Here at AM we are dedicated to making sure our clients create the best content possible for their audience. The best content is all about communicating well, and our guest blogger this week, Catherine, has written about how she helps her clients to achieve results through carefully planned content marketing strategies.

Content marketing isn’t just about creating endless social media posts to be buried under complex algorithms. Instead, it’s an invaluable tool you can use to cut through the noise online and connect with your ideal customers. Businesses used to rely on face-to-face interactions to build relationships as part of a marketing strategy, but people now expect the majority of information to be available online before they make a purchasing decision (or even speak to you in the first place!).

Clients are doing more research online to inform their buying choices, and we live in an age where we have more information at our fingertips than ever before. However, the fundamentals haven’t changed: marketing is still about building relationships because people buy from people … even when they buy online. And that’s where content marketing comes in.

Here are five ways content marketing can help you connect with your customers:

1. Build trust

When you get your message right for your audience and share that message with them through great content, you can start to build trust. Content marketing that informs and educates is a great place to start, as it enables you to showcase the knowledge within your business. This in turn proves to prospective customers that you’re an expert in your area and can help them solve relevant challenges.

2. Reach more people

With the right content marketing approach, you can significantly increase the number of people who see your message. Content marketing comes in many forms, whether that be a blog post that’s well-optimised (for SEO) and drives new visitors to your website, or a social media video post with the right hashtags that gets excellent reach. A combination of different formats across a few key channels is the best way to ensure you’re reaching more of the right people to grow an engaged audience and connect with more customers.

3. Support decision-making

We know that so many customers are now making decisions about your business before you even know that they exist, so content marketing is vital to support decision-making and nurture your prospective customers along their buying journey. Testimonials and social proof are a great way to use content marketing for conversion from prospect to customer.

4. Engage your community

Content marketing can help you engage your community of both existing and prospective customers. For example, can you encourage your existing customers to create their own content around your product or service that you can then use for your brand? This kind of user-generated content has multiple benefits: you don’t have to use your own resources creating it; your community gets actively involved in sharing what they love about your business; and it’s social proof for both existing and prospective customers.

5. Showcase your brand

Branding is key to showing your audience who you are and what you stand for in your business. Content marketing gives you the opportunity to showcase your brand through both words and visuals. Think about the type of language you use and graphics to make sure you’re appealing to your ideal target audience. Once you get this right throughout your content marketing, you’ll not only attract your ideal customers; you’ll also repel those who aren’t a good fit for your business, thereby improving your overall sales and marketing process.

Find out more about Catherine’s work at https://freshbat.com/