What does content marketing bring to a business? Honestly about content marketing: examples, promotion methods, terms and prices. Platforms and delivery system

We bet you are familiar with content marketing firsthand? When in doubt, check your email, check Instagram and YouTube. We send you useful articles about website promotion 3-4 times a week, the fitness club shares the secrets of effective workouts and recipes for low-calorie snacks, and the auto shop tells you about protecting your car from theft.

Posts, photos, videos, e-books, training materials, texts on websites and there is content marketing - messages with a specific message for target audience. Content management helps:

• find new customers and retain old ones, attract partners - you will become an expert in the eyes of the target audience;
• increase brand awareness without advertising - regular publications will remind you of you;
• talk about the benefits of the product - show why you are better than your competitors;
• overcome the fears and doubts of buyers - push people to buy;
• promote the site in the search results and increase search traffic - get natural links that Yandex and Google love so much.

Content marketing is the marketing of the 21st century. It is used by world market sharks, regional companies and even single businessmen. There is only one reason for this: the technology works. Judge for yourself: in 1 day a person sees hundreds advertisements and at best perceives a couple of them. Helps you stand out from the crowd non-standard approach- do not impose your services and products, but gently and interestingly talk about them.

How it works?

Let's explain with an example: you need to get a haircut, a friend advised two masters. Their prices are the same, both can come to your home at a convenient time for you.

And this is Sasha, she leads Instagram and the Vkontakte group: she publishes photos of her work, gives advice on hair care, talks about fashion and answers questions from clients

Which of the girls would you like to get a haircut? Definitely to Sasha - because the photos and articles told you about her professionalism.

It is the same in other areas of business: we choose those companies that have won our trust. To do this, companies need not to sell, but to form relationships with customers - so that people know about them, be convinced of their professionalism and therefore turn to them.

The main weapon in such a battle is high-quality information. And the first goal that needs to be achieved is the regular filling of the site / profile in social networks with content. The second is the distribution of materials and user acquisition.

This technology is more effective than other methods of promotion: it eliminates the "resistance" of the client and forces him to trust you. After all, people themselves are looking for information that will help solve their problems.

Content was, is and will remain king. What is the point in the same contextual advertising, if the content forces you to hastily close the site? A person will click on the ad, see nothing important for himself and go to competitors.

There is one “but”: content marketing is not suitable for every business.

Sales are of two types: transactional - when price and convenience are more important to the client (bread, fruit, milk), consulting - if expert advice is needed before buying (refrigerator, sink, car). Content marketing works best in consultative selling environments in B2B and B2C environments.

Complex product intellectual services, technological equipment and all other areas where you need to talk about the product before selling and educate the client	Regional business A canteen in Irkutsk, a regional network of gas stations - many will know about you, but this will not bring very big profits. It is unlikely that someone will go to you from Moscow
Unformed demand, start-ups Something new with a value that is incomprehensible to the consumer - it is necessary to introduce people to the product	Consumer Goods Everything we buy on the way home - buns, milk, butter, etc. Look at the price and convenience
Premium goods and services Expensive shoes, furniture, cosmetics, etc. - you need to explain its cost, talk about the benefits	Spontaneous purchases Chocolate, magazine - when the purchase decision is based on a sudden desire. What is more important here is a beautiful display of goods, the atmosphere is in place
Long sales cycle Computers, agricultural equipment, consulting and banking services - it is important to keep the client "on the hook"	Situational services Funeral agency, animal cremation - services that are needed due to the current situation. Then people don't choose for a long time
Own production You can build confidence in the product - talk about its features, manufacturing stages	low quality product Goods and services are objectively worse than those of competitors - it will be problematic to stand out from their background and win the trust of consumers

It will be difficult, but you can try content marketing:

• Overheated market. It is difficult for a website promotion agency to stand out from the competition - after all, there are thousands of promoted blogs in this area. To be successful, you need to be the best and connect ads to your content marketing.
• Resale. It will be especially difficult for unofficial distributors. Before buying, a person considers many factors: price, terms and conditions of delivery, availability of guarantees, etc. You will have to know exactly why they should choose you.

