aims to acquire and develop potential customers, make purchases, and establish them as fans by producing and disseminating valuable content.
In recent years, as sales-type advertising methods have become less effective, this is attracting attention as a new marketing method to replace them.
This time, we will introduce what content marketing is, content marketing strategies, and success stories.
Related materials:
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a marketing method that aims to acquire and develop potential customers by producing and disseminating content that is valuable to target customers, with the aim of converting them into purchases and further establishing them as fans.
In content marketing, the target audience is not customers who have already identified a need for a specific product.
We target customers whose needs have not yet manifested, and use content to help them realize their needs and raise awareness of our company, while gradually leading them to purchase.
With the spread of the Internet, it is said that sales-type advertising methods such as mass advertising such as TV commercials, website banner ads, and teleappointment sales have become less effective.
Even in the sales activities of BtoB companies, it is enough to gather information about the buyer company by searching the Internet, so it is sometimes said that “the era of sales by ordering is over”.
Content marketing is a new marketing method that replaces the traditional sales-type advertising methods, making it possible to approach customers who actively collect information on the Internet.
Content marketing strategy
Now, let’s take a look at what kind of strategies are needed to actually carry out content marketing.
Understand the advantages and disadvantages of content marketing
Content marketing has advantages and disadvantages. When conducting content marketing, it is important to choose a method that can take advantage of its benefits.
Content marketing has the following advantages and disadvantages:
〇Advantages of content marketing
You can connect with potential customers who have not yet appeared as potential customers.
It is possible to cultivate customer needs for products that have not yet emerged as market needs.
Customers’ confidence in the company can be increased.
High cost-effectiveness in the long term
〇Disadvantages of content marketing
Managing a site takes time and effort
It is not cost-effective in the short term because it does not have an immediate effect.
Reach power is not necessarily high
must be tackled in the long term
Deeply understand your target customers and their potential needs
The content you send in content marketing must be information that is valuable to your target customers.
Therefore, before considering what kind of content to create, it is necessary to deeply understand your customers.
Setting up personas is an effective way to understand your customers. At the same time, it is also important to understand what kind of latent needs your customers have.
Set clear goals
Setting clear goals is important for successful content marketing. If you are a BtoB company, your goal may be to increase business negotiations.
Set goals with clear numbers, such as “increase by 30%.”
In addition, it is important to set preliminary indicators such as “inquiries” and “requests for materials” as a prelude to the final goal, and measure the effectiveness of each goal/indicator in the implementation stage.
Select the optimal content method and content
As a method used in content marketing,
・Business blog
・White paper
・E-mail magazine
・Video content
・Case study content
and so on. Also regarding the content,
・Do you want to gain recognition or lead to purchases?
・Do you want to appeal to emotions or logic?
It varies depending on. Choosing the right technique and content for your content is important.
Take measures to help your content be found
The content you create must be found by your target customers. Here are some ways to help customers find you:
– Get found via search engines
Search engines will be the primary way for content to be found. In order to rank high on search engines, it is important to have search engine optimization in place.
・Notification via email magazine
Customers who have registered their email address can be notified via email newsletter. However, e-mail newsletters are meaningless if they are not opened, so it is important that the content and themes make the readers want to read them.
・Diffusion through social media
Social media allows for two-way communication. This can be said to be effective in creating fans for your content.
·press release
Press releases, which are official company information released to the mass media, can be seen by many people at no cost once they are covered as articles.
・Combine advertisements
By combining remarketing ads, native ads, and Facebook ads, you can reach a wide range of customers with your content.
Content marketing success stories
Let’s take a look at some success stories from content marketing B2B companies.
freee Co., Ltd.
“Management Hacker”
This site is operated by freee Inc., which provides cloud-based accounting software.
We rank high in search rankings by publishing explanatory articles on topics such as “year-end tax adjustment,” “employment insurance,” and “my number system” that target managers, corporate accountants, and individual business owners want to know about. .
Digital Studio Co., Ltd., which provides a platform for building multilingual e-commerce sites, is an owned media company that distributes content for e-commerce site operators.
Online seminars are held frequently and there are contact points with potential customers in remote locations.
summary
◆ Content marketing is attracting attention as a marketing method that can replace sales-type advertising methods.
◆ It is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of content marketing and conduct it strategically.
◆ Many BtoB companies are achieving results through content marketing.
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