Content marketing is one of the most misunderstood branches of digital marketing. Why do I think that? Because when people hear content marketing, all they think of is writing articles online. While they aren’t totally wrong, they haven’t even scratched the surface of what content marketing is.
The internet is currently the largest and the most effective channel for content marketing. However, content marketing itself older than the internet. Back in the 1800s, people like John Deere already produced content mainly designed to provide valuable information. That concept is what content marketing is all about. And it hasn’t changed. Not one bit.
So…
What In The World Is Content Marketing?
The concept of content marketing is pretty simple. I would have really loved to give you some textbook style definition so that I can feel intelligent. But I won’t. So here goes…
Content marketing is simply creating and distributing content on a consistent basis for the purpose of providing valuable information for a predefined audience. The content is designed to make its audience interested in the products or services of the brand and to cause them to take certain actions that are profitable to the brand.
Pheww! That was a mouthful, wasn’t it? Basically, the strategy in content marketing is creating a content that provides information and at the same time sells a product. So it’s 90% about the customer and 10% about the brand.
Before we talk about how to get started with content marketing, let me point something out here. The internet may be the largest medium for content marketing but it is not the only effective medium. Content marketing can be c=done offline using traditional media like magazines.
Now that we have got that out of the way, let’s look at…
How to Get Started With Content Marketing
So, you are interested in content marketing, now what? The first thing you need to do is to know your audience. This is where many brands miss it. They just spray content and pray that people will get interested. It doesn’t work that way.
You must know your audience in order to know how to better communicate with them. Ask questions like, who are my customers? What do they want? How do they behave? How do they interact with my brand? And what kind of information are they searching for?
For online businesses, this is quite easy. The internet is an excellent platform that makes data collection a cinch. But offline businesses like restaurants have had to use crude means to collect information. These means are both inaccurate and expensive.
Plus, they only capture a small sample of your entire customers.
Thanks to Wi-Fi analytics and marketing tools like SpotOn Wi-Fi, restaurants can now collect adequate information about. The amazing this about these Wi-Fi analytics tools is that customer data can be garnered in real-time and without any physical effort.
The data can then be used to create different customer segments so that relevant content can be created for each segment. Check out how Email Marketing and Customer Segmentation: For Restaurants and Retail businesses is done. All content that is created is designed to show your customers that your product or service can solve their problem.
Pause for a minute. Do you know we mean when we say ‘content’? If you said written articles, you are only partially correct. There are other forms of contents; these include videos, infographics, and audio recording (podcasts).
It gets exciting to dish out content but you must make sure you try new content after a while. You should exploit other forms of content other than your main content form and work on new topics as well.
Starting a Blog
To start your content marketing campaign, you need a place to post your content where your target audience can find it. A blog is one of such places. As a restaurant your website should have a blog where your content goes.
Blogging serves as a way to provide valuable information to your customers. The information could include types of diet, how to use certain types of cutleries, weird food combos, how to save when dining out, holiday meals, and many more.
Be sure to post consistently: daily, weekly, or monthly. Posting haphazardly will keep your audience in a state of confusion, not knowing when you are going to put up new posts.
People do not like to be sold to, at least not all the time. So make sure your posts are created to provide information that is useful to your audience.
Making Guest Posts
You may not be able to reach all your desired audience at once through your blog. There might be someone out there who has a large following among which are some of your target audience. Guest posting is one effective way to reach out to them.
Through guest posting, you get more eyes on your content and more people begin to associate your brand with value. Since most guest posts allow for a short author bio, you can use this as an avenue to mention your restaurant.
You should be strategic about your guest posting. Only target websites that are related to restaurants and food, and that have a large following. This way, you make the most out of every guest posting opportunity.
Podcasts
A podcast is basically like an internet radio. That definition may be lame but you get the point. Currently, there are a lot of podcasts that talk about restaurants and food-related topics. They cover concepts like industry trends, special diets, new recipes, restaurant management, and more.
You could reach out to any one of these podcasters and request to be interviewed. Be sure that you prepare valuable content for your podcast session so as not to blow the opportunity to the wind.
Search engines are rich with lots of podcasts you can choose from. Some of the top podcast shows in the restaurant niche include The Sporkful, Secret Sauce, and Restaurant Unstoppable.
Email Content Marketing
Have you ever received a newsletter in your email? That is content. Emails can now be used as an excellent platform to serve fresh hot content. With over 3.7 billion users, email is one of the best ways to provide relevant information through content.
Using the data collected through Wi-Fi analytics and marketing platforms, you can segment, broadcast, and monitor your email content to see how well they do. You could also test new topics, different subject lines, and measure the level of interaction your audience has with your emails.
Finally…
You know one thing that makes content marketing amazing? Zero sum. By that I mean that you can start immediately without any complex setup. If you have data on your ideal audience and you know what kind of information they seek, you can begin to craft content to provide that information right away.
As a matter of fact, stop reading this post right now and go create some relevant content.
Oh wait, before you go…
Have you integrated your guest Wi-Fi with an analytics and marketing software? This will make it easy for you to collect customer data in real-time and with minimal effort on your part. With this information you can make smart business decisions, predict and avoid unfavourable conditions, and drive sales.
Want to know how our software will help you do this? Contact us and let’s get you started.
POSTED ON August 20, 2019Share:
