Some of the most successful and big companies in the world use their website's contents to approach their consumers. Beautifully crafted content in a well-designed and contained environments, posted by a respectable brand. What can go wrong?
A content that reads good with its pieces delivering energy to the readers, is not a guarantee to be a successful one. The content can be great, but becoming successful is another story. Many big companies and brands put a lot of their efforts and resources to create a message that actually become lost in the internet's ocean of information.
Huge efforts and big marketing budget will not guarantee an effective content. The reason for this is because the internet is changing, and it's growing very fast that today's trend can be tomorrow's history.
Assuming you can create a compelling content that is both informative and have a selling point, you should consider seeing how you can make your potential customers trust you.
Trust is something you earn. You can't buy, trick or force someone to trust you if they're not willing to. Trust comes out from the heart, and it's built upon something, not created out of nothing.
For example, you can't make someone trust you by having your content sponsored as an ad on the internet. Ads are becoming the thing that people distrust. This is one of the main reason why big internet companies and websites "cloak" their ads space to be less intriguing, less annoying, and more native, making ads appear not like ads, besides than just a mere cosmetic enhancement.
To achieve your customer's trust, you have to enrich their lives by giving something meaningful.
On the internet where most people are strangers, your business and your brand is competing with an endless string of competitors. They all have the same mission in their minds, and do the best marketing method they can think of to attract more customers into their territory, away from you and others. In an environment where trust is necessary, you need a strategy to make people see you as one of their own, and approach them in a way that they are expecting.
The internet is full of people with different desires. They all have their own communities, their own favorite thing to do, their most visited social media network, and so forth. Different people, is of course, different. There is no one solution that fits all, and you need to craft your strategy to get into their circles without presenting yourself a salesman. That way, they will have their arms open and lower their defenses while at the same time, increasing their willingness to spend their time listening (reading or watching) to you.
When your well-made contents are ready to be published, create a strategic alignment. Third-party platforms or social media may provide high visibility for your small business to your targeted audience. But you should know that every platform, every community, every social media, and every other places on the internet have specialized purposes. Your content should be strategically aligned so your content is relevant to the place you're going to post.
Everything on the web is like a mechanical gear that connects to one another, creating a machine that moves with it (the internet). For the machine to function, every piece contributes to the movement of others, and each benefits in at least one purpose. Your content is what will become one of the lubes that ease the gear in turning. This means that your content should benefit the audience you're aiming.
The one significant drawback that the overly populated internet has is its massive data it holds. The large amount of information it contains somehow contributes to the disadvantage of new contents being posted in it. Since anything you can think of, if not most, is available within a few clicks, to be able to survive in the evergrowing internet, you should have a clear understanding of your goal.
Despite a great content is written, published and shared, your need to see how it perform and make any changes if necessary. Because once it gets viral or popular, there is no way of stopping it. And the last thing you want is bad viral information about your business. Here, creativity, passion and dedication matter. Although you have great content, you have to know the flow of your information and direct it accordingly. To many small businesses, this can be a chore that requires your time and resources. But in order to have a good traction, the work is ongoing and can be somehow timeless.
You need to understand the resource requirements and availability. Many companies dive into content marketing without realizing how resource-intensive the process is. From creating and editing pieces to leveraging them via social media and sales. Content requires time, energy, and patience.
A great content can be compelling. But on a more fundamental level, content only works when it creates a human connection between the writer and the audience. Approach your readers with humility, an open mind, and a sense of imagination. If you can have faith in them, you can eventually gain their trust.
Nobody is perfect. Even the biggest companies and brands occasionally make mistakes. Always accept feedbacks or any complaints you may encounter with an open mind.
After all of the pieces of a content marketing strategy, including editorial calendars, lead captures, email signature links, etc., are placed and done, your content can then have a higher chance to contribute in the moving parts of the internet, and successfully built a respected image above your brand.