To develop an effective content strategy & create your unique content for your business.
Throughout the use of defining Who, What, Where, When, Why and How, the marketers can be able to write and create their unique content for their businesses. These following tips can guide you a better vision of learning how to differentiate your brand versus other brands. B2B and B2C Marketing have many differences and similarities, and both types of Marketing need to follow the same structure of basic guideline.
Let me share the background’s knowledge of B2B & B2C Marketing, and two examples of these two types of businesses.
Example for B2B: John Deere (a company that manufactures agricultural, construction, and forestry machinery, diesel engines, drivetrains used in heavy equipment, and lawn care equipment)
For B2B Marketing, it is the businesses between the company with the partners and vendors. Content marketing can be shared and reposted from those partners and vendors. B2B Marketing allows the company to work closely with its customers and mostly provides a closer relationship with their customers. The most important thing about this type of marketing is to build a strong relationship with their customers. Also, they usually share the work improvement, best practices and project’s schedules. It is less price-sensitive for their sales and has a consultative selling which is based on the understanding of consumer’s need and the relationship of trust. B2B Marketing usually has few customers in comparison to B2C Marketing.
Example for B2C: McDonald’s (fast food company who sells food and drinks services)
For B2C Marketing, it usually links to brand such as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. It is an impersonal business with mass communication that sell products or services to consumers. B2C is a short-term business that provides a business relationship between products or services with customers. It is often stimulated by marketing and extremely value-sensitive, unlike B2B Marketing. Furthermore, it has a larger customer base.
- Knowing who is your target audience:
Be clear on targeting which type of person while creating your content.
B2B: partners and vendors; B2C: brands and a mass of consumers - To Set your specific business goal for the content:
Why are you creating this content marketing for your business? Creating at least 2 content ideas for your specific business goal and focusing on what your company or organization looks forward to achieving from it. - Set up a designated persona:
Who, What, Where, When & Why
Who is the persona? (brainstorm one type of person from your target audience base)
What is her character in the story/situation? What will her typical day look like while making a rationale or sharp decision of making a purchase? (B2B: rationale decision; B2C: sharp decision)
Where is he/she standing at while considering of making a purchase? (what stage/phase)
When will he/she approach to finish up the deal?
Why does she concern or aware of your brand/company, not just focusing on the specific product item? - Old vs New Content:
Comparing your company’s previous works in content marketing and your new one. Differentiate your story from history and your competitions. Share a different story to your audience. Highlight the key elements of the changes in the newest version of content marketing.
E.g. Emphasize the new feature of McDonald’s mobile order in the new content marketing while promoting the service. - Q&A:
Asking questions based on ‘Why is that important to……?’ Make some notes during the process of answering those questions.
E.g. Why is that important to know about your new arrival products?
These Why’s questions and answers help you as a marketer to build strong knowledge and understanding of your audience’s interest. - Mission Possible:
Fulfil your mission by starting with some fantastic concept ideas.
E.g. Increase member loyalty or boost seasonal promotions.
When you make a clear statement of your mission, you can follow the concept and create a bigger picture of it. Once you set up a mission to complete, it is possible to be succeed. - Get feedback from the others(A/B Testing):
Double check with your draft of content creation and graphic design on it. You can create two different versions of storytelling. If it is necessary, then you can do an ‘A/B Testing’ with your work peers and managers before showing to your boss. Get feedback from others and make changes for the content before publishing it online or offline. - Your Competition:
In the same industry, you want your brand to stand out from the others. You want to share the best things about your company to the audience. Knowing who is your competitor is an essential step because you want to differentiate yours to the audience. Both B2B and B2C Marketing need to target their services and products to specific group of consumers. In this case, B2C needs to put more efforts on researching of its competitions because of the large size of consumer’s need. - After the party, let’s celebrate!
Follow these 3 key points: The Team, The Workflow, and The Tactical Plan.
The Team:who will be involved in the creation process, you need to divide specific tasks to each member of the team.
The Workflow: make a schedule plan; you need to be clear on all the tasks and date in order to organize with different steps.
The Tactical Plan: create a plan that includes topic to be covered, channels (which platforms) to publish, quality standards, guidelines, and measurement plan. (B2C Marketing needs to be aware while planning all of these elements because it usually publishes to the public online with a larger amount of audience either return customers or new consumers) - The major 3 components of the finale:
Organizing the structured calendar, create your unique guidelines and make your channel plan.
Content Format:Infographic, video, podcast & blog article help with engagement, multimedia and deliver online
E.g. Apple
6 days ago, Apple has launched a promotional video of content marketing on its new product that shot on iPhone 11 Pro on social media platform YouTube.
Long-form Written Content:Report(trends, thought leadership), Ebook/Guide (educational, teach/learn), Case Study (product/service then to meet the client’s need) & White Paper(How does the product/service use)
E.g. John Deere
In October, John Deere has launched its evergreen marketing content on its official website, sharing information and content about High-Water Mark.
However, different formats will be applied to different marketing situations. For B2B, marketers need to provide a formal written style and its content can be more concise because of the closer relationship. For B2C, marketers usually create interesting and less serious content marketing like social media posts because of the mass consumers in public.
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Bo Chow 