Category: Brand Strategy

1. What is a brand strategy, defined in your own words?

• A Brand Strategy is a blueprint that connects a product’s rational benefits to a customer’s emotional desire

2. What are its most important components?

The most important components are an understanding of:

• Customer Segments: Knowing who is the business’ customer, and more importantly, knowing who isn’t
• Customer Insights: Understanding of the key emotional drivers of the customer.
• What Business are you really in?: Commitment to being in a business that is more than just being a ‘product’

3. Is there a special secret recipe to a good brand strategy that you have learned in your career?

• The secret recipe to a good brand strategy is simply keeping the customer at the heart of the strategy

4. Since Brand Strategy is one of the previous stages of the funnel, what impact does it have on the finished product stage?

 

• The Brand Strategy is actually defined before the funnel starts
• All the stages of the funnel are directly or indirectly influenced by the Brand Strategy, since the brand’s promise and behaviour would be reflected across the customer’s journey
• At the final stage however, the Brand’s Strategy can significantly help in creating Brand Champions – customers who connect strongly to the brand’s promise and are happy to recommend and refer the brand to others

 

Related Post – To-Dos Before You Build Your Brand Strategy

 

5. Is that impact measurable in numbers?

• Yes. This could be measured by the volume of repeat purchases and referrals

6. What parameters do you think will reflect a perfectly brewed brand strategy?

 

While the parameters of success will vary from brand to brand, some of the more common branding goals include:

• Increase in Awareness & Visibility of the Brand – between both customers & other stakeholders
• Differentiated Positioning within a cluttered market
• The creation of the Brand’s Story which can be told across mediums in different ways

 

Related Post – Listen From Seagullites: How Has the Role of Creativity Changed Over the Years?

1. How will You Define Creativity?

The holy grail of any advertising agency is its creative product. Inventive ideas backed by flawless execution are what drives the creative narrative of a brand. But what is creativity? Is it ephemeral or enduring, spontaneous or calculated? While it is nearly impossible to restrict the several facets of creativity into a singular definition, it can be best described as ‘empathetic storytelling’.

A quick observation of any respected global brand will reveal that its creative expression is steeped in a deep understanding of the target audience (empathy) and the pursuit to evoke a relatable emotion (storytelling).

2. What Role has it Played in Your Career?

Students of the creative arts often wonder, “What is creative advertising?” While pursuing our studies in the fields of Mass Communication and Commercial Arts, we associated creative advertising with ideas seen in the newspaper, on television, and in outdoor media. However, working in a professional environment with seasoned gurus changes one’s perception rather quickly. In our careers, we’ve come to appreciate that creativity is not a collection of mere ideas. Instead, it’s a bouquet of evocative expressions that helps people to elevate joy or alleviate pain.

3. On a Scale of 1 to 10, How Important is Creativity in Advertising?

 

 

Image Source:macromark.com
The importance of creativity in advertising is arguably the most misunderstood concept in the industry. Sure, creativity scores a 10/10 in the criticality of its existence. However, creativity as an idea cannot possibly be successful in isolation. Unless an idea answers the question of what is creativity strategy in advertising, its execution and final impact will fail.

4. What According to You are the Major Changes Happening in the Advertising World Today?

 

 

Advertising has seen a paradigm shift globally in the last decade. With an ever-increasing focus on digital media, social engagements, new technologies and analytics, the role of creativity in advertising too is changing. How advertising is changing the world has been documented by scholars over the world, but not everyone can see beyond the superficial glitz.

5. Is the Language of Creativity also Changing with it? How?

Absolutely. Earlier the language of creativity was largely restricted to the available media. But today the most creative aspects of advertising are often media-agnostic. New-age creativity is not about selling; it is about connecting. More than ever before, brands today are employing the use of technology to create a bond with customers. Creativity is much more solution-oriented than it was a decade ago.