The scale of the business does not matter: content marketing can be done by a household appliances store with branches throughout Russia and a confectioner at home. The main thing is to soberly assess your capabilities, build a strategy, choose channels and go towards the goal.

Webinars. It’s quite difficult to organize them, but there is a point: good webinars help sell. It is important to talk in an interesting and useful way, to be concise - then people will watch you.

Example: stylist Inna Belova. A couple of times a month, the girl shares her style secrets with her subscribers for free. After all, this is a great opportunity to show your professionalism and ... indirectly sell coaching programs.

Profile publications and blogs on your subject. It would seem completely illogical to publish materials created with such difficulty on someone else's resource: the content will develop it, drive traffic and improve behavioral factors. At the same time, you usually can’t make links to your product, often even UTM tags are prohibited. Plus, you have to pay for placement on some sites.

The game is worth the candle - you will increase reach and recognition, increase engagement and loyalty, improve SEO performance and prove your expertise. The method is especially effective if there is a blog, but there is not enough traffic.

Example: Bright Mobile. The company has its own blog, but posts articles on SPARK, a communication platform for SMBs. The goal is to tell about yourself, find customers and business partners to answer questions from the target audience.

As you can see, many companies use content marketing. But this does not mean that you also need to urgently start your blog and start making your mailing list. Better think about whether it will help your business - clearly understand what you want to achieve and why. If you decide to try, get ready: there will be a lot of work, and the result will not be noticeable in a week.

How and when to evaluate the result of content marketing

There is a small fly in the ointment in every barrel of honey: content marketing is a game of perspective. If you are not afraid of this, then you can gradually become one of the leaders in your niche - the first result from the promotion can be assessed in at least 1-3 months.

Select KPIs in advance, by which you will determine the effectiveness of your work. In total, 11 metrics are used to analyze content marketing: you need to apply those that relate to your goals and the type of published materials. For example, you want to understand whether it makes sense to post articles on a partner site - to do this, track clicks on links from your text.

The main thing is not to try to immediately bite off more than you are capable of - otherwise you will be disappointed. Start small: consult with experts, analyze the site and competitors, develop a strategy. We advise you to hurry - while the competitors are not ahead.

Conclusions:

What is this	A technology for creating and distributing content that will attract the target audience. In essence, content marketing is the indirect sale of goods and services.
How does it work	Helps to gain trust: shows the professionalism of the company, removes fears and concerns, increases brand awareness. Plus useful for SEO - you will get natural links
The better than other promotion methods	Works for the future and is not perceived as advertising - people see the care of the brand and become more loyal to it
Who suits	B2B and B2C areas where consulting selling is used: complex products, manufacturing, premium goods and services, start-ups
Where to begin	Website and competitor audit → strategy and plan development → content creation → publication of materials → results monitoring
How to evaluate the result	At least in 1-3 months, view Yandex.Metrica data and track the achievement of goals, count the number of likes and dislikes, shares, read comments

If you want to try content marketing, but there is no time to delve into the details, contact us. We will develop a marketing strategy and create texts that will help increase sales, increase audience loyalty and improve the site in search results.

You should not start creating content if the company does not understand why content marketing is needed for business.

“Our competitors have launched a blog. We want it too.” It won’t work that way.

Nothing will work. You will simply throw away money and time, but you will not get a return. First, understand why you need it, and only then, build a strategy, create content and get results.

Your articles, letters and videos must fit into the company's goal, and you must know and always remember the answer to the question: "why do we do content marketing?".

If you're blogging purely for creative expression, keep it up and don't limit yourself in any way.

But if you're blogging for business, you need a reason, purpose, and strategy. Otherwise it's all for nothing.

This article has 7 points that explain why content marketing is a business. Choose for yourself one, two, several or all. And only after that, if you understand and agree that you need it, act.

