Who are you talking to with your content marketing?
There are generally four levels of content marketing depending on where people are in terms of their level of interest. These can be explained by thinking about how people search in terms of the questions they are asking. I am going to use a wedding photographer as an example to show how it translates into the type of content you might offer:
1 General interest
A very general search e.g. “what makes a great wedding”?
The content for this could be an article based on research data showing what people enjoy at weddings with a discussion and chance to get interaction on social media about what people think makes a great wedding. You can also include a link to the content in 2)
2 Looking for more specific information
A more practical search e.g. “how to organise a great wedding?” But still not mentioning photography
The content for this could be 10 tips on what makes a great wedding – one of which is have good photography to capture the day. You could have summary tips as content with fuller details in a checklist they can download if they give you their details and a link to content in 3)
3 Actually indicating interest in your service area
A targeted search e.g. “how to choose a good wedding photographer?”
The content for this would be the 7 tips for choosing a good photographer which are linked to your profile and sample photos, case studies etc and links to content in 4)
4 Wanting evidence of why you are the right choice
A named search e.g. “wedding photography service Joe Bloggs”
As well as your fixed content giving your credentials plus testimonials and references; this can be reinforced by stories about how you handled special weddings, problem situations, anecdotes etc
Summary
The reason you need the four types of content is because your target market will be at different stages in terms of their knowledge and decision making. If you can provide useful information early in the process they are likely to return for more information and are more likely to buy from you.
If you want content that will lead to sales and create warm/hot leads you need to have content at the third or fourth level as these people are showing the strongest signals that they want to buy.
If you want to know how to match this sort of content to what you are selling then join us for the next business skills session in October which will focus on that.