6. Based on your Calculated Assumptions, What More will Change in the Bond of Advertising and Creativity?

 

Image source:h2omedia.com
Not only is the global population today young and aware, but it’s connected. If we observe keenly, some of the most viral examples of creative expressions have been on new-age platforms like Video Sharing and Augmented Reality. It won’t be surprising to see advertising trends in 2021 gravitating towards such new-age platforms. A cursory study of the current environment points to the fact that user-generated content will drive the future of advertising in the coming decade.

Related Post – Celebrating 25 Years of Seagull Advertising

 

The Novel CoronaVirus has surely changed a lot of things in the current times. Apart from affecting social dynamism and popular human behavior patterns it has also affected business in a big way. The several restrictions levied by National governments across the world to arrest the spread of this pandemic have surely casted a strong influence on the daily conduct and flourish of commercialism and trade.

Many in 2020 have actually pointed out that this is probably one of the lowest points for commercial business. This is a fact which stands more than corroborated for certain industries. Commercial domains like hospitality, non-food retail and travelling have borne the worst burn ever.

However can it be said that the era of a pandemic will surely bring economic decline worldwide? With the right marketing strategy during covid-19 the worst effects of the pandemic can surely be contained.

Current Pandemic Situation

Without a doubt, it can be said that the current situation across the world is more than grim. With the onset of the second wave of covid-19, India is currently battling with numbers of fresh cases of infection.

To bring the current situation under control the national leaders have voted for the lockdown to different extents in different parts of the country. This has definitely created an adverse impact on the general economic activity of the nation.

The general flow of life has also been considerably affected by the phenomena of lockdown. With offices, schools, colleges, shopping malls, multiplexes, cinema theatres and other public places being closed down the modern population is forced to stay enclosed within the walls of their homes.

The online platforms and the virtual stores have gained immense importance where business globally has gone online without a doubt.

How Has Lockdown Affected

The pandemic and the resulting lockdown have affected the world and its people both socially as well as economically. On the social basis people have become isolated or have distanced themselves from their social connections and have become more family oriented. In some places where this phenomena has helped to strengthen family ties in other contexts it has also made people lonely and increasingly driven towards depression.

Economically the situation is once again not really very rosy. This is all the truer for non essential services which lingers in the territories of travel, vacation, high end leisure goods. Some industries and their workforces have been majorly hit that has dilapidated their financial conditions considerably. Small, medium or big brands that are unable to adapt to the current changing situation are facing a prominent decline.

In the current time what matters is how brands are connecting with customers in lockdown. Those who can adapt to reach out to the door steps of their customers instead of them having to come down to their shops and offices are fast flourishing even in the current testing times.

How Do You Still do Business in this Condition?

It is almost correct to say that the economy has experienced a complete stand still in the current time. True, business has definitely witnessed a slowing down and some has been closed down completely. However this does not mean that the world is experiencing an economic stagnation as a whole and no new brand launch during covid has been witnessed. The good news for the business fraternity is that even now when the world is facing various degrees of lockdown in different parts you can still do business and trade. However the catch here is that since your patrons and buyers are able to reach out to you and come down to your point of selling you need to make your products and services available at their doorstep. This is the basic mantra of continuing your business even in the present times of pandemic and its resultant lockdown.

How Can You Launch a Brand?

Image source: marketingdonut.co.uk

Commercially, launching a brand requires a proper strategy. This is true in all times and the present time of the pandemic is no different. Human requirements and needs have undergone a huge change. Contrary to the previous time when people wished to go through the entire market physically looking for the best suited product for their needs, now staying within the safety of their houses have become more important.

All across the world people are stepping out of their houses only when it is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, buyers in the market generally prefer to buy online and get delivery of products at their doorstep. This is the basic point which a commercial enterprise needs to understand. Only then can you launch a brand during the pandemic.

If you wish to make your new brand successful with the buyers in the market it must satiate their current need. One of these needs is to remain within the safety of their homes and get the product or the service right at the doorsteps, against the payment of the product and service charges.

