In 2022, everything is content. The rise of social media platforms like Instagram and Tiktok mean brand marketers are spending more time than ever creating content to grow brand awareness and reach new customers. While a basic SEO-oriented blog might have sufficed five years ago, the standard for consumer-brand content marketing has grown in tandem with its importance. Now, new and existing customers expect a rich, unified, and editorial experience with your content across every channel — blog, social media, and even email and SMS. Let’s break down some content marketing basics and the creative tactics your brand can use to generate meaningful ROI from your content marketing efforts.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is incredibly broad. In general, “content” is written material, and visual, video, and audio assets. Brands create content, and influencers or creators create content. Even non-marketers create content with every tweet or instagram post! Content marketing, however, is when that content is used with a goal in mind: whether it be to grow brand awareness, lower the cost of customer acquisition, or increase conversion.
What channels do content marketers use?
Content marketing is particularly powerful for raising awareness when consumers are in the early stage of the customer journey. Typically, content marketers favor several channels to distribute the content they create:
- Social media: Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, TikTok, and Snapchat make it easy to reach new customers organically, and can also be used for paid advertising.
- Website and blog: Longer-form content housed on a website or blog is a great tool for educating and inspiring new customers about the company and product.
- Email and SMS: Direct communication channels let you reach your customers with tailored messaging designed to drive conversion.
How to grow revenue through content marketing
While content marketing typically targets brand awareness, your brand can use Canal’s network of high-quality products to power tactics that result in real revenue and grow your ROI on your content marketing. Here are four of our favorite tactics to optimize your content marketing:
Gift guides
Seasonal gift guides are best when they offer targeted advice that matches your audience’s needs. Is your brand talking to Gen Z women? Create gift guides for a best friend’s birthday! If your audience skews older and more male, provide your best recommendations for mother’s day or a wedding.
Canal can help you double down on gift guides by helping you merchandise your own site with the right gifts for your audience — no more linking your readers away from your own site and losing a conversion!
Branded collaborations
Partnering with another brand your customers love can help you expand the reach of your content. Plus, brand partnerships can offer lots of opportunity for content creation: throw an event together, offer a giveaway on social media, or even create an in-depth blog series that inspires your readers to try your product. For example, you could collaborate with a food brand like Fishwife to create shop-able recipes on your site.
Canal connects your Shopify site with that of your brand partner, making it easy to offer a seamless checkout experience for their product in your store. Your partner brand still makes the sale, but you get a commission on each purchase, too. Win-win!
Email newsletters
Using email to distribute your content can inspire repeat purchases for your customers – driving up customer LTV! Editorial-driven email campaigns can help re-engage past customers by giving them ideas for new purchases. You can even repackage editorial content you’ve already shared into a round-up style newsletter, with product recommendations targeted toward your customer segments.
Canal helps you merchandise your store with new products from brands your customer will love. That makes it simple to translate your site updates to fresh email content that drives purchases, not just clicks.
Trusted recommendations
Word-of-mouth from trusted friends and influencers is an incredibly powerful tool. Leverage your best customer product reviews to provide social proof for your customers. You can also create a long-form content series showcasing your influencer partner’s favorite products.
You can use Canal to add your influencer’s favorite products to your assortment so you can create a richer content piece that feels authentic to your influencer’s audience. Social proof and more SKUs make for a larger AOV!
Learn more about how you can boost your AOV and LTV using Canal, and get started on your content monetization goals.
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