No marketing strategy is complete without the content strategy.
Content strategy involves rolling out a schedule to publish content on different platforms. The next step involves creating the content most useful to your target audience and publishing it in a consistent manner. Collecting feedback and tweaking the strategy is the last leg after which the cycle repeats itself. Content Strategy involves more than merely writing an article once or twice a week. Take Hubspot content for example. The SEO ranking is almost always high due to the high-quality content. So a content writer or copywriter will need a digital marketer and a social media specialist along with the marketing strategist to churn out relevant content for the targeted audience.
Though the reasons listed can run into millions, the main points under which most of them can be covered are three-faced.
Many products or services end up getting lapped up by the market which the company never targeted, to begin with. While defining the target market, it is necessary to find the audience who would benefit the most from the product. For eg, The Unilever Surf targeted the mighty and the rich. This caused them to limit themselves to the cities and towns. Nirma, on the other hand, decided to target tier 2 and tier 3 cities thereby filling its coffers easily without much advertisement expense or even competitors. The product was good and was sold at almost one-third of surf and yet it succeeded with high value to all the stakeholders. The success is not only attributed to the product quality but also to the choice of the target segment.
Content strategy helps to evaluate if the target market chosen is right as the metrics of the content consumption is very easy to map. Assuming that the content is true to the product/ marketing audience then that should give a fair idea if we are targeting the right market. The feedback helps the companies to tweak their target audience accordingly.
Today products and services face many kinds of competition. It is not just direct competitors like Zomato vs Swiggy or Uber vs Ola.
For Eg Fipola, a chain of fresh meat and seafood store with both online and brick and mortar presence is almost one of its kind. With the “Fipola on Wheels” concept they actually are on the roads to serve their customers faster. However, things are not so hunky-dory. Their main competitors range from every “takeaways or dine-outs” outlet as people who are not great cooks might be tempted to eat out as it is easier. So they have come up with a recipe section offering totally free recipes and cooking tips. The meat lovers can utilize the content on their blogs and websites without spending a pie. They are also offering marinades and a “ready to fry” range to help ease the cooking.
Content that is rich with tips or pointers can actual prove very useful to the audience. Once it is consumed, a relationship is formed based on the credibility of the content. This in turn can help reduce the customer acquisition cost. It is common knowledge that customer retention is easier and cheaper than customer acquisition.
Content strategy helps in marketing to not only identify the target audience but also give feedback easily on the reception of the product. With a wide range of feedback tools, it is easier to connect with the customers through content marketing. Also since the plugin is subtle, the resistance is less. Most importantly content marketing spend is always almost on clicks or visits to websites. It is usage-based and we can alter the budget on a daily basis.