A common misconception held by business owners is that all of the money that you invest in your marketing efforts should offer a direct return on investment (ROI). The problem here is that this methodology is somewhat old school—today’s marketing is heavily focused on digital presence and on developing a killer content marketing strategy.
What Makes a Killer Content Marketing Strategy?
A content marketing strategy is one of the most critical tools that any business has for building their online presence, because it’s the most straightforward way to provide answers to the questions that their target audience is asking. Thinking strictly from the perspective of a consumer, you’re going to develop trust in a brand that consistently provides answers that you’re looking for when you’re searching online. One brand that is particularly great at content marketing is Kraft. Let’s take a look at who they’re targeting, and what questions those people are seeking answers to: Target: Parents who are looking for recipes to feed their kids. Keywords They’re Searching: healthy living, kid-friendly recipes, budget recipes, quick & easy recipes, slow-cooker recipes, etc. To develop a content marketing strategy surrounding parents who are looking for new ways to mix up what they’re serving to their families every night, you need to provide a constant stream of fresh, new recipe ideas that are adaptable to a wide audience. It’s important to keep in mind that people are also searching for recipes specific to certain dietary restrictions—we call those people your niche market. Planning a strategy that focuses on a niche market actually allows for even more precision, because the audience is smaller and is looking for something very exact. For a big brand like Kraft, pursuing a broader audience is feasible, because their brand is already a household name. Small businesses that are trying to make their mark in the digital sphere often have greater success when they focus primarily on niche markets that would benefit from their products and services.
How Kraft Built a Killer Content Marketing Strategy
In order to provide recipes for consumers, Kraft created kraftrecipes.com, a resource that’s packed full of free recipes that feature Kraft products. Not only can users print and save the recipes they find on Kraft Recipes, but the folks at Kraft have made it super convenient for users to share the recipes across a number of social networks. Simply by clicking the “share” button on each recipe page, a user can share to networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, as well as directly by email. In total, there are 294 options to share recipes from Kraft Recipe! Additionally, users are encouraged to review and post their own pictures when they’ve made the recipes, which creates conversation around the content that Kraft has provided.
But what does all this mean for Kraft’s ROI? How many dollars has Kraft Recipes brought in from the free content they’ve provided?
Just by giving away recipes, Kraft hasn’t directly brought in a profit. The importance of content marketing is to build your brand’s awareness and reputation, and to make it a point of conversation amongst online consumers. While the Kraft Original Facebook page has an impressive 234,606 fans at present, their separate fan page for Kraft Foods – Recipes and Tips has 1.1 million fans. The fan page posts a recipe once a day, or every other day, which provides consistent content without inundating fans with a flood of information. Each post receives several hundred “likes” and “shares,” expanding the content’s reach even further beyond the 1.1 million fans of the page. You know that a content strategy has succeeded when online users not only seek out the content you’re providing, but share it with their friends. Social shares are definitive proof that your content provided the answer that a consumer was seeking, and was valuable enough that the user felt her friends would find it useful too. Kraft has established itself as an authority on family recipes, and as a result has become a source on which consumers depend when they’re looking for something new. This means that when a parent, who is a fan of Kraft Recipes on Facebook, is looking for a quick & easy recipe, they’re likely to go directly to the Kraft page for ideas, instead of consulting a search engine that may direct them to another recipe resource. This is called brand loyalty, another major goal of content marketing.
What This Means for Your Small Business
How can you apply Kraft’s model to your own content strategy development? They’ve given you a perfect example of how to become an authority in your market, now it’s just a matter of establishing your presence amongst your target audience. For small businesses, it goes back to the niche market we discussed earlier; honing in on a smaller audience that’s seeking out your specific products or services and appealing to their needs. If you own a catering hall that hosts an assortment of different types of parties, consider which type you tend to attract more often than the others. Do you find you host more weddings than sweet sixteens or corporate functions? If so, that’s your niche. Then think about what people are searching for when they’re researching wedding venues, and build your content marketing strategy to answer those questions. That sounds like a lot of work, though, doesn’t it? That’s why many businesses choose to outsource their marketing efforts to agencies that specialize in content marketing. When you hire a professional with experience in crafting successful marketing strategies, you eliminate the guesswork and the trial and error that goes into learning what works and what doesn’t—they’ve already been there, done that, and have found a model that’s proven to succeed. If your company is ready for digital marketing success, start building your killer content marketing strategy with Fat Guy Media today.
