99% of enterprises have misunderstandings about content marketing.

In the era when the effects of traditional media and advertisements are gradually declining, the content value of information becomes more and more important. Therefore, many enterprises regard "content marketing" as one of their core marketing strategies.

The biggest misunderstanding of many enterprises in content marketing is that they only understand the word "content" and think that the so-called content is simply telling stories, so they spend a lot of energy to make text, voice, pictures, small videos and other information, and then use the platform carrying these information for publicity. I thought I had made a huge content marketing, but in fact it was just a lot of patch advertisements.

So what is the correct content marketing?

Content marketing is a way for users to get brand information through content communication. The most important thing here is content. Enterprises can produce or use valuable internal or external content to spread their products and services, attract the active attention of target users and form purchases. In other words, the brand integrates its own information into the content, and spreads the brand's appeal information "by the way" with the infinite communication of the content audience.

What is the difference between content marketing and traditional marketing?

Content marketing is a way of traditional marketing, but on this basis, content marketing has been optimized and upgraded.

Traditional marketing sells products and services in a direct way, and the functional value of products and services is the focus of marketing; Different from content marketing, its marketing focus is not or not mainly on functional value, but on the emotional needs of users in the first place. Focus on the content, and the content must be readable. Most users will not be disgusted and will not refuse. Such content is either a story, an emotion or an interest. In short, it is wet and vital, not dry.

For enterprises, the essence of content marketing is that enterprises sell motivation and customers buy emotion.

Let's review last year's "phenomenal" short video content marketing case "What is a page". The short film is funny and full of tears. Think carefully about what is the core of its spread. It's grandpa's feelings for his grandson in the story. It is this touching emotion that has contributed to the spontaneous spread of users, and at the same time, it has also made the movie "Piggy Peggy's New Year" an instant hit.

And "emotion" is the carrier of "what is the page" to create content marketing.

There is also online wine "Jiang", and its marketing method also belongs to content marketing. Different from video content, Jiang's material is short and pithy copy, which impresses users through a few words and makes them willing to be marketed.

The brand spreads the ideas it wants to express in the form of stories, allowing users to infect its brand charm in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere, and it is easier to gain market recognition from consumers. This is also the reason why enterprises often choose "storytelling" as a means to do content marketing in the past two years. But "storytelling" is just a common form of expression in content marketing. Storytelling is content marketing, but content marketing is not just storytelling.

After the information technology revolution, consumers began to have the right to choose information independently, and were no longer hijacked by the media. Therefore, when consumers make decisions and search, it is very important to create active content, attract consumers' attention and give them necessary information in time.

At the same time, with the sharp increase of the cost of traditional media, the cost of creating content by enterprises themselves is decreasing, so content marketing is paid more and more attention by enterprises.

1, brand creation, born for brand

Traditional media advertisements gradually lose value, and users don't like or trust them. In contrast, content marketing can better represent word-of-mouth marketing, allowing users to participate, consume and share brand information. This marketing method plays a vital role in establishing brand power of enterprises.

2. Guide the user by going up one flight of stairs.

Generally speaking, the cost performance of content marketing is very high, the cost is only 62% or even less than that of traditional marketing, but it can bring more than three times the effect. Quality content and users will gradually appreciate each other, and these users are likely to become repeat customers and brand communicators.

3. Build a long-term relationship bridge with users.

Good content will be excavated by everyone no matter what channel, and participation is the key. For example, Google's preference for content marketing has surpassed SEO, and the ultimate goal is to make it rank high.

In fact, content marketing has established a very strong and long-term subtle relationship with the target audience invisibly, and really good content will also enhance brand value invisibly.

4. Content marketing is measurable and effective.

All content production platforms will have their own set of indicators that can measure the effect. Although native advertising is on the rise, content marketing still stands firm in the world of digital marketing. And a survey shows that the ROI of content marketing is relatively higher.

Good enough content marketing can provide free publicity for companies with insufficient advertising budget. For example, there may be huge opportunities to realize free sharing of content through media platforms. This is also the reason why Xiaohongshu can break out from the media platform at this stage.

5. Undertake greater marketing tasks.

Content marketing can be said to be a universal tool, which can help brand owners build brand awareness and brand loyalty, promote sales transformation, enhance user participation and so on, and is completely applicable to all stages of enterprise product marketing.

6. Content is traffic.

Content marketing is a kind of traffic portal without ceiling. Whether it is a start-up enterprise that has no money to buy traffic or a mature enterprise whose traffic has grown to a bottleneck, as long as it has the ability to produce high-quality content, it can break the traffic bottleneck.

Good content will speak for itself and bring traffic.

7. Users will be attracted.

Content marketing can provide information, encouragement and entertainment.

