The company content you provide on your touchpoints may break or make your brand. Research shows us that; when shopping online, consumers look for informative and trust-building content to make purchasing decisions. The right content gets their attention and trust. This converts their knowledge, awareness or intrigue into purchasing your products, moreover then potentially causing them to praise and recommend your brand to their friends. The ROI of investing in content creation, for informative or trust-building purposes, is exceptionally high.
Relevant content is the most crucial factor for European consumers when shopping online.
As the consumers plan a purchase online, most of them research on the internet, getting into the product’s website(s), into search engines or social media. When purchasing online, the consumer can’t physically examine the product that they’re about to purchase; henceforth, they tend to seek trustworthy or informatory pieces of content where the product is examined and analysed by others. To influence consumers positively, you must create informative and trust-building content on your brand’s website(s) & social media or through direct communications such as emails.
Brands can also build trust through content by partnering up with influencers or informative accounts on digital channels. This is highly effective because the consumer is introduced to the content through an account that’s either familiar and trustworthy for them or an account that has built a claim to be an expert.
Content Creation by Stats
- 82% of marketers actively use content marketing in 2021, up from 70% in 2020.
- The most popular technologies used in the content strategy are analytics tools (83%), social media analytics (80%), and e-mail marketing (75%).
- The top two channels used by marketers are social media and their websites.
- The top areas of content marketing investment in 2022 are video (69%) and events (61%).
Content is king
Content is the bridge between brands and their consumers. It is the vehicle by which the customers are informed about the product & brand.
Content is used for consumers to increase brand awareness, to inform about buying and using, and to get after-sales support. At every touchpoint, content is there for brands to reach their potential or current clients.
One of the most significant perceived values of brand content for respondents is that it provides information and tips on using a product or service.
That brings to mind independent research from Adobe, in which consumers said that if there were one thing, they would like to change about the emails they get from brands, it would be to make them less about promotion and more about providing information.
Before they have the product in hand, brand content can help them choose between various products and services they’re considering. This was the leading value attributed to brand content. Moreover, once they’ve made their purchase, consumers value information about how to use content as some sort of a manual.
That suggests that brand content can help consumers make a final decision about a purchase – and different results from the survey support that finding. Indeed, the majority (57%) of respondents said they had purchased in the past year due to valuable online content from a brand.
Secondary actions taken in response to valuable brand content include sharing the content with friends and family (29% having done so) and subscribing to an email list (23%). The secondary actions taken can significantly improve a brand’s loyalty & retention through both P2P marketing and re-targeting consumers who’ve joined the email list.
An Accurate & Highly Informative Piece of Content is Nothing Without Design!
While design may not be as critical as accuracy for informative content, past research suggests that design has an impact. Adobe has found in prior research that roughly 7 in 10 adults in the US would choose a product or service over its competition due to good design and that 62% would judge companies based on the design quality of their marketing materials.
In this latest report, 41% of respondents said that a beautiful layout and imagery of content would help generate a positive experience. Still, that falls behind other drivers of a positive content experience, including that it displays well on the device they’re using (75%), is timely and relevant (60%), and can be viewed across multiple devices (53%).
Here are the types of content you can use for profit
The customers are all over the internet. They are hungry for high-quality content.
They encounter content on official company websites, social media, and review or complaint websites. Searching for relevant keywords on google can give content results on referred web pages.
The consumers can test products before buying, through brand & product websites. Furthermore, as helpful content, there are set-up explanations, manuals, or prospectus of products on company websites. YouTubers also test products and inform consumers about usage, quality, and set-up.
Some packaged food companies or retailers provide recipes, booklets, or catalogs on preparing or cooking food products. And those companies may use content to position their products to a larger audience, enlarging the target consumer set.
For example, a chocolate company may claim that their chocolate is the best for making soufflé, gaining soufflé lovers & makers as their consumers.
Have you heard of the “Lift model” for conversion optimization?
It’s a methodology that works in our sometimes hyper-competitive inbound marketing environment.
The LIFT model is usually associated with landing page design and copy, but you can use the concept with any content, no matter on what platform you create content.
The six elements that make up the LIFT model for creating compelling, great content that converts are value proposition, urgency, relevance, clarity, anxiety, and distraction.
It would be best if you defined the value proposition of your content article succinctly.
Value Proposition: A well-defined problem is half-solved. This is what propels your conversions. You can make your content highly converting when you define a specific problem and provide practical action steps to solve it.
Over 75% of business executives at companies with underperforming content agreed that a poor value proposition is the root cause. Ensure that your statement is in line with your content’s benefits.
Relevance: Does your content deliver what your prospects expect? Does it match their needs and feelings?
Clarity: how easily is your value proposition communicated? This includes eye flow, imagery, copywriting, and calls to action.
Urgency: Do you match the visitors’ internal urgency and create external incentives?
Distraction: Is your content diverting visitors away from your primary goal?
Anxiety: What elements on the page could create uncertainty for your prospects to take action?
According to Nielsen Norman Group, visitors, on average, only read around 20% of the content on a webpage.
Often, it’s not the content marketing that generates the most views and social media shares for your content but how you structure the headline.
What type of content does Google like?
- Google wants to see original content.
- Google favors accurate, comprehensive, and impeccably written informational content. If your blog posts answer every question your audience could possibly have, Google will look at your content as more authoritative and rank you higher in SERPs.
- Want to 10X your blog? Include video. Google loves video even more than they value your perfectly written content.
Build trust with your content and prosper
- Create Relevant Content.
- Focus on Value, Not Promotion.
- Prioritize Authenticity.
- Develop your brand voice. A strong brand voice is the key to a compelling narrative.
- Engage with your customers.
- Address negative feedback.
- Share Customer Stories.
