The online landscape offers endless opportunities for businesses who want to build a strong brand. Multiple cost-effective digital marketing services such as search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), video ads, and social media can be used all together to establish brand awareness and credibility in a way that is much faster and more effective than ever before.
However, on top of these platforms is content marketing, which needless to say is a prerequisite for successful utilization of the aforementioned platforms, especially for branding purposes. Many companies of all sizes these days use content to establish develop and build trust with their target audience, which then ultimately enhances their brand reputation and competitiveness in the digital landscape.
In fact, a study from DemandGen found that 95% of B2B buyers consider content as trustworthy when evaluating a company and its offerings. Producing relevant and helpful content is also a more effective alternative for brand exposure than paid ads. With 85% of users ignoring paid ads and focusing more on organic search, creating non-promotional content can perform well in SERPs and build audience trust.
Read on as we detail in this post the ways you can take advantage of content marketing in your brand building efforts.
1. Humanize Your Content
Far too many businesses see their customer journey as a purely transactional experience, when in fact it is a process that requires authentic human experience. When creating content, it is extremely crucial that it conveys your brand as a person, i.e., one that embodies a set of values and beliefs that your audience and target buyers can relate to.
In fact, 64% of consumers say that shared values are the main reason that they have a trusted relationship with a brand. Meanwhile, 65% of people that feel an emotional connection to a brand, say it’s because “they care about people like me.”
Humanizing your content can be made possible in many ways – such as using humor in your blogs and videos, and showing off the empathic side of your brand through case studies and client testimonials. You can also use the values your brand stand for as the basis for your content themes. By incorporating human elements into your content, you can enable your customers to experience your brand fully and connect with your business on an emotional level.
2. Show Off Your Company Culture
You can also use content marketing to prove that your business is committed to following through on your brand promise by incorporating your company culture in your content such as blogs, social media posts, video marketing, etc.
For instance, you can create and share a video that features the contributions to the community your company has made for the past year, or pictures of your recent team building activity which show off the strong camaraderie among your employees.
According to Harvard Business Review, company culture and brand that are driven by the same purposes and values will enable you to “win the competitive battle for customers and employees, future-proof your business from failures and downturns, and produce an organization that operates with integrity and authenticity.”
By showing off your company culture in your content, you can show to your audience that your company culture is in line with what your brand is all about. As a result, your customers, as well as your employees, will put more trust in the products and promises of your brand.
3. Track Analytics and Use Social Listening
By tracking and studying how your customers interact with your online content channels, you can figure out what is it that they are interested in, and what made them a follower of your brand. You can also use social listening tools to discover the main topics your target audience is talking about, which should then help your content contents that are relevant to them.
This is essential in building curated contents that are customized just for your target audience, and that sound more genuinely interested in your customers as people, not only as potential sales.
4. Invest in Curated Email Newsletters
Newsletters are a type of content that is very effective in forging direct connections with readers. This type of content can help your readers build a personal rapport with your brand voice and values, and as such, can be used as a valuable source for loyal and avid followers which even changes in search engine algorithm would never be able to influence.
In fact, statistics say that newsletter readers spend 80% more time on site than average organic search visitors.
By providing curated and personalized newsletters on a regular basis, you will be able to connect with your readers on a personal level, provide content that is truly valuable for them, and then entice them to spend more time on your website – which needless to say is a best indicator of real, genuine interest for your brand.
5. Guest Post to Relevant Websites
Guest posting is a natural link building technique that cannot only improve the SEO of your website but will also expose your brand to a new set of audience that you would not normally reach to.
Another benefit of guest posting is that it enhances your credibility in the industry. If a big shot website publishes an article of yours, it means that they trust you enough to publish your content on their own domain, which then implies to their readership that your brand is trustworthy too.
For these websites, on the other hand, accepting quality guest posts from contributors not only alleviates the burden to create content on a regular basis but also ensures a steady readership they need to retain their authority.
In fact, some of the most prominent authority sites these days such as the New York Times, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post have used guest contributions to grow their monthly readership into millions.
Overall, content marketing is an invaluable tool for building a strong business brand these days. When used strategically with other digital marketing tactics such as social media, email, and even paid distribution channels, content marketing can help you build a strong business brand that clearly communicates your business culture and values, establishes your credibility, and brings to mind a positive perception about your company.
Jomer B. Gregorio is a well-rounded expert when it comes digital marketing. Jomer is also known as a semantic SEO evangelist and practitioner. Check out our Digital Marketing Services today and let us help you in achieving positive and profitable results for your business.