You have probably chosen this article because you know you know content marketing is vital for your business. You might be well-versed in digital content creation, yet are unhappy with the way your company is implementing their marketing resources. If you have a particularly traditional boss, there might be some disagreements about how your company approaches content marketing.
The world of marketing is changing rapidly, with new digital channels being introduced almost on a monthly basis. Ideally, you would have someone to test and explore these new ways of promotion, posting content, and interacting with the audience.
Ads have been around in some forms for the last couple of centuries. With the introduction of television, ads have gained a new media outlet and quickly became mainstream.
At some point, commercials came to be essential for every TV program, and pretty soon, we became tired of endless repetitive jingles and dozens of minutes being wasted. Nowadays, most people would do anything to skip them, even paying to not see them on streaming and other platforms.
The Trend of Ad Blindness
Let’s, for a moment, imagine that you own a large company whose marketing efforts have expanded online. You resorted to something called banners on websites that allow you to be visible to people who frequent that website. However, your efforts don’t seem to be fruitful.
Why have we grown so accustomed to ads that we no longer see them? Our brain subconsciously ignores them, following something called, “ad blindness”. We hardly have any say in it.
We’ve been so overwhelmed with commercials and ads on every channel that we are trying not to subject ourselves to them anymore. Our brain has very likely stopped perceiving that information as useful, so now it simply passes it by. Or maybe we are just tired of being sold to?
Banner advertising has been around for 18 years now. At the peak of banner advertising, a typical user was exposed to around 1900 ads per month. Now you can see why we feel so overwhelmed by them and why we evolved not to notice them anymore.
Aggressive Ad Campaigns
A large majority of people are skeptical of anyone who is trying to sell them something. This is partly because when we are being fed certain products or information, the approach retailers use is somewhat aggressive. Thus, we tend to be slightly defensive toward the onslaught of information and their approach.
It’s similar in the digital marketing sphere. We can’t simply force people to listen to our ads and videos about products. Aggressive ad campaigns tend to form a strong aversion in more sensitive members of the audience.
Sometimes it constitutes cold calling, spam emails, text blasts and so on. This is what direct marketing was all about before it became something of a marketing sin.
Subtle marketing is all the rage nowadays, and it’s best presented through content that was intended to pique interest and entertain the audience. However, even though you see its benefits, your boss doesn’t.
You need to convince them that content marketing is vital by showing them why it’s effective. Your boss needs to understand that subtlety works precisely because people have evolved past traditional marketing. Consumers no longer want to be told why they should buy something, even though they still want to buy.
Entertaining and Educative Content
There are plenty of content types that can fulfill the needs of a small to medium sized business. With social media and the help of a few content creators, your brand can grow from invisible and boring, to unique, interesting, and even educational.
People despise being sold to, but they love entertaining, engaging content. You can make all the difference by teaching people using explainer videos or an interactive infographic, acquiring unimaginable leads.
Your buyers aren’t looking to be sold to, but they will be most receptive when you use subtle techniques that evoke the same feeling. Most people go online to interact with websites that offer relevant information.
Digital advertising experts have recognized this need for relevant, organic content, and it’s why content marketing is pushed more than any other type of marketing nowadays. Show your boss why that’s the case, and they will be more likely to change their opinion.
Content Marketing is Vital to Building Trust
Most successful brands in today’s world use long-lasting campaigns to build trust with their customers. This brand-customer bond cannot be grown in a day or a week.
It’s a slow process of showing reliability through more than marketing. It nurtures a positive emotive impression on the audience with personalized content. It also implies responding to complaints and concerns.
For ultimate customer retention, a brand needs to emit transparency, ask for feedback, and take in as much of it as possible.
Digital content is probably the best way to ‘attack’ the problem of trust-building in the beginning. Before they even know what brand the content is stemming from, the audience needs to rely on it and expect it.
The consistency of the content will guarantee the wide recognition of a brand. In order to drive some traffic to your content, you will have to advertise on modern channels and social media platforms, using the newest content trends.
Here a few useful tips for building trust through content marketing. They will go well in explaining to your boss why content marketing is crucial.
Warm Up The Cold Traffic with Content Marketing
What is cold-traffic? It refers to the beginning stages of the marketing funnel during which marketers focus on creating awareness with potential customers.
While there are many versions of what is known as the “funnel,” the basic idea is that an online customer goes through certain stages before making a purchase.
There are various ways we can influence cold traffic, or the top of the funnel, and reach the ultimate result, which is a loyal customer at the bottom of the funnel. To turn plain awareness to interest and then consideration, we have to launch campaigns and spark some engagement through content marketing.
This is also referred to as targeted content, which has the intent to provoke a reaction from potential buyers. Most digital experts refer to it as ‘the holy grail of marketing.’ It teaches us that before hitting the target, we have to know where to point and aim.
Conclusion
Content marketing bridges a lot of gaps; it helps build trust between a brand and a consumer and actively keeps the brand relevant. When constructed thoughtfully, it’s not stifling, and it doesn’t evoke ad blindness as most traditional marketing tools do.
If your boss still has trouble understanding why content marketing is so vital, feel free to send him our way. He can talk to a professional Content Monsta!
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