As a rule, content marketing is able to help every business. With the right approach, everything will work out.

Reason 1 - Build audience trust

Without benefit there is no trust

This is the most important reason and purpose of content marketing.

When you create content for your audience that helps solve problems, the audience trusts you. Your site becomes their friend and advisor. They see that you understand your topic and share knowledge.

This gives them an idea of ​​you as a specialist they can trust. When the time is right, they will turn to you with money and become buyers.

When there is no trust, a person will not spend money. Is it dangerous. Therefore, create valuable content that will solve problems.

Reason 2 - Attract new customers

Your readers are potential customers. They have not bought anything yet, but they are already reading your articles to solve their problems. And if they can solve problems with your content, over time they will become buyers. Or at least they will bring new readers who will also become customers.

To get readers to share your posts, create content that your competitors don't. Articles should be convenient, attractive and self-sufficient. Videos are clear and detailed.

Your goal is to make sure that the reader does not have to go to other sites for additional information to solve your problem. All information must be on your website.

No matter how many customers you currently have, create a steady flow of new ones to grow your business and make more profit.

Create content that closes readers' tasks in one place. Preferably on one page.

Reason 3 - Get to know your customers better

Communicate with clients to find out what is troubling them

Successful companies thrive because they help clients solve health problems, parents, children, businesses.

You know what content to create for clients when you have clearly defined what issues they care about. Just create content with which the user will solve the problem and come to you again in the future, because you are now his friend.

When you help readers solve problems, they see you as a trusted advisor and come with other problems. Ask questions in the comments, by email. In addition, you can hold lectures or webinars to answer user questions and get new questions, tasks and problems that customers have.

This way you get to know your customers better and get information for new useful content to attract even more potential customers.

Create content to help your audience solve problems and get even more information to create new content and reach new audiences.

Reason 4 - Demonstrate benefits

When creating content, start from problems and talk about solutions. For this, users go to the site.

When creating content, suggest ways to solve problems. Reveal methods, give tips, hacks, different approaches.

For example, if a person has a toothache, he will seek information on how to get rid of the pain.

In this case, write a detailed article with the title "10 ways to get rid of a toothache." And if you represent a dental clinic, insert an appointment form at the end of the article. Because it is the most reliable and proven way to solve the problem of sick teeth. This is how you get a customer with content marketing.

A good content strategy is not to talk about how good your product is, but to demonstrate how you help people solve problems with this product.

Demonstrate the benefits of the product - this is the basis of sales in content marketing.

Reason 5 - Remove objections

When your potential customers want to buy a product, they compare information from several sources. They choose whether they want to save money or get guarantees. As a result, they choose the seller who managed to close the majority of objections.

Content marketing is a great method to remove customer objections that prevent a purchase.

If the high price objection is common in your business, create content that shows how buying a product at that price actually saves the customer money in the long run. Tell the stories of other clients, count together with the reader using examples.

It is important that he sees that buying a quality product is more expensive - it means saving in the future.

If customers find your product difficult to use, talk about how people ages 8 to 70 use your product. Train the customer to use the product. So you remove objections and get buyers.

Think about the objections that buyers of your products have and build a content marketing strategy that will overcome these objections.

Reason 6 - Strengthen the loyalty of existing customers

Every company strives to attract new customers. But the most big potential embedded in existing clients.

Selling to an existing customer is easier than gaining the trust of a new one.

Repeat sales - distinguishing feature successful business from unsuccessful.

If you haven't created content for existing clients up to this point, get started. This is how you can increase your profits.

Create useful knowledge for people who have already bought from you. Your products and services will be more effective if you combine them with useful and user-friendly content.

Reason 7 - SEO is like a flood of new customers

There are companies that create content just to attract new users. They insert tens into the text keywords and wait for search engines to bring traffic.

