How to use content to influence customer thinking
Now that we live in a digital world your best marketer is no longer yourself. It is now a vast community of customers, industry experts, supplier and partners who engage with your business. Who will share links, get you mentioned and instantly draw others to engage with your business.

So in today’s world, marketing is not a means to an end, it is an end in itself. Marketing effectively will provide value to your company.

Content is a great instrument for getting that value for your outlook and your customers and you can use all kinds of guises for this. A few examples are top tips, competitions, videos, podcasts and articles. However you need to make sure that these will provide value for your audience whether they make a purchase or not.

Attention-seeking tactics
All commercial business will need their marketing to lead to a purchase eventually. But the logic of the above is very simple, the more people who engage with your business, the more attention your business gets in the marketplace. Then when people are looking to buy, the visibility gained should lead to your company being considered.

If your offer, proposition and value are attractive then you should get the business. Furthermore in a digital word every click is traceable, which means your business can track all the data to find out which marketing is the most effective. By doing this, any organisation can continually strive to improve its results.

So, all is looking good, but is there more a company can be doing? Short answer…yes!
Most markets use information in order to learn about the latest trends, the different products and services available and other companies’ experiences. Therefore your business should make sure it provides content of real value. It needs to be educational, insightful and not openly promotional.

Influence customer thinking
Using this material you can create yourself a competitive advantage when the need to choose a supplier occurs. Content influences how buyers think about products so make sure yours emphasise the important differences between your business and your rivals.
Obviously different things will appeal to different people and this is why there always room for a number of supplier in any particular market.

The criteria of purchase are fundamental when customers eventually choose a supplier. Therefore the ability to influence this, whilst providing real value and insight will help your business to tip the scales in your favour.

This area of content marketing is often ignored by businesses. So, how effective if your content marketing? Could it be better?

PS. Please don’t stare at this image for too long…Image credit: Who Knew a Picture Could be so Hypnotic? by Joseph Mercola

Dean Williams

Dean Williams is a design and marketing blogger working for Print-Print Limited, promoting business and building brands through quality print marketing. If you’re interested in small business promotion then please get in touch hello@print-print.co.uk