But the first principle is: even if you don't push product information, your content can help users, build trust with users, and develop users into loyal fans, thus achieving the effect of word-of-mouth marketing.

8. Production of content and casting of culture

There is nothing wrong with users' feelings about content, but the essence of content marketing is to ultimately serve the brand itself.

The potential social value in the content will be deeply integrated into the corporate culture, thus driving the direction of corporate strategy and unconsciously affecting users' decisions.

9. Content = hidden barriers to competition

Well-made content is a strong competitive barrier, because the content has artistic elements after all, so there is no production standard, which is often like "opening the second pulse of Ren Du". If it passes, it will pass, and if it passes, it will not work.

We see that some enterprises can often produce "screen-brushing" content marketing, such as Netease's marketing team. This is definitely not something that can be done by spending money to dig up ideas and doubling the budget. Having content power itself is the biggest competitiveness of an enterprise.

1, talk to consumers with emotion.

Enterprise marketing means can no longer simply instill ideas into consumers and force users to identify with products. This blunt brainwashing marketing will disgust them. You know, users' attention to products has already been upgraded from life needs to value needs.

Content marketing must require enterprises to carefully ponder consumer psychology, start with details, pay attention to quality and service, and refine content around products and services. Then, through marketing means, the content has stories, emotions and vitality, so as to impress users.

Effective emotional content helps consumers to establish contact with brands by creating and triggering empathetic emotional responses. When consumers are attracted by the brand, they will establish social ties with the brand and identify with the brand value.

2. Capture hot spots and create valuable content.

Market hotspots emerge one after another every day. A trip to a hot clipper can make the products of enterprises get attention and spread quickly, which directly saves a large part of publicity expenses. Whenever hot topics appear, people's attention is tightly locked, which is very inclusive of hot-related content. It is very appropriate for enterprises to choose to launch or upgrade their products on this lively occasion, because the content subject has been determined and a large-scale traffic crowd has been put in place. At present, what they need to do is to promote the trend and do some market extension and evolution, which can increase consumers' attention to the brand and produce a * * * effect with the brand quickly.

Every year, Apple's product launch will bring a wave of hot spots. When iPhone X just launched the face-brushing unlocking function, major companies imitated it and made corresponding advertisements. For example, if you are hungry, this wave of operation perfectly caters to the latest fashion trend with the phrase "brush your face first, then brush your taste", and has gained many users with the help of the east wind of Apple's hot spots.

3. Never deviate from corporate tonality.

Every enterprise has its own unique values, which can also be called enterprise tonality. This is the culture formed by the brand after a long period of experience, and it is also the key to consumers' loyalty to products.

While doing content marketing, we should also grasp the corporate culture and run through the past styles and concepts, otherwise it will be easily subverted and the brand image will be greatly damaged.

Some time ago, Huang Xuan filmed a promotional film for Shiseido. Before the film was broadcast, Shiseido's brand image was always "high-end" and "expensive", and Huang Xuan himself was synonymous with "fortitude". However, as soon as the advertising video came out, netizens suddenly fried the pot and issued "Is Huang Xuan going to die with Shiseido?" Problem, for a time, "girlish", "pheasant advertisement" and "Low" were screened. Consumers also have doubts about Shiseido's brand positioning, which is the result of deviating from the usual corporate tonality.

4. Encourage consumers to share content spontaneously.

The most effective publicity comes from consumers. The biggest success of content marketing is to let users spontaneously make product feedback content.

Excellent user-generated content is a gold mine for every brand on social media. More than 40% of Estee Lauder brand-related content comes from consumers who share stories. "Consumers will naturally share their beauty skills, tips, comments and pain points socially. This happens every day. We try to motivate them to do so further. " Rand, executive director of global content marketing of Estee Lauder, said.

In order to encourage consumers to participate in the interaction, Estee Lauder's brands will ask questions around specific pain points. Cultural moments such as Kotchera Festival or International Women's Day will have dialogues or challenges, such as "Create the best Halloween makeup and share it with us."

Making full use of user-generated content is a wise and effective way to build brand awareness and loyalty. Although the brand may not have the budget to hire a well-known KOL, it is almost free to enjoy UGC. Never underestimate the power of users. High quality user feedback is the most valuable and influential content marketing.

Content is the foundation of an enterprise, which will penetrate into every link such as product production, brand promotion, corporate culture and management system. Incorporating content marketing into the long-term development strategy of enterprises and conforming to the current market trend is one of the core things that enterprises should adhere to in recent years.

In the future, content will become the core driving force of product consumption. What enterprises need to do is not only attach a content to their products, but also infiltrate the content into every cell of the organization, build brand IP and upgrade the core competitiveness of products, so as to gain a firm foothold in the rapidly changing market.

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These articles were originally published in the personal company "CMO Strategic Camp".

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