Boost Brand Awareness, Increase Customer Acquisition, Lead Generation and Loyalty with Content Marketing
It’s crucial for marketers to find more cost-effective and coherent means of engaging with consumers, and that’s why content marketing has quickly become a key part of any organization’s marketing mix, today used by nine out of ten marketers.
Marketers are clear on what they want to achieve with their content marketing strategies. Research shows that marketers primarily aim with content marketing to boost brand awareness, followed by increase customer acquisition, lead generation, and loyalty.
Brand awareness
There are numerous benefits of writing a company blog, so if you don’t already have one, we recommend that you create one as soon as possible. It gives your company a voice in your industry and can be a valuable tool for building your brand awareness.
Increasing your brand awareness doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s an important goal to keep in mind for any business. One of the best ways to achieve this is with content marketing.
Strong content allows you to show your customers who your company is and what your brand represents. Brand awareness isn’t just whether your audience knows the name of your brand, but it’s how well they understand the qualities that make your brand unique. In order to create this distinction, your content needs to highlight the qualities that set your brand apart from your competitors.
Share the details about your company that makes it clear what sets you apart from others in your industry and show potential customers why they should choose you over your competitors.
Customer Acquisition (CAC and CLV)
If you're on the content bandwagon but don't know your customer acquisition cost (CAC) and customer lifetime value (CLV), you're playing a dangerous game: You might be spending thousands on blog posts or infographics and assuming it's worth those eight new clients you picked up, but is it really worth it? You can show the financial side of content with some calculations.
The raw number of new customers is worthless without knowing the cost to get them. A "good" CAC hints on those customer's' lifetime value, among other things.
Industry leaders suggest spending about 20-30% of CLV on CAC. For example, if your CLV is $1,000, you should keep your CAC to no more than $200-300.
Your CAC is the total cost of convincing a prospect to purchase your product or service. It includes all relevant expenditures, such as research, marketing, and support services and tools.
The simplest way to calculate CAC for a set period of time (weekly, monthly, annually) is this: CAC = Total Marketing Costs (TMC) / Total New Customers (TNC)
When measuring for content marketing, your TMC should include:
The cost of the content itself (what you paid the writer and/or graphic designer and/or video producer)
Your salary costs (how much did you pay your staff to publish, distribute, promote, and monitor)
The tech costs (the fees for the services, tools, and platforms used)
Keep in mind that CAC on its own doesn't tell us much. It needs to be compared with customer lifetime value (CLV) so you can see where you stand.
To find predictive CLV try this formula:
CLV [Predictive] = ((T * AOV) * AGM) * ALM
T is the average number of monthly transactions, AOV is the average order value, AGM is the average gross margin, ALM is the average customer lifespan in months. The resulting dollar figure gives you a best-guess estimate on how much you can expect from each acquired customer over the length of that customer's relationship with you.
Aim for a CLV about 3x your CAC. Less than that, and you're spending too much on acquisition; more than that, and you could safely spend more on your content marketing to help your business grow faster.
Lead Generation and Customer Loyalty
By creating content that keeps customers in mind you are in an advantageous position to retain customers by offering them a favorable experience. If you reward customers with a good experience, they may feel so impressed that they will be urged to promote your product.
Content marketing will help you learn about your customers’ interests. Keep in mind that businesses lose a customer because they cannot interpret the buying behavior.
For example, if a customer has to go through a series of steps for completing an online purchase, a drop in checkout rate might be seen. To optimize conversions, knowing what a customer would like to see, will help you create a favorable user experience and drive more leads to your check-out funnels directly from customers reading or listening to your content.
Engaging positively and consistently with customers along their different purchase journeys will nurture brand loyalty. This is most true for millennials; 62% of whom feel that online content drives their loyalty to a brand. Consistently infuse brand loyalty by developing and sharing content that is useful and conveys shared value.
According to a Corporate executive Board (CeB) study published in 2012, most consumers say that they were loyal “not to companies, but to beliefs.”
From the text on your landing page to the call-to-actions on your ebook, your beliefs (and that of your audience) should shine through.
Take time to understand how the customers perceive your product. A satisfied customer drive leads the company to another loyal customer. Leveraging content marketing for customer loyalty requires a long-term strategic approach of providing valuable content to your audience.
Create loyalty and grow your business using content suited to your customers’ needs. Identify those needs by extracting behavioral analytics from content.