How to get more out of your Content Marketing strategy? Here I suggest 3 different solutions from the usual, many tips for each of these + Final Bonus!
You know when, after kilometers and kilometers already traveled and the intense desire to return, you find yourself at a crossroads with a dubious choice? One road will bring you closer to your goal, the other will take you far away. Well, when you plan a Content Marketing strategy, when you set up the communication of your website, every time you write content for your blog or post on Social Networks, you find yourself at this crossroads here. And each time you will have to choose the wisest option.
How to do? Here I suggest 3 solutions [+ Bonus] to help you navigate the rough paths, three fireflies that will dazzle you every time the darkness has dropped its clothes and covered your way.
No, it won't be the usual 3 Content Marketing tricks : carefully study your target audience, plan your strategy in advance, write valuable content. These 3 Content Marketing solutions will really help you get more out of your strategy and content creation, they will really save you time and resources and make you understand how important it is to ethically win people's trust. Of your people.
1. Communicate responsibly
A sense of responsibility is what 90% of brand communication strategies lack. And for this very reason, also for this reason, it is what can make you make a difference.
What does it mean to communicate responsibly? It means planning a communication and Content Marketing strategy that speaks to people and their fears, not to numbers . It means being responsible for the content we communicate and how we do it. It means knowing how to touch the deepest chords of the human soul to grow together, improve together. It means experiencing the context as active protagonists and adapting communication and contents perfectly to this.
Communicating responsibly means protecting people and their data , cradling their sensitivity and their fears. It means being part of the context and being on the side of the people.
A few numbers on Responsible Content Marketing
Read a bit here. These are the most important data reported by a research conducted by GroupM on 14,000 consumers in 23 countries around the world. Among the results:
- 56% of respondents want to have more control over their data ;
- 60% of respondents said they are less likely to use a product if the brand uses its data for any purpose ;
- 37% of respondents find digital ads too intrusive .
Don't forget that Native Advertising makes the difference in digital, i.e. the possibility of inserting your promotional messages in native contexts, assuming their form and content. Objective? Interest people without disturbing them, too much at least.
But there's more. You must always keep in mind that people's interest in you can sometimes be just informative, educational . Not always and not necessarily people want to buy. Here, communicating responsibly also means respecting the right moment.
Communicating responsibly means respecting the right moment.
The right time for your people, not for you.
Another research conducted by Ipsos Poll on March 20, 2020 in the USA showed that:
- 72% of the people interviewed believe that brands have a social responsibility to offer help to the community during the Coronavirus emergency;
- 71% of them want concrete advice and practical guidelines to understand how to face and get out of the crisis;
- 33% of people believe that brands should convey positive sensations and emotions with their communication campaigns.
Getting into the context means just that. It means not only adapting to what happens but also living it as protagonists. Acting and doing something concrete and selfless for people when the moment calls for it.
2. Content Marketing Proposes Change
Modern marketing travels away from the old utilitarian marketing, where everything was about product, money and the masses. Marketing today is effective only if and when it proposes a change to the niche of people we address, when it puts itself at the service of people , solves their problems, improves their lives.
Content Marketing has a precise task: to help people solve their problem. Show people how to improve their lives , offer them a new vision of the world and support them in this profitable change. How to do it?
3 very useful tips for the Content Marketing of change
- Analyze people's dreams, desires and intimacy even before age, gender and purchasing power;
- tell honest stories that are capable of making connections, that are imbued with meaning, and that plant the seed of change;
- Build anticipation and strategically work to spread your stories and ideas for improvement among your chosen niche of people.
3. Eliminate all doubts and risks
A truly effective Content Marketing strategy always manages to anticipate objections . He is able to understand the doubts people have, the risks they perceive and eliminate them even before they can affect the final result, the action to be taken.
Why is this technique so important? And how to anticipate objections?
Confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is one of the most common unconscious cognitive biases that affect our perception of reality. It happens that people only pay attention and remember information that confirms their preconceptions , ingrained prejudices and the knowledge they have already acquired. That's why, if someone has a negative bias towards your brand and/or your product or service, it's crucial to anticipate and discourage any objection.
How can you do it? Here are some very useful techniques:
- your contents must be emotional and it is also important to offer technical and specific details that rationally confirm the goodness of the emotional choice that people have made;
- provide data to support your thesis;
- make good use of the testimonials and reviews of people who have already come into contact with you. Encourage people to share their experiences and, above all, the fears they had and that you managed to dispel. Remember, testimonials and reviews must be honest and real;
- in the event that the data includes multiple options, especially comparative ones, prefer the tables . The tables are an explanatory tool, clear and easily understandable;
- takes advantage of the design to prevent objections, also graphically providing spaces dedicated to this.
The 6 most important perceived risks
Look at your watch. How long has it been since you started reading this article? Were you afraid that dedicating a few minutes to me would be useless and you would only end up wasting your precious time? Here, this is an example of perceived risk that I disassembled from the very first words of the post by telling you:
No, it won't be the usual 3 Content Marketing tricks […] These 3 Content Marketing guidelines will help you get more out of your strategy and content creation, they will really save you time and resources and…
The people who approach your communication may have different fears and the type of perceived risk varies from person to person . This is also why it is essential to know your target audience in depth before planning a Content Marketing strategy.
What are the most important perceived risks?
- Functional risk , i.e. the fear that the product may not work;
- the risk of financial loss , i.e. the fear of paying for a product or service that we will not use or the fear of not having enough money to buy it;
- waste of time : will the product arrive on time? Do I have enough time to use it? Is the customer service fast and effective?
- physical risk , i.e. the fear that the product or service is dangerous to my health and/or the environment;
- social risk : can the product help me communicate and improve my social status? Does the product correspond to the image I have of myself?
- the psychological risk , or the fear that the purchase is not really effective, thus ending up undermining my self-esteem.
You will understand well that for an effective Content Marketing strategy it is essential to know in depth the risks perceived by your customer, predict them and discourage them.
Bonus: The Copywriting Technique You Must Use
The contents are emotional journeys along the paths of the heart , flights of fancy along the paths of the head. The contents must be emotion, they must be sharing, they must be involvement and feeling.
A very useful Copywriting technique for writing emotional and empathetic content is to use perceptive words . Do you know what they are? These are words that have to do with how we perceive and experience external reality. Perceptual words are words such as imagine , hear , look , touch , notice . These are words that help you build sensory images in people's minds, which generate the sensation of perception and, therefore, emotion. The ultimate goal? Getting people to act.
Since we're on the subject of Copywriting, I also suggest another valuable technique for writing effective content. The ABS model : You attract people; Bypass their fears and defenses; Stimulate them to action.