Before explaining the concept of content marketing and CRM, let us help you understand why this article is a good read for you as a brand or an employee.
The Problem:
Recently, a survey was conducted that led to the conclusion that more than 50% of the respondents believed that the real reason for customers leaving or switching brands is poor customer service.
The need to increase the customers’ trust in the brand is what makes the brand succeed so the above percentage means that some brands are on the way to losing their customers if changes are not done to the system of managing customers and creating a good relationship with them. Especially after the sales.
The Solution:
- Content Marketing & Modern CRM
- Now, to the explaining part!
Content Marketing: what is it all about?
The truth is, content marketing is not a new concept. Instead, the usage of content marketing has been in front of our eyes for a long, long time now. We still recall the marketing ads that were part of the magazines that came to our homes every month.
The content they used was also marketing. They tell advantages, give tips, and more all the while promoting their products and services. Check below for an example:
Customer experience is enhanced, promotion is done, and sales are increased; all of this is part of content marketing. This term is now more in our everyday lives because this is now the digital era.
So, if you want to understand content marketing using two words, then those will be: Indirect Promotion
Why use content marketing in the digital era?
The simple answer is that it helps provide value to both current customers as well as potential clients. With more value comes brand awareness, proof of your brand’s authority, and expertise in the politest way possible.
A couple of examples at your disposal for understanding this concept better:
Do You Sell Products?
Let’s say that you are selling canned beans. Now, instead of simply promoting your product by saying these are high quality and can stay on the shelves for a longer time period, a better way is there.
What you can do instead is use content marketing and publish an article about different dishes that your customers can make with beans in 20 minutes or less.
Telling how many cans you should use as per the quantity needed or what kind of recipe is easy for you to make. Say, for a small get-together you offer them a recipe. It will be a great way to increase the value of your content and indirectly the value of your brand and products.
You can also create specific content depending on the target audience with a much more detailed division. For customers who are tight on budget, you can offer a recipe for Corned Beef Hash. It is truly delicious if you want to try though.
Also, it is not necessary but you can even increase the value and quality of your content by using a step by step video for the recipe.
For a vegetarian, or someone with more budget, a recipe for Vegetarian Chili will do the trick.
Content Marketing: Do You Sell Services?
Let’s say that you are selling hosting services. This means that your online presence will be extremely important. But, how will you use the content marketing strategy in this case?
You can write content on the following topics:
- How to create a single-page website?
- How to use free themes that are best for your brand’s niche?
- What can you do to resolve the 404 error? Any creative ideas?
- The step-by-step process of design a website
There is unlimited content available online for any specific problem. But how you manage it, promote it, and make it accessible and easy to digest is what counts.
What did we achieve from this?
- We created brand awareness.
- We promoted our product (the tin of beans in this example)
- We provided value to the customers (in the shape of a recipe in this example)
- We gave the audience an example of our expertise. In this example, now our target audience knows that the brand recognizes that the product is much more than a can of beans. It is a way family sit together, eat together, enjoy each other’s company, and so on.
Where to place this piece of content?
Feature this article on your website. The landing page is the right spot in our opinion. That is where all the magic happens that leads your customers right to your brand.
Use your online and print marketing media to showcase this recipe with colors and images. Maybe be even videos.
Why this Content Marketing though?
The thing is, people today are interacting online at a higher percentage than they did before. Using the online platform is basically what your brand cannot survive without.
Having an online presence is immensely important. This is why customers can reach the brand for their products or services without leaving their homes. Brands today have websites, social media profiles, online magazines, social media ads, and much more.
This has helped the customers to reach the brands in terms of the pull marketing strategy but it also helps the brands to reach the customers through the push marketing strategy. It is all about how you make use of content marketing because This Is the Most Amazing Part of Marketing Today.
How Will Content Marketing Work?
The process is pretty smooth. You can simply upload your content online and let the SEO strategies take care of the rest. Once anyone searches for beans or recipes on a tight budget, your recipe will pop up in the Google results. The customers can check out the content and leave a comment whether they like it or not.
Then there is the possibility of them purchasing your product. The tin of beans.
Your target customers will be led to your website with the help of these articles or content marketing you do for your brand. This should be relevant to your products or services.
Now, let’s talk about CRM.
What is CRM?
CRM or Customer Relationship Management is what the major players in the industry are talking about. Once content marketing prevails, you will see more leads, sales, a larger customer base, and more revenue.
This is the time when you are inclined towards managing your relationship with current customers and leveraging your relationship with potential future customers. CRM software is the tool to make it happen with a steady flow.
The tool to collect and make sense of customer-related data is what is crucial to make sure that your brand is making the right strategies and plans for the future.
How CRM helps?
CRM or Customer Relationship Management can help your business to the extent that you may not achieve without it.
But the trick is, you have to make sure that you do it right. Only then you will be able to store your customer data and manage it. With the right data, you can track the way users interact with your brand, see the pain points that you have to handle, and improve so your customers can get more value.
All of this helps in boosting the number of closed deals by your sales team and business development department.
A simple way to make you understand:
Say one customer bought a product from your eCommerce store. Now the said customer has received the products and you have the payment.
Good so far.
Now, the right way to move forward is you emailing or contacting the said customer by other online means and asking if they liked the product. You can also ask for a review. This may seem simple if you have like 10 or 20 customers.
What about 200 or 2000 customers?
In this scenario, a good CRM software can do this. It will know all about the sales, all customers, and other sales that were made by the same buyer.
You can track every customer’s choices, and send them reminders on any newly launched products or sales going on.
Another benefit is, if you go for a cloud-based CRM, all relevant employees can directly deal with the customer data like any complaints, any feedback, and so on.
Conclusion
Our final take on this matter is that content marketing is why your customers will reach you and CRM enhances the positive results of your marketing efforts.
For more information, keep checking our website. Let us know what other questions you want answers to.