The way of advertising changed. Traditional media like television, radio, or billboards faced tough competition with the constant growth in internet coverage and cell phone usage.
According to the consulting firm Kantar, a Colombian spends 4 hours and 16 minutes a day in front of the television, while the 2022 annual digital report by Hootsuite assures that, in Colombia, each person remains connected to the internet for 9 hours and 38 minutes daily. Therefore, a complementary alternative to paid advertising is content marketing.
This consists of offering valuable and engaging content to users, through articles, videos, infographics, images, or any other format, on blogs, social networks, and other digital channels. Currently, according to Semrush, 84% of the companies they surveyed had a strategy of this type. Entrepreneurs who make content marketing one of the pillars of their strategy find various advantages supported by figures:
- According to the consultancy Impact, companies that have a blog obtain 126% more lead growth than those that do not
- According to the same consultancy, companies that allocate at least 40% of their marketing budget to content are more successful.
If these data convinced you to start selling online using content marketing as a tool to approach and sell to your customers in a different way, here are the five steps you should include to build a solid strategy that gets results:
- Objective: It is important that your first step is to identify what you want to achieve with your content strategy.
- Audience: Define your target audience very well. Describe it as detailed as possible. Having clear aspects such as their average age, consumption habits, socioeconomic status, tastes, and interests will be key to approaching them with the right content.
- Channels: The channels you use to publish your content must be aligned with the habits of your target audience. Deciding whether to use email, Instagram, Facebook, or any other medium to move the content will depend on the network or channel your ideal customer frequently uses.
- Content: Does your ideal customer consume videos? Or perhaps are they the type who prefers to read academic articles online? The themes and formats used in your content must respond to the interests of the target audience.
- Results measurement: Defining which indicators you will use to measure your results periodically will allow you to refine your content strategy over time and thus achieve the stated objectives.
With current dynamics, it is necessary to approach users and potential customers in a different way. For this reason, content marketing is one of the most effective strategies for your audience to get to know you, buy from you, and fall in love with your brand.