Content marketing is an undeniably important aspect of online marketing for every business, regardless of industry. Both niche and broad industry companies can use content marketing to help promote themselves as industry experts, build their online brand presence, better connect with consumers and more.
Most B2C content can be broken down into two types of content. The first type is promotional content. These are the online sales pitches, ad copy, hard-sell newsletters, brochures, flyers and so forth. They are business centric and work to sell a specific product. The second type of B2C content (and in my opinion the more important) is consumer centric content.
Consumer centric content could include everything from articles, whitepapers, blog posts, videos, forums and more. But consumer centric content is designed to help the consumer! It’s not about selling your product; it’s about answering a question or filling a need.
Here are some examples of consumer centric content:
FAQ
More and more consumers look online when they have a question. These questions can be generic questions, “How do I tie a tie?” for instance. Other questions can be brand/product specific, “How do I change my iPhone password?” Consumer centric content can answer both of these questions and more. Companies can create a FAQ with the most common questions asked by their consumers. This will help your site appear for any branded searches, as well as cut down on the amount of calls to your customer service line. If a consumer can search for your product by its name or model number and is delivered to your FAQ, they know they are getting the answer to their question straight from the horse’s mouth.
Demonstration Videos
A demonstration video is a great way to introduce your product, as well as educate your consumer on how to use it appropriately. Just about every company can create a demonstration video for their products. Software companies can create videos teaching consumers how to install the program on their computers. Fitness centers can create a series of videos, each one focusing on a different workout machine. The possibilities are limitless. Showing your product in action helps convince someone to buy and keeps them informed after they make their purchase.
Manuals
Creating downloadable manuals is a great idea for many companies. If you work in the high-tech or IT industry, some of your products probably have operational guidelines that must be strictly adhered too. A product manual (optimized with the product name and model number) is a great add-on value for your consumers. If your company delivers and installs your products, a hard copy of this manual is a nice thing to leave behind. It makes the consumer feel more informed and knowledgeable. Manuals contain all the information they could ever hope to know about your product.
Obviously you can’t forgo promotional content in favor of consumer centric content. Both play important roles. But consumer centric content is much more likely to have a longer life than promotional materials. Events come and go; ads get changed up every few months. But great B2C consumer centric content lasts a long time.
