What Franchise Owners Should Know About Content Marketing
Your customers, both existing and potential, want value from your brand. Now that value can take many forms, and it’s not always the product or service you offer. Today, many brands also release content that provides value to their consumers in some way. From videos to blogs and articles, that content helps you retain consumers and attract new leads.
One of the biggest factors a franchise owner needs to worry about when implementing a content strategy is to ensure that the content reaches and connects with the audience in a natural way. That means that subtlety in branding your product through content marketing is necessary for it to be successful.
And the best way to ensure that is to understand how content marketing works to attract new leads for your brand, and helps retain the existing customers. This short guide on content marketing basics will help you understand how to reach your franchise’s audience effectively and how using digital marketing techniques like these can help your franchise succeed.
What is Content Marketing, and How Does It Work?
As the name suggests, content marketing means creating and sharing content that is designed to engage and attract your consumer base online. It can take many forms, like videos, text-based content like blogs and articles, images, or even a mix of these and a few others. Even online content like social media posts and online training courses are often used by brands within their content marketing strategy.
You can even use content marketing in places where direct brand advertising might not be possible, by allowing you to generate interest in your offerings. So, you can say that content marketing has quite a versatile implementation, especially in the hands of an expert.
Some of the most popular kinds of content that make up a content marketing strategy include:
- Blogs and articles
- Shareable content like eBooks
- Video content
- Audio content such as podcasts
- Slide decks
- White papers and case studies
- Infographics
A franchise owner can easily use a mix of these different content types to ensure you can reach and connect with your customers. One thing to remember, however, is to evaluate the type of content that would provide your customers with the best value. Just because video content works well for one brand, doesn’t mean it will be as effective for yours.
Types of Content Marketing
Your franchise should create content that suits your customers’ needs. Similarly, your content marketing type should also be chosen according to your customers. Let’s look at some of the most common types of content marketing.
Online Content Marketing
Online content marketing may sound like it refers to all types of content marketing you do online, but it usually refers to content marketing via web pages. Strong web content will help you rank your franchise’s content high in the SERP rankings (Search Engine Results Pages ), making it easier for prospective consumers to see it.
Social Media Content Marketing
Social media is a big world — and an effective one — to market your franchise and its offerings. According to a Statista survey, there are over 4.2 billion social media users in the world today, meaning that you have access to over half the world’s population to market your offerings!
And platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more can help you get your brand out to prospective consumers.
Blog Content Marketing
Blog content marketing is another popular type used by brands around the world. Unlike short-form content such as social media content marketing, blogs and articles can be a little more persuasive when done well. With the content being longer and more fluid, many persuasive speech topics can be discussed via blogs without adversely affecting the reader, allowing for a subtler marketing hook to attract new leads.
Video Content Marketing
Video content marketing is one of the most popular ones nowadays, with many brands opting to implement it within their strategy. As a franchise owner, you can create a solid online presence by sharing candid videos alongside professional ones, to humanize your brand.
Content Marketing with Paid Ads
Paid ads allow you to market your franchise to a broader audience by putting you in all the places you want your franchise. However, they are most effective only when paired with inbound marketing strategies. The best part is that you can share these paid ads on various platforms, including social media pages, web pages, search engines, and more.
Creating a Content Marketing Strategy – What Does It Entail?
Creating the perfect content marketing strategy for your franchise can be the difference between you succeeding as a market leader, or staying on the sidelines, lost in a sea of competitors. However, no strategy, no matter how good, can hit the ground running. You need to give it a little time to work its magic to truly show its effectiveness.
Let’s look at how you can get started on your franchise’s content marketing strategy.
- Identify your audience. Generalized marketing doesn’t do well. You can create a targeted content strategy to maximize your ROI by identifying your ideal audience.
- Identify the correct type of content marketing that would work for your target audience.
- Get a professional copywriter/content marketer who knows how to create content that converts.
- Come up with a content distribution strategy to work out what type of channels would be best to disseminate your content.
- And most importantly, build and adhere to a strict content calendar.
In short, the best content marketing strategy for you would be one that addresses the needs of your customers and provides the type of value they desire. If your content does that, then you will see the results it produces in a short while. Content marketing is a versatile digital marketing strategy for franchises that can help you attract and convert leads and also help you retain them for a long time. And if your franchise continues to create insightful and valuable content, you will also make a loyal brand following.