 

Related Post – To-Dos Before You Build Your Brand Strategy

 

What Emotional Touchpoints and Whom Should you Keep in Mind While Launching

Most people are experiencing a lot of depression, frustration and anxiety due to social isolation. The feeling of getting lonely is catching up with people of every age and often they start feeling rather miserable about their condition. In such a situation the experts of the leading branding company in India are fabricating a branding on marketing strategy where they are providing an assurance to their customers that no matter what the condition is the brand will always be by the side of its patrons. Assurance of companionship, commercial support and trust is helping to create a philanthropic and dependable image of the brand. This helps to strengthen their relationship with their clientele.

Business is all about making the most of all the available opportunities. In order to do this it is imperative that a commercial organization makes a correct assessment of the market where it will participate, the customers to whom they will deliver and very importantly the value they are planning to add to the life of their probable patrons. If you take a look into the domain of commercialism and business you will see everything is about planning calculations and strategic management. Obviously the domain has seen the emergence of different concepts and terminology. One of them happens to be the go to market strategy. In the course of this discussion, we will take a look at what is a Go To Market strategy and how it happens to be important to the commercial brand. In the latter half of the discussion we will take a look at a go to marketing strategy aptly suited for retail business.

What is a GTM strategy?

 

In a nutshell, a go to market strategy also known as GTM strategy happens to be a strategic action plan that defines the process or the path through which a commercial brand will reach out to target customers in the market. It is a plan that helps a commercial brand to attain maximum competitive advantage in the market. The main purpose behind GTM strategy is to provide a blueprint which will define the best possible way through which the services and products are delivered to the end customer. While making this strategy the aspects of distribution and pricing is also to be taken into consideration. In certain ways it can be said that a GTM strategy is slightly similar to a business plan. A go to market strategy is designed in the event of launching new services and products, introducing existing products in the market with a new approach, or re-launching the brand of the commercial company once again. A GTM strategy tries to answer questions like why is the brand being launched, the brand tries to give a better understanding of the product to the target customers so that they can engage them and convince them for an effective conversion.

Why is it important and how does it help?

In the discussion so far we have satisfactorily answered the question: What is GTM strategy? Now that this question is answered you might wonder why it is important? In an answer to this question it is important to point out that developing a new product or improvising an existing one requires huge investment of time, money and resources. All of this in one way or the other means a tidy amount of capital for the commercial brand. To ensure your profitability and curb the possibilities of failures and losses it is really imperative that the management of the company knows what they are about to launch in the market.

Knowledge of more than the product

Apart from their own product they must also have a fair idea about the market segment to which they will propose their product. Positioning the product in front of a wrong market segment can bring in a huge volume of loss. Hence the company has to assess the buyers who will truly be interested in their product. In one way it can be said that a GTM strategy reduces chances of failed product launches, it also reduces marketing time, it helps to manage innovation, it ensures a delightful customer experience, it avoid investment of time money and effort in the wrong path and wrong direction and finally it aims to bring about a successful product launch.

 

Related Post – Marketing For Local Target Audience

Designing GTM For Retail Businesses

In this part of the discussion we will take a look at how to create a winning go to market strategy for retail business.

• Define your target market – Experts of our best marketing agency in Pune opine that not every product is suitable for every type of market. The aspects that must be taken into consideration while defining target markets are psychographics demographic, drivers of need, ethnographic, the geographical area and the buyer’s persona.
• Target customer – Next we come to defining the target customers. It is really important for a brand to know its customers, their requirements, and needs, buying power, psychological activations, internal tension, regular daily challenges and strongest emotions that drive them on a daily basis.
• Brand positioning – When we talk about brand positioning it indicates the process of upholding the brand in the psyche of your customers. The brand must work to create an intelligent and progressive image which will definitely create a positive influence on the target customers.
• Define your value offered – The brand clearly mentions the value of the benefits it is offering to its true patrons through its products or services. This is one of the major points which will help to attract a greater bulk of buyers in the market.
• Define your channels – The channels are the medium through which the brands reach out to their customers. Some of the probable channels are the internet or the online platforms, the retail stores, face to face selling, selling through events like seminars, trade shows etc. It has been observed that certain channels are popular with certain demographic or geographical clusters of buyers.