Traffic comes and goes right away - users see that the article is of poor quality.
They need to turn to other sources to solve their problems. So the content they found is useless. Search engines track user behavior and demote a useless article in the search results.

First benefit - then optimization.

If you create useful content that solves problems, search engines see that users find a solution in your material, regard it as useful and raise it in the search results.

SEO is an important part of content creation, but value is more important. Therefore, this paragraph is the last in the article.

Get Started with Content Marketing

You now have a reason to start.

If you have any questions, ask them in the comments. If you want to argue with me or supplement the article with benefits - also in the comments.

If this article is useful for you, I will be grateful if you transfer it to your page using the social network buttons.

We released new book"Content Marketing in in social networks: How to get into the head of subscribers and fall in love with your brand.

Content marketing is a set of marketing techniques based on the dissemination and creation of information useful to consumers. This is necessary to attract new potential customers and build trust among the consumer audience.

More videos on our channel - learn internet marketing with SEMANTICA

To make it easier to explain what content marketing for a business is, let's look at a simple example.

When you're watching TV and your favorite show is interrupted by annoying ads, it's terribly annoying. Naturally, you develop only a negative attitude towards the advertised product or service. And now the situation is different: you are watching an interesting show, for example, a beauty contest. One of the participants tells how she prepares for performances, what means she uses, gives advice and mentions XXX shampoo. What is your attitude towards the product? Surely you want to buy it and try it. Do you feel difference? Just like on the Internet, content marketing does not use direct advertising, it indirectly convinces to choose a product or service.

How KM works

Content marketing for sales growth works as follows: specialists create high-quality content and use it to attract an audience. It is necessary to build a strategy and clearly work on it. Let's figure out how to do it and what tools you can use.

Content Marketing Tools

Author's publications

Can write articles on how to choose household appliances, what are the trends in the market, talk about the results of surveys and studies, about algorithms for solving problems, about comparing products, and so on. In order for the SEO of an author's publication to be effective, it must unobtrusively contain keywords, consumer queries. These can be informational queries (“which smartphone is better XXX or Oooh”) or commercial (“buy a smartphone). Pick up optimal queries You can use the services MegaIndex, Key Collector, Pastukhov's Keyword Database.

white paper

This is a book that contains all the useful information regarding a particular request. For example, a person entered the query “buy a tablet”. The search results will contain a bunch of the same type of offers and a non-standard snippet: "10 frauds by the seller, how to choose the right tablet." Where do you think the user will click? That's right, the original snippet. Then he will go to the site, where he will be asked for an email. Then he will receive a whole magazine with detailed recommendations.

visual materials

These can be videos, images, photos that provide useful information. Infographics are especially relevant today.

Video content

These are videos that are posted on the company's own Youtube channel.

Webinars and online conferences

On them, users can get new knowledge in their profile, exchange experiences.

Examples of working content marketing are everywhere. One of them is the Svyaznoy online store. Specialists have created informative product descriptions and written useful reviews of upcoming new products. Today it is not even an online store, but a real one. informational portal where you can find comprehensive information about gadgets. As a result: an increase in visitors to the site and an increase in the number of sales.

The Benefits of Content Marketing for Different Types of Business

Regardless of the specifics and essence of the business, content marketing methods can achieve the following goals:

• Form the image of an expert. If a company is an active participant in the market and shares its experience, the audience gets the impression: “These guys know what they are talking about, they are pros – I will order from them.”
• Increase the importance of the Internet resource for the search engine. Due to useful and high-quality content, the importance of the site increases, promotion becomes more effective.
• Increase loyalty. The company begins to provide assistance in solving customer problems, providing the necessary information. The consumer is aware that here they can satisfy his need and solve the issue of interest. The price fades into the background, a loyal attitude is developed towards it.
• Strengthen the efficiency of capitalization. Content marketing allows you to work to create and develop a company's brand. As a result, sales and final profit increase.

How content marketing differs from traditional promotion

1. From SEO. With this promotion, the company pays for high positions on the search results pages of various search engines. KM takes into account the current situation on the market, the real needs of the target audience, and the categories of potential customers.
2. From Email Marketing. With content marketing, potential customers themselves give the address Email and expect to receive useful materials in the future. In no case should you impose magazines or e-books.
3. From SMM. If the content is really high-quality and useful, then with KM there is no need to distribute it. Interested users will do everything for you: they will send articles, recommend an interesting resource to friends, share their impressions.
4. From traditional PR. KM takes into account the portrait of the user, analyzes his requests and visits, readings. This allows you to see the correct picture as a whole.

How to write a content marketing strategy

A content marketing strategy consists of several steps. Let's analyze them using the example of an online store selling household appliances.

1. Formulation of goals. Determine why you need a strategy, what tasks you set for yourself. For example, you want to make this or that product more popular, increase the number of orders, and so on.
2. Dividing the target audience into groups. It is necessary not only to segment the target audience, but also to find out what the needs of each group are.
3. Search for sites where the target audience is concentrated. These can be thematic forums, YouTube channels, events (both online and offline), social media groups, search engines, and so on.
4. Market analysis. Analyze the resources of competitors: how often they update content, what is the level of quality, what is the semantics.
5. Choice of instruments and channels. Determine the location of the concentration of CA.
6. Development of a plan for periods: a week, a month, a year. Divide goals and objectives into small sub-periods, determine the frequency of publication of materials, outline topics. At the very beginning, it is difficult to determine the amount of content needed. You need to be guided by the experience of colleagues. In about six months, it will be possible to work out the optimal volume and frequency of publications based on sales data, conversions, and completed requests.

Content marketing effectively attracts and retains the attention of users, while effectively promoting a service or product on the market. The emphasis is on the future, there is no instant traffic attraction. But in the end, high-quality traffic is attracted and conversions increase.

Don't believe anyone who tells you that content marketing is the future of business. It's already real. Today, Western analysts are talking about the explosive growth of this area of ​​Internet marketing.

Content marketing - if you haven't heard this word yet, then remember it, you will hear it very soon. You are probably already implementing this technology without even knowing it. If not, then you will start implementing very soon. Content marketing, in fact, will very soon become the main path for the development of Internet marketing in general.

So what is content marketing?

Content Marketing is a marketing technology for creating and distributing in-demand content to attract the target audience. The task of technology is to encourage the consumer to take targeted actions, to involve him in your conversion scenario. Content marketing is information received by your potential buyer in right time and in the right place.

• Do you think that you have good prices? But your client doesn't even know about it!
• Do you think that you have real competitive advantages? But your client doesn't even know about it!
• Do you think your products and services are the best on the market? But your client doesn't even know they exist!
• Everything your customer is looking for on the internet is information. The right information, distributed through the right channels, is the essence of content marketing.

Now, to make it more clear, let's take an example. You are selling a product. Your page literally begs the visitor: well, buy-and-and-and-and! Content marketing technologies are fundamentally different from this. We take your product and competitors' products, we make a review on the topic " Why is your product better?? We give the consumer to make their own choice - what product to choose, and this choice should be in your favor. Is your product really the best on the market? And most importantly: there should be many such reviews. More precisely - a lot. More precisely - very, very much.

Key benefits of content marketing:

• Indirect sale through the content demanded by your audience.
• Content marketing does not directly work for your brand, but it makes it recognizable.
• Brand promotion requires a smaller budget than through classical advertising methods.
• Improved rankings in search engines. They love natural links!
• Search traffic increases due to growth - after all, content marketing implies a constant increase in the number of new materials on the site, which means that the number of promoted queries increases.
• Strengthens the authority of your company or brand, creating quality content will make you an expert in the eyes of both the consumer and competitors.
• Content marketing comes naturally! This is not a pressure on search engine results due to seo links. So, in the long run, this is exactly what will be in demand by search engines.

