Content for increasing sales is used for a long time. ..
If you dig deep, then Benjamin Franklin, in order to draw attention to his printing house, published the annual "Poor Richard's Almanac" in 1732, in which he gave advice on how to succeed.
Content marketing in the modern sense appeared only in 2001 and since then it has started gaining popularity - first in the West, and now with us.
Content marketing performs a range of functions: it increases brand awareness, builds trust, works for reputation and creates an expert image. But still the main purpose of content marketing for commercial companies is to increase sales and profits by gaining the buyer's confidence and being involved in the purchase.
Today you will learn how content marketing affects sales and how to implement it in practice, and on the example of the case from the agency "Alpha-content" we will consider the issue of the effectiveness of content marketing.
How does content marketing affect sales?
The principle of the action of content marketing can be described in several places:
- you create useful content for the target audience and place it on authoritative thematic sites;
- when users need, they find your content, which is designed to solve their problems;
- so you gradually gain the trust of users, become an authority and involve them in the buying process;
- as a result, you get referrals to the site, leads and conversions.
It seems that everything is simple, but for simplicity there is a huge work of marketers, because you need to analyze the audience and the market, develop a strategy according to the goals, select sites, find performers, create, optimize and post content.
However, the increase in sales depends not only on content providers. From accounts it is not necessary to write off the Sail-managers, who should be able to convert the received leads. Also the quality of selling pages plays a role - if the visitor comes to the "lagging" site with a poor design, then there will be no growth.
So, content marketing is an effective tool for increasing sales. But the real growth will depend not only on the correct actions of content providers, but also on internal factors.
How to write selling text: the experience of professionals
Where to start?
Begin with the answer to the question: "Why do I need content marketing?".Think for a few seconds. ..
If you answered: "To sell more", "To bring a new brand to the market", "To become a market expert", you are on the right track.
The problem is that understanding comes with experience. And many respond to something like: "I do not know", "Because it's fashionable," "Because without it anywhere," "Everybody does that." To succeed, content marketing should begin with the setting of specific goals.
Set goals for
Content marketing is focused on a long-term perspective.
If in contextual advertising the result is noticeable immediately after launching ads, content marketing will manifest itself at least six months later. Therefore, you need to be mentally prepared for financial injections without a significant immediate result.
Content marketing - this is not a "wand-zashchalochka, by which it solves any problems with traffic and sales.
It does not work if your goal is to achieve a momentary task like "sell off the product left over from last season" or "sell a party of women's perfume by March 8". With such goals you are valuable in SEO and PPC.
And here are examples of goals that content marketing will do:
- inform the target audience about the product-novelty and warm up the demand for it( for example, about some new synchrophasotron "Dawn");
- to reach a new target audience for a new business direction( for example, for a successful trucking company in connection with the launch of an ordered passenger transportation route);
- to convey to the target audience the benefits of using a new version of the existing product( for example, the benefits of an updated CRM compared to the previous one).
Content marketing as a promotion tool can successfully solve other business problems: to be rebuilt from competitors in a highly competitive niche, to attract traffic to business topics that have limitations in content advertising networks( for example, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, financial services, etc.)., to attract conversion traffic to the site in the event of a sharp drop in the positions in the SERP, to manage the loyalty of existing customers and to build confidence from the potential.
We plan content marketing
This goal is the basis for developing a promotion strategy.
Strategy is a formalized plan, without which:
- is difficult to unequivocally say why and for whom content is created, how it should be and where to publish it;
- it is impossible to understand the amount of resources( financial, labor and technical) involved;
- no reference points for assessing the effectiveness of marketing efforts.
The strategy includes sections:
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Analytical part.
The results of analysis and segmentation of the target audience, product features, niche and competitors are presented.
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Description of the content-component.
Based on the analysis, the range of problems that the content is designed to solve for each group of the target audience is determined, as well as the style of presentation of the material and the depth of disclosure of the topic.
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Channels of promotion.
Depending on the target audience and product features, promotion channels are selected: thematic blogs, media, social networks, forums, communities, video hosting, etc.
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Performance metrics.
It is worthwhile still at the stage of developing a strategy to determine with which indicators you will evaluate the effectiveness of content marketing. It can be sales volume, profit, conversion rate and / or lidogeneratsii, ROI and other metrics.
Having approved the strategy, start preparing the content plan!
Do not confuse: strategy is an unimplemented plan to achieve the organization's main business goals, designed for a long-term perspective, and the content plan is a timetable for publication of publications for any period, indicating sites, topics, responsible executors, deadlines,.
Do content marketing
After setting goals, developing a strategy and content plan, you can begin to implement content marketing. The question is who will implement. There are two fundamentally different approaches: on their own and with the help of the agency.
In the first case it is necessary to look for a good contenter. It is not easy to do this, because real specialists can be counted on the fingers. ..
The salary will start from 50 000 rubles. If you add the costs for the organization of the workplace, the payment of taxes, the creation and publication of content, then the monthly budget will exceed 300-350 000 rubles. And this is in the case of only one employee who can at any time go on leave, on a sick leave or on a decree.
Contacting the content marketing agency, first of all, you get guarantees.
Natalia Radchenkova, Marketing Director of Alfa Content Agency:
"We guarantee our clients the volume of targeted traffic received within the selected tariff package( 100,000 rubles - 3,000 visitors per site, 150,000 rubles - 4,000 andetc.).
This allows you to accurately plan costs and generally manage the budget. "
This is only the tip of the iceberg of the benefits that you get from working with professionals. Also worth mentioning is compliance with deadlines, full responsibility for the results of work, their constant monitoring and control, absence of forced downtime, high quality content and sites.
In the process of work, agencies collect statistics on all placements and offer customers only sites that provide the maximum number of transitions( CTR)."Dead" sites are simply being screened out. As a result, you get a predictable result and exclude risks.
Is Content Marketing Effective?
With proper implementation of content marketing, you can provide significant savings when generating traffic. The cost of attracting one user is much lower than that of contextual advertising.
The agency "Alpha-content" shared figures confirming this thesis.
Case. Houses from SIP-panels
In "Alpha-content" appealed to the company, offering the construction of houses from SIP-panels on a turn-key basis. Technology is still little known in Russia, so content marketing was chosen to popularize and attract customers.
Within the budget of 100 000 rubles. The following plan is defined:
- coverage - 100 000 people;
- transitions - 3000;
- the price of one contact is 1 ruble;
- price of one transfer - 33.33 rubles.
In fact, it was possible to achieve such values:
The number of transitions exceeded the plan more than 3 times( for the same budget).As a result, the transfer price was 9.56 rubles.
For comparison, the cost of the transition from Google AdWords with the phrase "home from the turnkey panels" is 37.8 rubles., Which is almost 4 times higher than the value obtained. And this is not the limit!
In especially expensive subjects, the difference can be 5, 12 and even 15 times! Moreover, the links remain in the posted materials forever and will continue to lead customers for a long time, reducing the cost of the transition.
A selection of serious reasons,
why it's worth using content marketing in its field of activity!
Summing up
Content marketing is an effective strategy for increasing traffic and conversions. Despite the presence of short-term effects such as a sharp spike in traffic, this strategy is of a long-term nature. Regular investments in six months or a year will pay off with interest.
It is better to entrust the practical implementation of content marketing to a specialized agency that provides guarantees and provides transparent reporting. So you can accurately plan your income and expenses and concentrate completely on your core business.