The discussion so far clearly highlights the fact that a GTM strategy is a highly technical planning which involves a number of aspects. With the right resources and guidance, your product can reach new heights of success from the beginning of it’s launch stage.

Your blog post coSeagull Advertising, a pioneer in the world of brand management and advertisement, has recently completed 25 years in the industry. As a top-tier advertising group located in Pune, Seagull had a gala event rejoicing its silver jubilee anniversary. The event was marked by a gathering and a vow to evolve further to add more value to the business community.

An Incredible Journey

In the past 25 years, Seagull has dedicatedly worked with various clients at local, national and global levels. The brands with which experts of Seagull Advertising have worked have grown in leaps and bounds, even in competitive environments. Tackling the ups and downs of the industry, Seagull has established itself as a world-class service provider in the expansive arena of advertisements.

Incredible Stats

The data in favour of Seagull is absolutely mind-boggling. A whopping 219,000 work-hours have been spent in assessments, analysis, strategy-making and implementation for various clients in a wide range of business domains. Literally hundreds of copy-writing teams have been involved in numerous projects all these years, led by dozens of smart and forward-looking creative heads. The journey till now has been like a never-ending party, fuelling company’s growth.

Sailing Through All Odds

The journey was bumpy at times, due to unpredictable markets on certain occasions. But Seagull Advertising shrewdly went past all odds, creating an exclusive niche for its services, and delivering impeccable even within stringent deadlines, for various clients. Naturally, Seagull is always prepared to cross hurdles convincingly.

Pride Of Establishing And Enhancing Brands

The 25th anniversary celebration also recounted how in all these years Seagull Advertising has been instrumental in establishing hundreds of brands from different business sectors, establishing them and strengthening them with a professional attitude. The celebration encompasses the proud feeling of adding value to hundreds of other companies.

Building Memorable Experiences Since 1996

Founders and senior employees of the company, during the event, reminisced how they were able to stay focused on achieving the goal to grow Seagull as the best advertising agency in India, right from the very beginning in 1996. There have been several experiences full of learning and encouragement, which converted ideas into dreams.

Different Clients That Seagull Has Served

From real estate companies to green initiatives, Seagull Advertising has till date served many renowned clients. It has served the Kohinoor Group and Mahalaxmi Group in the real estate sector. It has successfully served the lifestyle brand C’LAI WORLD. Moreover, Seagull has delivered excellent branding solutions to ‘tokri.com’, an emerging ecommerce grocery store. The company has also worked for ORO, RANKA Jewellers, CARBAAZI, Thermax and many more companies.

Related Post – How Seagull Advertising Helps You in Your Lead Generation Journey

An Illustrious Profile With Many Awards

Seagull Advertising has won numerous awards in the past 25 years, validating their world-class execution of different advertising projects. The company has won the prestigious Advertising Club Award at the Goa Fest. A sparkling feather was added to Seagull’s crown when the company emerged as victorious at ‘The Cannes Lion International Festival of Creativity’. This award is exclusively bestowed to an agency that leaves its mark in the world of advertising. Many such awards have enhanced the global recognition of Seagull Advertising.

Celebration During Lockdown

Everyone knows about the onslaught of Covid-19, especially in Maharashtra. Accordingly, all the staff planned responsibly to celebrate the event. The onus was to protect the society by preventing further spread of the disease. Each and every individual associated with the company played their part to celebrate the anniversary by complying with government regulations during lockdown.

