, and consistent content
This is going to sound strange, but content marketing isn’t about you. It’s about discovering your target audience and providing them with something clear, useful, and practical.
Once you’ve identified your target audience, ask yourself this question: what does my audience find valuable?
Let’s stick with noosa.
Their target audience — or so I’m assuming — is healthy, environmentally conscious, and community-focused individuals. Knowing this (and hopefully backing it up with research), noosa would conduct interviews, surveys, etc. to answer the question: What does my audience find valuable?
Once answered, noosa can begin creating content that is audience-centered and valuable to their customers.
And here’s the thing: it doesn’t always have to be about noosa or yoghurt. It just has to be content that their audience finds valuable. The caveat, of course, is that it also has to be relevant.
Since noosa uses a lot of honey in their product, an example of relevant content for noosa might be valuable or interesting facts about the honeybees they source from. I mean, who doesn’t like to know where their food comes from, right? Or, for that matter, how the companies we buy from are taking care of the world’s food sources?
Here are some fun facts about honeybees.
Relevant content for your target audience can profit from being outside of the box. Don’t always make your content about you! Make it about your customer, their values, and their interests.
And as always, be useful and clear.
Consistent Content
Consistent content doesn’t mean that you manufacture and produce content all the time. It means, rather, that your voice, tone, and branding is consistent across all of your outputs.
You want your target audience to positively identify you online and in the real world. This requires you to do a little work up front and create company brand guidelines that all of your content producers can refer to.
That way, no matter where or how your audience is engaging your product, you feel and sound the same, as well as provide the same, great level of service.
Conclusion
Content marketing is a great way to reach your target audience and drive profitable customer action. It’s not easy though.
First, brand yourself.
Second, get your audience right.
Third, find out what your customer values.
Fourth, be relevant.
And finally, be consistent across all of your marketing outlets.