As communications increasingly becomes more digital mobile, it is no surprise that audiences are wisening up to the ploys of traditional marketers, now consciously avoiding sponsored advertisements, banners and brand messages.

So how can companies engage with a sceptical audience who have no interest in pushy advertising? The solution is simple: companies need to take a tactical approach to move from the ‘hard sell’ and instead offer valuable, useful and stimulating online content that offers opinion discussion about the wider industry and engages the consumer.

A well-written and interesting article or shareable Facebook post places you directly in front of your audience, establishes you as knowledgeable of your industry and builds trust with the consumer. It informs consumers and builds your brand’s awareness, demonstrating the reasons why your brand is better than the competition.

Picture the scene

An alternative fuel supplier for vehicles would like to boost awareness of their product and establish themselves as not just a viable choice, but a better fuel choice within the market. How do they go about this?

Establish yourselves as the market experts

The company could regularly post topical articles and advice pieces on their website’s blog, surrounding relevant issues to the brand and its message. Content could be as diverse as wider debates and findings concerning fuel emissions and air quality, to the costs of running a car, such as comparisons to petrol and diesel prices.

In posting significant and related content, companies showcase themselves as authorities in their field and become a mark of trust to the consumer.

Raise your SEO potential

Relevant vocabulary to the company – in the fuel supplier’s case, “emissions” or “fuel” – written in the content will also increase the company’s search engine optimisation.

By using editorial on their websites and social media, when consumers type words used in the content into search engines, brands will eventually score higher in the search results. This will increase the likelihood of traffic to the site; therefore increasing sales potential!

Utilise social media

Social media is a great platform to use content marketing to build a dialogue with consumers and drive traffic to your site. As well as posting editorial on company websites, brands can also link relevant articles and content on their social media; this will also drive traffic towards the site, further enhancing sales potential.

It can particularly be a great place to experiment and see what content works and what doesn’t, providing fast, accessible analytics. Facebook is highly effective in providing valuable data, presenting information on the reach and engagement of individual posts as well as an overall outlook on the success of posts. Bear in mind engaging with online consumers is not about the hard sell and before posting content on social, ask yourself is this shareable, and engaging? Will it spark a conversation between your current customers, and will it attract prospective consumers?

Content marketing is not just important, but has the potential to directly affect a company’s chances of success. Creative content should not merely be a routine obligation: it is a powerful sales tool and should be cultivated.

To speak to a member of the Red Marlin team about our services and the ways in which we can enhance your content marketing, please contact us on 01926 832395 or hello@redmarlin.co.uk.