The revolution of marketing content: from campaign to publishing

Today's consumers are more assertive and critical. Believing blindly beautiful talk no longer happens. They just want to be well informed. As a result, the focus of companies is evolving: from sales-oriented or marketing-oriented, to customer-oriented. Today's marketer can no longer rely on bombarding with advertising messages. They must have a continuous, successful story. Exactly like a publisher.

A publisher continuously creates content in the form of books. Companies are often used to occasionally running a marketing campaign in which everything is temporarily taken out of the closet. Thinking like a publisher means you realize that you always have to create content. You feed the information needs of your target group, just as your product feeds their specific needs.

Content marketing creates trust

The continuous use of content works very differently from a campaign. It can take up to a year for the results to come. Content Marketing is therefore a long-term strategy, where you focus on the mission and not on scoring attention quickly. Just like with a publisher, the editorial mission is central: content. That is what consumers are ultimately looking for: real answers without a direct link to sales. Content is not a campaign, there is no beginning or end. By constantly offering quality, the trust is created with which customers get a brand preference and come back.

Google rewards good marketing content

Regular content on your website, ensures new positions in Google's search results and improves your existing positions. Especially when Google sees that its users really consume your content, because after a click on your result, they no longer appear in the search results. However, Google sees that after a few seconds they try a different result, then Google learns that your website does not give a good answer.

It only takes a while for your marketing content to pay off, as opposed to a marketing campaign. That's why companies often opt for one balance between SEO and SEA, where SEO stands for search engine optimization and SEA for Google Adwords. By paying for advertising space, you immediately get high on Google. At the same time, they focus on marketing content, with which more visitors gradually come to the website in a sustainable way.

Building customer relationships leads to revenue

The big difference between a marketing campaign and ongoing marketing is of course the duration. With a campaign you aim for a conversion. with continuous marketing you manage a relationship, in which you show that your company is worth the attention of the customer. Just like with a newsletter.

Newsletters are certainly not outdated by social media. Because while you can miss that one Facebook post in your timeline, you will always check your mailbox. Inspiring and stimulating headlines ensuring the opening of your newsletter and interesting content ensures the ongoing conversation with your client. Qualitative marketing content increases interaction and helps you to grow at the bottom revenue.

Understand your audience

Marketing content making starts with getting to know your audience. Take an average person from your target group and ask questions: what is the average age? Background and education received? Provincial or urban? Family situation? Kind of work? What are the typical problems and concerns that your target group has? Which media sources do they consult? With this you create a persona, to which you can tune your content.

Also look at the sales process. How are your products or services purchased? Which typical questions do customers ask in advance? What do they want to know and did they not find clear enough on your website? What alternatives are there and why do customers still choose your product? This gives you insight into the content that is needed to lead people to your product.

Google plays a major role in most sales, certainly for collecting product information, reviews and background information about their problems. Companies that think like a publisher, therefore, continuously provide marketing content.

Anchoring content marketing in your organization

A blog every week, a newsletter every month, a Facebook message twice a week. You really have to anchor content in the organization, otherwise it will go bad. Then that one marketing campaign will again take the upper hand, because so much has to be arranged for it. And because there is so much to do, you won't take the time to prepare your content strategy or update your content planning. Why would you? The challenge is to think of an employee who only sees a pile of work that needs to be done and act as an employer. What needs to happen? How do we achieve our goals? And then you see that long-term thinking does not ensure that your company will continue to exist. The campaigns are lagging behind, just like the positions in Google. Start with content marketing? You can read here tips to anchor content marketing in your company.