The best way to stay top of mind
It may sound greedy, but you want all of the customer attention that you can get.
If you think about your customers in terms of the problems that you solve for them, they spend very little actual time looking for and engaging with your products or services. If you’re a dentist, you help them clean their teeth perhaps twice a year. A handyman? You might repair appliances maybe every two years. And as a landscaper? Tree trimmings occur even less frequently.
In the in-between time, you basically have no business reaching out to these people.
And yet, the key to great marketing is to stay in touch so that when they do have that problem, you’re the one that’s top of mind. That means that you’ve got to find a way to be noticed all the time, and the best way to do that is to be helpful.
What sort of strategy helps you do this?
Let us introduce our good friend content marketing
Content marketing is the idea that you can participate in all parts of your customer’s life, not just the times when they most need you. You do it by creating helpful content that they enjoy and want to read – something that’s either interesting or helpful. Great examples include Home Depot, who offers basic woodworking classes in its stores, REI, which offers group outdoors trips, and not to be too self-promotional, but ProspectsPLUS, which publishes a bi-weekly SMB marketing advice blog. None of them are making any money off of these endeavors but they are building trust by being helpful.
This sort of strategy does generate revenue in the long run however because when folks need 2×4’s, a new sleeping bag, or more customers, they know precisely where to go.
How can you leverage content marketing in your own business?
#1 Choose a Topic
The best way to do this is to start defining your customer personas. Who is your typical customer? Where do they live? How much do they make? Do they have kids? Here’s an example of one:
Jane: age 41, Des Moines IA, employed full time in sales, married, two toddlers
Now, map out the things that Jane does. What could she possibly need help with?
- Commutes to work
- Manages house finances
- Works a time-intensive job
- Occasionally makes dinners
- Raising two kids
Among those things, is there something that you’re an expert at that you could help her with? Choose something that’s tangentially related to your business, and then proceed to step #2.
#2 Choose a Channel
What’s the best way to communicate that message? Your options are:
- Printed newsletter
- Blog
- Email newsletter
- Postcard series
The best strategy of course is to mix several of these and use them to promote each other: Your newsletter should reference your blog, your postcards should reference your newsletter, and your emails should send out links to new blog posts. That being said, don’t bite off more than you can chew and start small, then build up.
Once you’ve selected the place that you think Jane will be most receptive to receiving your friendly help, get to work writing about topics that you think she’d want to hear! Remember to keep them focused on delivering value and not on pitching your services. If people sense that you’re doing this because you want something from them, they’ll quickly opt-out. This can happen if you fill your newsletter with updates about you rather than helpful tips for her.
Start sending!
After this, it’s all about building your base of subscribers. It’s key to constantly test messages, interview customers to see what they’d love to hear about, and optimize for the greatest possible readership.
Do this and you’ll have successfully created a content marketing strategy that monopolizes your customers’ attention in the most helpful way!
Need help with this? Call Opportunity Knocks at 1 (866) 319-7109; they can create custom graphics and plan it all out for you!
Want to get a trial postcard campaign out the door? Log into our web-to-print platform and do it yourself!