Digital Marketing: Content Marketing 101

What is Content Marketing?

Content Marketing is developing content such as blog posts, articles, webinars, videos, podcasts, and other content types to inform your audience via social, your website, and other channels. A strong content marketing plan can also have a positive impact on your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy.

How is Content Marketing Used in Home Services Marketing?

Content Marketing is used to differentiate yourself from your competition through how you convey your brand through your different marketing channels. Successful home service companies’ content marketing campaigns have well planned out content calendars of content to be added to the website, on the blog, and through social media channels.

What are the Pros of Content Marketing?

While it takes awhile to build up, long term, Content Marketing is one of the most profitable channels and can produce a lot of leads over time.

Content Marketing can also be used to shorten the sales cycle. Creating really good content on your website in your F.A.Q. page and on your blog can help customers answer questions they’d otherwise turn to your sales team to answer and it allows the customer to see you as an expert in your field.

You can have content for every stage of the buying cycle. When you have content addressing things that a customer asks when they are beginning their initial research phases, you have an opportunity to start building a relationship with your customer at the beginning of their search. When you have content for the final stages, you can help build expertise and get someone over the finish line and convert them into a sale.

What are the Cons of Content Marketing?

A Content Marketing strategy can take time to develop and to produce the content or have the content produced. It can also take time build up an audience and get traction. You have to keep investing for 6-12 months to start seeing any real traction from the strategy.

What are the Key Elements that Should be Done to Ensure Content Marketing is Successful?

Your content strategy should consider two audiences- your target customer and Google/Bing. You should be very intentional with the type of content that you produce- there’s some content you’ll want for SEO and other website purposes and some content specifically for audience engagement.

Most home services companies make the mistake of having all of their content be too self-promotional. Try to make your content engaging for your target audience and be relevant to not only your brand, but other things going on- like seasonal trends, etc.

Your content should specifically speak to your target audience. Identify the group of people that you have success closing today or the group of people that you want to have become your customer in the future. Perhaps you cater to a more budget conscious crowd- if that’s the case, your content should be around DIY ways to improve their house/solve their problems or ways to save money when buying your services. If you cater to a more quality conscious crowd, you may want to develop content around the pros of going with more durable products, etc. In more advanced Content Marketing programs, you may have several different target audiences and mix your content to appeal to all of them.