A Gala Virtual Meet

The employees of Seagull Advertising have been working from home during lockdown. Evidently, the celebration for the 25th anniversary event also shifted to virtual platforms. There was a mega group meet on the virtual platform where employees of the agency gathered and participated whole heartedly. Each of the individuals spoke about what Seagull Advertising actually means to him/her. Some of the employees had a nice little cake in front of them, with a colorful ‘25’ candle lit on it. Everyone wished Seagull more success in the future.

Pledging To Help The Society

During the virtual celebration of Seagull’s 25 years in the industry, everyone pledged to help the society as much as possible during lockdown. By arranging resources and raising funds, Seagull Advertising has chalked out clear-cut plans to play a part in donating to the community.

Vows For The Future

The philosophy of Seagull Advertising rests on the fact of consistently evolving and delivering the best creative and innovative advertising solutions across a wide spectrum of business domains, that has made it the most reputable marketing agency in Pune. The vows of becoming an even better service provider grew stronger during the celebration.

Further Modernizing Advertising Approach

The management of Seagull Advertising has taken one oath while celebrating the 25th Birthday of the organization. It aimed at making advertising and branding solutions even trendier, upscale and accurately effective, leveraging on the signals from the market.

A Deeper Research And Implementation

There was also a short discussion among the staff to employ sharper and more precise methodologies to conduct market research and competitor analysis, and then implement the insights to create highly result-oriented creative solutions for companies in a case-specific manner. There was a friendly consensus on this matter.

Brighter Future

In the coming days, Seagull Advertising aims for a more expansive approach, diversifying its advertising services and strengthening its philosophy through high-standard, flawless works.

Building a brand strategy requires what you actually want to establish with your brand, how unique it is and what is your target market. A long-term perspective comes into play when you try to build, implement, sustain and evolve a robust brand strategy.

Fundamental Tenets of Brand Strategy

 

When you are confronted with the question of ‘what is brand strategy’ then you need to encompass the elements such as competitive environments, the aspirations and needs of your consumers and the character of your business. In order to strike a chord with the sentiments of your customer, you have to keep these fundamentals in the blueprint of your brand strategy.

Implementing the Strategy is not a short-run Process

Remember that when you have to cover the issue of ‘What is brand building strategy’, you have to essentially take a multi-channel approach to make your brand more visible, in social media platforms, in electronic media and in print media. There are some basic components on which you should focus on while chalking out the strategy. A brand is not merely your service list or company logo. It is beyond these things, with its own aura and charismatic presence, impacting the choices of your customers. Here are some crucial things on which you should concentrate before building a brand strategy.

Defining the Purpose of your Brand

It is hugely important to blend the purpose of your brand with your business model. It should not merely concentrate on profitability. The brand must concretely add value to the lifestyle of your customers, and be able to sustain it.

Remaining Consistent

Another important component in a brand strategy is focusing on its consistency. The level of consistency in projecting your brand and highlighting its attributes should be par excellence, leaving no scope for any confusion. The message of your business at every platform must perfectly align with the essence of your brand.

Taking Seriously the Emotions of your Customers

Before deciding on building a brand strategy, it is mandatory to take into account the emotions of your customers. A golden rule to follow is – customers are not always rational. Hence, you should be ready to tweak and evolve the strategies, as per the sentiments of your target audience, and also focus on creating tender emotions for your customers, so that they feel connected to your brand. This is about giving weight to their demands and whims, in a modulated and sophisticated manner.

Flexibility is a Key Component

Before you jump into the process of building a brand strategy, it is also extremely important to remain flexible in your approach. You have to continuously evolve the strategy, from the moment it is ready to be implemented. Markets are changing constantly. You have to adopt accordingly, in order to remain competitive. Hence, there should be ample space for flexible changes within your brand strategy before you finally decide to build it and blend it with your business framework.

 

Related Post – How Much Money Should a Brand Spend on Marketing & Advertising?

