Content Marketing Strategy for Consumer Brands: Why It's Important
As a consumer brand, you need to think beyond the product. To attract new customers and keep existing ones coming back for more, you need to provide compelling content that engages your audience and builds trust through regular engagement.
In this post, we talk about how content marketing can help your brand stand out from competitors by creating engaging experiences for stakeholders—and ultimately grow sales.
What is a content marketing strategy?
Content marketing is an ambiguous term and it’s often hard to know where to start. But if you want your brand to stand out from the crowd, content is the way forward.
In basic terms, a content marketing strategy means creating valuable online content that attracts and retains customers by providing them information about your product or service, encouraging them to take action (such as buying), and helping them feel connected with your brand.
Content marketing is a technique that helps you attract and retain customers by creating valuable, relevant, and consistent content that meets their needs. It’s about being more than just a brand; it’s about building relationships with your audience so that they feel like they know, like and trust you as an authority in your field.
How to build a content marketing strategy?
Content marketing is a great way to build a loyal audience and strong brand, reputation and community. If you want to know why content marketing is so important, here’s what you need to know:
Content marketing can help build a loyal audience by providing information that will interest or benefit them. This can include tips on how they can use your product or service in different ways, information about new products or services (i.e., recipes), testimonials from other customers who have had success with your products or services, etc.
The more content you create and share with your audience over time, the stronger their bond will become with your brand and any other products/services that belong under the same umbrella brand category. As you build a loyal customer following, your content can also be used to drive more sales. You may choose to do this by promoting products or services that are relevant to the audience that you have built.
When done right—by focusing on creating quality content that helps people solve problems/address challenges—this strategy can pay long-term dividends through increased traffic levels due to increased search engine rankings.
Why do brands need content marketing?
Brands need content marketing to build brand awareness, loyalty, equity, advocacy, and authority.
Brands that don't have a strong content marketing strategy will struggle to compete in today’s marketplace. This is because their competitors that have invested more time and money into their strategies can reach and engage a greater number of consumers.. A lack of attention to your own customers makes it easy for them to look elsewhere for products and services.
Types of content marketing strategies
Content marketing can be implemented in a variety of ways, each with its own strategic benefits. Here are some examples of how to use content marketing for your brand:
Video Marketing
You can create video tutorials using your products, highlight how to use them in different recipes or demonstrate how they work in general. These videos are great for educating consumers on how they can use your products and giving them a better idea of what to expect before making a purchase.
Blogging or Social Media Posts
You may have heard that the best way to build brand awareness is through paid advertising, but this isn’t always true — especially if you don't have a big budget. You might find it easier and less costly to post regular blog posts or tweets on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. The goal of these types of posts is simply to get potential customers interested enough in what you have to say so they will come visit your website or store location.
Email Marketing
If you want to build brand affinity among your most loyal customers, an email campaign can help. You can send newsletters, provide updates on the benefits of being a customer and reiterate how greatly they are valued. You can also provide exclusive deals and coupons to your email subscribers. This is a great way to reward loyal customers while encouraging others to sign up for the list.
Examples of content marketing for brands
Content marketing is a powerful tool for any brand, but it's especially useful for selling CPG products. There are many ways to use content marketing to promote your brand, but the following are some examples of content marketing in action:
A popular consumer brand released a video that showed the process of making their product and how it helped people in their lives. The video was well-made and informative, but it also promoted the brand's products by showing them in action.
Another company created an infographic that provided information about healthy eating habits for children. It was shared widely across social media sites and blogs—and it led to increased sales.
A small consumer brand published a series of blog posts that provided information about how to use their products. The posts included recipes and step-by-step instructions for preparing meals with their products. This content was shared widely across social media sites, which drove traffic to the brand's website. The brand saw a significant increase in sales from this content marketing campaign.
When you create content that provides value to your audience, they will naturally want to share it with their friends and family. When they do, they will also associate your brand with other products and services that they like—which means more people will be exposed to the things you sell.
Learn more from our content marketing experts
Consumer brands are facing a shift in the way consumers view their products. This means that they have to adapt to new marketing strategies that will help them stay competitive in today's marketplace. One of the most effective ways for companies to accomplish this is through content marketing. Content marketing is an effective strategy because it allows a brand to build trust with customers and connect with them on a personal level, which makes them more likely to buy again.
At Thomas|Ferrous, we have the experience and skills to drive a content marketing strategy. If you want to learn more, feel free to contact us and we’ll show you what can be done.