As you can see, some pluses. Content marketing creates trust, credibility, which, in turn, destroys the "resistance" of the client. The required information is a description of the benefits that the customer will receive from a particular product or service. Content rules the internet as consumers seek information that can solve their problems.

The end of traditional online advertising?

But why?! Why suddenly “good old” search engine optimization (built on the purchase of link mass) is rapidly fading into the background?

• On the Internet, the "classic" scheme entering keys + buying links is a complete failure. Search engines have learned to recognize the rude tricks of SEOs, and now the manipulators of the issuance are sitting with nothing. Link budgets growing exponentially is the way of “classic seo”. And it's a road to nowhere.
• People do not need a stupid “push-in” of a product, but information that they could trust. It turns out that consumers are smarter than previously thought. They need not to sell - they need to be told about the benefits and leave the chance to make a choice for themselves.
• Content marketing wins even compared to contextual advertising. Contextual advertising is direct action advertising. Content marketing works little by little and over a long period.

As for content marketing, its goal is not to actually sell goods (this is important, but not in the foreground), but to form relationships with the client. First of all, trust. You need to structure the work in such a way that people know you and trust you enough to do business with you or choose your products and services.

Information dissemination channels

The main weapon and tool of content marketing is information and only information. But - an important addition - high-quality information. The first and main task that needs to be solved is to fill the site with high-quality content, but, mind you, it’s not easy to fill it and forget it once, you need to write constantly for the site. Once you have embarked on the path of content marketing, then it will no longer be possible to turn off it.

The second step is to choose the right platforms for posting information and think carefully about the channels for its distribution. We prioritize the following distribution channels for your content strategy:

• search engines, natural search results;
• systems contextual advertising;
• Direct.Mail (maintenance of corporate mailings on your subject);
• Social Media (maintaining your own groups and official pages and using other groups as channels for distributing your information);
• specialized online publications on your subject (and with content marketing, these will be articles, not “media”);
• blogosphere (maintaining your own corporate blog and attracting top runet bloggers to disseminate your information).

Post articles on thematic blogs, create a content newsletter for users, go to social networks if you are strong enough and set yourself the task of increasing your brand awareness and strengthening audience loyalty to your company. But first of all, think about promoting your site in terms of traffic (and therefore, in terms of a wide semantic core). There is no point in using other channels of influence until you have solved the problem of attracting natural search traffic. This is where content marketing comes in handy. Distribution of high-quality, interesting content for the target audience in the network is the only way increase the number of natural links to your site.

Because it works

Successful examples of content marketing? They are already there!

This is an online store of the Svyaznoy company - they relied on high-quality product descriptions and super-informative reviews of new products. That is why the website traffic today is hundreds of thousands of people a day. They could have gone the way of a “regular” online store, but instead turned their site into a mega-informative portal on gadgets, leading in terms of traffic and overtaking most media in terms of topics. People come to the site svyaznoy.ru not only (and not even so much) to buy, they come to find the information they need. And we are glad to be involved in the success of this company.

What can be more reliable than a trusting relationship? Content marketing is now used by giant multinational corporations, small firms, and even single businessmen. The only reason they do this is because content marketing works.

Content marketing is most effective when the average person receives a thousand advertisements and offers per day. Content marketing makes a person stop, read, think, choose and buy.

Yes, it's really possible to create a marketing strategy that will help you connect with your customers!

So, if you are interested in content marketing, this new evolution in marketing, then we will help you build a business strategy to attract new customers.

It's better to hurry, because very soon it will be possible to say: if you are not doing content marketing, then you are not doing online marketing at all.

Do you have any questions? See if we've already answered them?

• How long does it take for content marketing to start generating sales?
• How to achieve the expected result in promotion in the shortest possible time?

what-takoe-content-marketing

There is such a thing as “inbound marketing”, when you take a potential client and with the help of useful material turn him into your buyer, and then into a brand advocate.

The states have a great expression for this - grab your reader by the eyeballs and make them buy from you.

