How to use content marketing to attract and retain clients - Part 1

I'm forever banging the content marketing drum — advising on how to improve it and how to make it work. But I don't think I’ve explained why it's important.

I’m going to do a series of blogs that focus on the various benefits of content marketing.

This week I’ll talk about how it can help you retain existing customers.

What is content marketing?

Firstly, what do we mean by content marketing? Content marketing is basically giving your buyer information that makes them smarter instead of pitching your products and services. It's blogs, newsletters, white papers, social content, videos, webinars and podcasts.

The benefits of content marketing for small to medium businesses

Let’s talk through some of the benefits of quality content marketing. Here goes:

1. It keeps your customers coming back for more. It captures attention. It makes you look good because it leaves your audience with a positive impression of your brand.

2. It helps your business get more engagement on social media. By engagement, I don't mean followers. I mean interactions. Quality content can help your business gain traction on social media.

3. Creating quality content helps you build trust with your audience. Giving them added value content without asking for anything in return means your audience is more likely to trust your advice. If you show up with content in the right place, at the right time, then it will improve your business’ reputation.

4. It can help you generate more business. If your audience regularly engages with your quality content, they're more likely to remember you and be interested in purchasing from you in the future.

5. It can help you build a mailing list. By asking your audience to share their email address with you in return for some quality content, you can increase your email marketing database contacts.

6. It can improve SEO (search engine optimisation). You can write good quality content that sits on your website, a blog, for example. This content should include all the relevant keywords for your business and, in return help, you rank better on Google. It should help you become visible online and build trust and authority with your audience, leading me nicely to point number 7.

7. It helps you to build authority. If your business is established as a credible place to get info, you're more likely to rank higher in search engines. And, your customers are more likely to trust you if they see you as an industry expert. Your content should demonstrate your expertise and give your audience valuable answers to their questions.

How to use content marketing to keep your customers coming back for more

So, why does high-quality content keep your customers coming back for more? As I said earlier, it's an essential asset that captures attention. And it leaves your audience with a positive and lasting impression of your brand.

Most businesses focus their marketing efforts on the obvious stuff that brings in the leads and converts. The content that makes money, basically.

But what about keeping the customers you already have coming back for more? A loyal customer is worth more than a new one and it costs a heck of a lot less to retain them.

We all know that we need to retain customers and do it well, but how?

Most people think of using things like loyalty programmes, big promotions and special deals.

But what if the answer is content?

A lot of businesses use content as a form of marketing to attract new customers, not to retain them.

We know the importance of customer retention, but we also know that there's something else much more important to customer loyalty than giving someone a gift, a coupon, or access to the latest, fanciest thing.

It’s knowledge. It’s education.

There’s nothing wrong with loyalty schemes and free gifts, they do work, but they only make the customer loyal to that scheme or chasing free gifts and discounts. They don’t make them loyal to your business.

Let’s start thinking about creating complete content marketing campaigns that are really education campaigns. Let’s think about creating a unique line of content designed specifically to educate existing customers and help them make the most of the product or service you offer.

For example, you might sell a subscription to an organic veg and fruit delivery service. You’ve got customers and you want them to keep ordering through you. You give them options to upgrade and provide opportunities to include add-ons to their delivery. You have their email address. Score! You can offer discounts and money off certain lines.

But what about drip-feeding your customers content. Here are some ideas for the veg scenario.

• Give them access to seasonal recipes.

• What about an exclusive cookery channel?

• Create guides to growing your own

• Meet the team that grow your produce.

• Tips and tricks to storing your produce. How to prepare for freezing. How to pickle, etc.

Now, the methods of delivery for all these ideas can vary quite a bit — email, social media, clickable links after login, even print — but the more of this kind of content that your customers get for free, the more you educate them on how best to take advantage of your product and service and the more likely they are to stick around.

You want to convince them to stick with you instead of disappearing into the ether. Or to a competitor.

Not all of your customers will care. But some of them will. And, it’s those people you’re trying to convince to stay loyal.

So, what I’m trying to say is — think about your products and services, think about the knowledge that could help your customers take what you offer to the next level and think about how you can produce valuable content that your existing customers will appreciate. Then give them the tools to become experts of the product or service you supply.

Make them feel empowered and full of knowledge about your product, and they’ll stick around.

If you’re thinking about introducing content into your marketing plans then contact me to arrange a 20-minute discovery call. I can talk to you about how my services can benefit your business.