Why use content marketing and how is it different to selling?

If we want to reach out to a specific group of people who are highly likely to have an interest in our products we now have the means to target these people and place advertisements in front of them while they are chatting on social media platforms or browsing the internet. While we can be smart in how we target people, we are still playing a numbers game. Advertising is a great way of generating quick wins but it is not necessarily engaging. It works well when it is aimed at people who already understand they have a need and trust the brand.

There are loads of reasons why people don’t click on an ad but here’s one of the biggest threats.

According to a 2013 report from Infolinks, 86% of consumers suffer from “banner blindness”. Having carried out an in-depth study on consumer behaviour and attitudes to online advertising, they found that only 14% of respondents recalled the last display ad they saw and the company or product it promoted. Despite the sophisticated advertising targeting methods used, only 2.8% of respondents stated that they thought the ad they saw was relevant to them. Furthermore, half of the users claimed to never click on online ads while 35% said they clicked on less than 5 ads per month.

Here’s how the Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing:

“The process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

Content comes in many shapes and sizes from social media posts, corporate blog entries, bylined articles and infographics that are distributed through media pitching, social sharing or digital ads for example. In regard to a digital ad, people are perhaps less likely to be blind if they can see they are being offered some essential or useful information for free, even if they are a little sceptical.

Here’s a great example of some informative content from Lowe’s Home Improvement. It’s a tutorial on how to load a paint roller.

Let’s face it, our audience couldn’t care less about our sales or our marketing. What’s in it for them? Learning something useful to them on the other hand? That will do nicely.

In plain English then, content marketing should be about generating interest in our brand and our services by providing them with information that is highly relevant and useful to them. It is about educating them and empowering them to make more informed decisions perhaps. Remember that if we look back at the very old sales acronym AIDCA, the first steps in the sales process are the ‘A’ and the ‘I’. Winning attention and maintaining interest is what engagement is all about. Without this it is pretty difficult to sell anything to anyone. Content marketing is mainly relating to this part of the process.

If we try to close a sale at any time before the right time, our effort will most likely result in a “no sale”. In order to generate the “Desire” in the AIDCA process, a number of boxes need to be ticked. These include having the attention and the interest but there are other elements that take time – rapport, trust or an immediate need for example. Otherwise, what we have achieved is implanting an idea into our audience, something that is good to know, but not a drive to purchase.

In fact trying to close a sale without trust or without there being any immediate need may undo the good that was done by informing our audience. What was initially perceived as useful information may now be dismissed as an effort to sell. The brand that was initially seen as a provider of bona fide and credible information may be viewed as a sharp seller.

Solid content will inform. It will win attention because it hits a point of interest for a relevant audience. It will further enhance that interest because it will speak with authority and leave the recipient feeling more knowledgeable, more armed to make decisions in the future. And yes, it may very well provoke a desire. The time and the place for selling however is not while providing the information, which is not to say we don’t try to educate and inform when we are trying to close.

The two processes are different. If a prospect is in a car showroom to buy a car, they expect the floor staff to be as knowledgeable as possible and to help them to make a decision. If somebody wants information, it does not follow that they want to buy anything.

Content marketing is all about educating our audience. When done well, this will create a trust relationship between our audience and our brand. When done very well, we become a recognisable authority within our industry and content that we produce may well generate some desire to buy from us as well. However, as we have seen there is a time and a place for selling. That does not mean that content marketing is aimless, without a call to action.

According to the State of Small Business Report 2016, 45% of small business don’t get this and are using their content marketing and accompanying social media to promote specific products or services while 38% use them to share information about promotions, sales or discounts.

We can use content to drive traffic to our website. Content may drive enough interest for us to gain useful contact information such as email addresses or we may win sign ups to a newsletter. These are all useful steps in the sales funnel but they are not attempts to sell.

In summary, the creation and promotion of strong and rich content which informs and educates lays the foundation to make sales more likely. Anything that specifically promotes a product or service probably belongs on the selling side and any call to action should be designed to further strengthen the connection between brand and audience but not to make a purchase.

By building trust and authority built on the supply of useful content, we work against the effect of banner blindness. When the need arises, our brand will stand out in front of our audience – not fade away.

As you can see, information gathering, analysis, the crafting of personas, and the delivery of content and interventions specifically tailored for the Mark and Maggie on your customer list aren’t passive activities. And the emphasis at all times needs to be on extracting actionable insights from the information streams that you consult. Design and delivery also need to be active, ongoing, and responsive processes.

Finally, don’t forget to archive and document your personas – if necessary packaging them in a format most appropriate to the departments within your enterprise that will have access to them. These days, that could include everyone, as interactions with customers (e.g. service requests, response to comments and questions) may occur on social media at any time.

Remember to refresh your persona documents periodically, to reflect changing market conditions, shifts in consumer behaviour, and to allow for the personal growth and changing circumstances of Mark and Maggie.