Content marketing : integrity delivers competitive advantage
Compelling and engaging content is now absolutely key as outbound marketing gives way to newer, more sophisticated and effective inbound marketing communications, and strategic thinking and quality of marketing thought are ever-more critical to success.
Compelling and engaging content is now absolutely key as outbound marketing gives way to newer, more sophisticated and effective inbound marketing communications, and strategic thinking and quality of marketing thought are ever-more critical to success.
Inbound marketing communications promote an enterprise through the creation of blogs; webinars and podcasts; video presentations; eBooks; whitepapers; search engine optimisation (SEO); social media marketing; and other forms of content marketing.
Thought provoking content
Inbound marketing means sharing this content with everyone world-wide, and by creating content that specifically engages and resonates with your prospects and customers, inbound communications will not only attract visitors but keep them coming back for more.
But this will only happen if the content you provide is of sufficient quality to not only capture attention but to provoke thought, and prove that there is true value in what you have to say.
This means you need to understand your prospect or buyers’ persona, and be able to personalise your message.
Quality builds trust
And while inbound marketing is heavily reliant on careful and complex strategy in order to drive a marketing programme to a successful sale or series of sales through customer relationship management (CRM) and the loyalty this builds, integrity is still key in content development.
Today, buyers are smart and discerning. They have been exposed to Internet marketing in one form or another for many years, and will see through any attempt to mislead. You must earn their trust.
Strategic integrity
This means that strategic planning must take into account not only the need for transparency in the marketing message but also avoid the hype associated with conventional outbound marketing content.
In b2b markets, prospects and customers may be up to 57% through the purchase decision process before ever contacting your sales representatives*, so your sale is almost totally reliant on the quality of your content.
Content builds visibility
And the remote nature of buyer behaviour doesn’t end there. Only 12% of your customer’s total mindshare* is on you as a supplier across the complete B2B purchase path.
Again, this means you need to earn their trust and now also prove that you should be their supplier of choice. And that means you will have to now prove not only your integrity, but also that you fully understand the products and services they require and can deliver on their needs.
Knowledge and integrity as marketing tools
There is a definite opportunity to gain and maintain competitive advantage in your marketplace if you follow the path to honest, transparent and knowledgeable content development, building a solid reputation for trust and integrity.
To do this means finding a digital agency that knows not only how to deliver strategically focused marketing content, that demonstrates your thought leadership in your marketplace, but also understands the power of honesty, transparency and integrity in market development.
*CEB best practice insight and technology.
Original Post Here