It is it that perfectly describes the concept of content marketing, however, in a very long term, but it is understandable.

Did not hear? Do not know?

I highly assume that you have not heard such a thing as content marketing. But I think you've heard the word content?! Although there are so many terms in the 21st century, so let's talk about everything in order.

2. Video

Another way to convey your thoughts, which will make you stand out from the competition, but also make you sweat.

Since to create it you will need a camera, light, microphone, room and oratory skill.

And if you think that now you can shoot everything on an old phone and people will look, then I will disappoint you, because the time has passed when this was a novelty.

Now the market demands quality and if it is missing, in most cases, your video will be closed. As an example, our recent interview with:

There is also a myth that the future is for and it is used better than the text.

And here again, from our practice, a case, we launched advertising through a video and an article to attract customers and saw that the article gave more efficiency.

And all because people almost did not watch the video, due to the fact that at that time they were either at the workplace or on the road. Which, as you understand, led to certain difficulties and they simply scored on him.

3.

At the moment, this area of ​​content has a great future. There are very few good infographics in Russia, and they spread just instantly.

The picture itself attracts more attention than bare text, and if this picture still contains a squeeze of useful and interesting information, then they will be very willing to share it.

Clue. You can find infographics on your topic at English language(good for them great amount) and translate it into Russian.

This is how 98% of all other companies operate. We personally are not yet ready for such tasks, because this requires even more time than in the video. And time is money.

Content marketing in the flesh

Now that we have decided on the types of content, let's figure out in what places and how we can distribute it so that our audience can hear it.

And looking ahead, I want to say that you don’t need to rush everywhere at once. This is quite bulky and costly.

1. Blog

Well, how could I start from another? You are just on it now and are, this is a great example.

In our case, if a manager wants to understand marketing, he gets to a page on a topic of interest to him and gets to know us, our expertise and our services.

Moreover, we attract readers to the blog mainly due to, and we have, which tells us what topics it is better to create material on, so that the client is more likely to get to it and order our services.

Since we try to always write only practical and useful things, people do not just come and go, they come back, and thus turn into loyal customers or, as we like to call, brand advocates.

And to make sure this happens, we have different calls in different parts of the page. Who can find them all? A?

2. Email marketing

Remember. After agreeing to a subscription, you need to send the subscriber extremely useful information, reading which he will get to know you better.

And only then send him special offers. Of course, everything is individual, but here is the most primitive example of how to make an email funnel for a classic “no-fuss” business:

1. letter 1 - the client subscribes to some utility and in this letter it is given to him;
2. letter 2 - a story about the company or the benefits of working with you;
3. letter 3 - spec. offer;
4. letter 4 - compression on special. offer.

3. Social networks

For all people, social networks are a separate area, which is called SMM. But if you look at it, then posting useful posts on social networks is the very content marketing miracle, where you can convey information through both large and small materials.

4. Media or electronic magazines

Remember I wrote that content marketing is cheap but takes a long time? In case you want to make it “quickly”, you will need to pay.

As a rule, articles in the media are expensive because they are purchased advertisements. But there are workarounds.

For example, if you are an expert in some field, then you can be published by quite authoritative publications or portals and at the same time do it completely free of charge. For example, as in all our cases. And this includes:

Publication in a business magazine

5. Youtube channel and analogues

We have already talked about the fact that people are now more willing to absorb information through video than through text.

Even take Instagram, which was originally the realm of photo content. Now video clips are actively watched there and this direction captures more and more percent of the active audience.

And for this, YouTube will help you. At the moment, it is the most popular site, where millions of people go daily to find the material they are interested in.

Therefore, the easiest advice is to shoot a series of short training videos and. Again, an example from my own experience:

TOP video on youtube

6. Marketing kit, landing page and other materials

Definitely, this item cannot be attributed 100% to content marketing, but it cannot be completely removed from this area either.

And then the question arises, are there only sales on your pages or is there useful content, thanks to which the client receives new information that is useful and interesting to him?

