Is content marketing right for every business?

Q: Do content marketing strategies suit every business equally?

A: No.

Every week we receive inquiries from businesses and business owners from industries as diverse as manufacturing, travel, professional services and retailing.

As much as I would love to say that content marketing offers the solution for every business in every industry it’s simply not the case. Some businesses do lend themselves more naturally to using content as their primary marketing strategy.

There’s no point in trying to shoehorn in content just for the sake of it – content must serve a business need.

However, while content might not be the solution for every business, every business can use content as part of their overall marketing solution.

Whether it’s to demonstrate expertise, build rapport or simply as an incentive to build contacts, content can play a significant role.

Content Marketing for Product Manufacturers and Retailers

If you’re dealing with physical products – as a manufacturer, intermediary or retailer – content can help demonstrate product benefits and best usage

1. Demonstrate best use: How can your customers get more from the products you sell them?
2. Solutions: How can your customers use your products to solve their problems?
3. Differentiate with personality: Allow your content to say something about you as a business – setting you apart from other manufacturers or retailers.
4. Show expertise: As a manufacturer you need to be seen as the expert in product design and quality standards. As a retailer your opinion, taste and ‘fashionability’ all come into play.

Content Marketing for Service Providers

Marketing services – particularly professional services – is about expertise and personal relationships. Content is perfectly suited for delivering on both fronts:

1. Demonstrate Expertise: Do you know what you’re talking about? Prove it with your content.
2. Solutions: Attract new business by providing solutions to their problems.
3. Personal Relationship: Written, recorded or live content can all help build engagement – your content makes your customers and prospects feel they know you personally. It builds trust.

The Customer Expert

For any kind of business, one of the most important roles that content can play is to position your business as the ‘customer expert’ – the person who understands their needs, the person who can tailor solutions to those needs

That’s true in any industry.

Tagged as: content, Content Marketing, manufacturing, professional services, retail