Think about it. We also strive for this constantly, and for this we all try to do some things that catch the eye and provide positive benefits. For example, like this calculator:

Useful content example

Everything is good and everything is bad

Everything seems to sound great and clear. But like any tool, content marketing has pros and cons that you need to be aware of before you start diving headlong into it.

And we talk about them not on the basis of information from textbooks, but from our own experience, for which we paid a lot of money.

Pros :

• Usefulness for potential customers. And this is a different tone of conversation, especially if you are not greedy and share really valuable information .;
• One of the types. Which is considered the most unobtrusive and most importantly does not cause irritation;
• Low budget advertising. In part, plus controversial, but still you must remember that saving money will have to be paid with a waste of time;
• High status. You provide extremely useful information, which means that in the eyes of the client you are an expert proving the full depth of your competence;
• Virality. With the right approach, content can begin to spread like a virus, and this guarantees you a huge reach (flow) of people without additional investment;
• Works for a long time. Also a controversial plus, but I know a case when a person brought his video to the top of the Youtube channel, then radically changed his field of activity.

  But even after 3 years, people interested in his past services turned to him;

• Fame. In addition to showing yourself as an expert, you become even more popular, because your face, your name is everywhere, wherever a person goes.

  Figuratively speaking, first you work for the content, then the content works for you;

• Growth in SEO. Well, quite a trifle - a lot of quality content directly affects your site in search results.

Minuses :

• Long story. If someone tells you that content marketing is “quick-and-dirty”. Don't believe! This is a long, constant, painstaking work. And far from one specialist (with a qualitative approach). As the saying goes, “tested in my own skin”;
• Lots of tasks. The budget required is not large, but this does not mean that there will be few tasks. There will be a lot of them. Writing an article is one thing, optimizing it for SEO is another, buying links to it is another. That is, either you will make content slowly, or you will have to contact an organization specializing in this;
• Full time job. Remember we talked about the plus that works for a long time? So there is back side. She says that with strong competition every day the content should become better and better, up to perfection. Otherwise, the loss of positions is guaranteed to you;
• Delayed clients. Not always, of course, but most of the time. For example, from launching a blog and articles written on it to receiving the first applications, it can take 3-6 months (or a large budget for quick promotion).

Who needs content promotion

I want to say that every business needs this instrument, but if you really look at the situation, then there are niches where it is ideal, and there are areas where it is better to abstain and think about another way to advance.

Now you will see questions in front of you, answering which you will pass an express test for the disposition to the KM.

With a positive answer, you can give yourself a plus sign and consider that it was created for you. If the answer is negative, you should once again think about it or even abandon this idea.

1. Do your potential customers have questions about your product?
2. There are many such questions and they are all different?
3. They are not only in the mind of the client, they are also searched for in search engines(examination wordstat.yandex.ru)?
4. Do you have enough expertise to prepare useful information?
5. Do you have the time and resources for ongoing (non-tear-off) content production?
6. Do your customers need to “mature” before buying?
7. Can you share your work easily and publicly?

Well? Yes or no? In some cases it will be both yes and no. In this version, I would first think about getting customers from more understandable and quick ways. And only then, when you have raked everything out, you can move on to this approach.

Briefly about the main

I can confidently say that this kind of promotion works. Because it is he who allows us to get customers on autopilot.

But, as I said, all this is not fast. We began to get more or less tangible results only after 6 months of work. I do not deny that we did something wrong, but I can definitely say that we did better than many.

And if you think that the client will simply find the answer to his question in your content and leave, then I have something to tell you - whoever wants to get a solution for free, he will get it anyway and will never pay money for it.

And those who value their time and who have the opportunity to get acquainted with the material will definitely buy from you.

Once again, the scheme: you are looking for problems (tasks) of clients -> prepare material for this need (not forgetting to mention yourself) -> promote it (for free or paid) -> get clients. Everything is both simple and complex at the same time. Good luck in battle.