 

Involving the Employees More

There should be a deeper relationship between your company and your employees. This results in positive repercussions in building and implementing a superb brand strategy. Get your employees involved more in activities other than conventional operations. They would love your brand and company more and feel proud of making the brand a bigger name in the industry.

Creating Loyalty Programs for your Customers

It is vital to reward your loyal customers in the forms of better prices, discounts, coupons, more lucrative offers, etc. Before you build a brand strategy, equip yourself with a good loyalty program for your more frequent customers. Make them feel special.

Ascertaining the Priorities in Advertising

You have to be very clear about brand strategies concerning advertisements. When you tackle the question ‘What is brand strategy in advertising?’, you should be smart enough with a robust answer that considers multiple advertisement platforms. Key things that you have to take into account are:

• The motto and scope of the brand in the advertising space
• The dynamics of the target audience
• Ad copywriting specifications
• Design aspects
• Consistency across ad platforms
• Creation of various content forms to make the strategy more versatile
• Continuous refinement of policies as per changes in the market

Related Post – Why is it Important to Have a Memorable Brand Identity?

 

Significance of a Buyer Persona

You can never ignore the question ‘what is a buyer persona?’ when you are on the verge of building a branding strategy, as the strategy revolves around this question. A buyer persona is basically a profile that is created on the basis of research and customer data, ideally representing your target audience. You can have more than a single buyer persona for the products you sell. In fact, for a huge real estate or retail company, there could be scores of buyer personas. With a well-defined buyer persona of your target audience, you would be able to empathize with your existing and potential customers in a much better manner.

Utility of a Buyer Persona

Finding the most suitable answers to the question ‘why are buyer personas important’ requires a little bit of research. Nevertheless, there are underpinning aspects on which you should focus, such as meeting the target buyers’ requirements, gaining more trust from the customers, giving better recommendations to your audience, consistently addressing their queries and complaints, etc.

You are ready to Build a Terrific Brand Strategy

Now, after going through this blog, it can be said that you are more confident to build a grand strategy to strengthen the prospects of your brand, in a competitive environment.

A topical event can be segregated into two broad categories – seasonal and occasional. An example of a seasonal event is a Christmas celebration in December each year. On the other hand, an example of an occasional event is World Cup Football held once every four years.

What Is Termed Topical Content?

The definition is embedded in the term itself. Any content that markets a topical event with an aim to pull in more traffic through organic searches, constantly increasing the brand identity associated with the event is known as topic content. Content marketing of a topical event is a sub-field or branch of content marketing.

Promoting An Event

When you design strategies of content marketing for events, you have to keep in mind that the phenomenon is not a continuous process. Rather, it is a one-time occurrence in the long run. Hence, you have to create content with a deeper focus on the attributes of the event.

An Opportunity To Sharply Increase Followers/Conversion Rate

Topical content, if created maintaining all norms and complying with content marketing fundamentals, can sharply increase the volume of traffic on your platform. The result is more customers/followers of your brand. Also, there is a visible positive change in conversion rate.

Why Relying On Content Marketing Of Topical Events?

Are you hunting for clear answers that why you should employ content marketing techniques to promote a topical event? There is no need to search anywhere as the precise explanations are given here. Read on.

• Visibly compelling content can pull in more traffic and also help you to establish as a unique choice
• You can add useful context, adding more value for the target audience
• It is shareable – hence, it spreads awareness in a cost-effective way
• Value-added features are seamlessly integrated into a primary message that you want to convey
• It is recyclable. It can be repurposed for the next event, reducing your overall budget

Related Post – Know All About Content Marketing

 

What Are The Principal Elements Of Topical Content?

Your focus should remain on providing as much information and as smartly as possible. But keep in mind to not clutter the platform with voluble content. The information should be objective in nature.

Your target audience should know about the date, location, timings, special offers, etc of the event with just a look at the poster, image, etc, which you post.

Can SEO Be Used In Topical Content?

This is one of the commonest questions asked to digital marketers regarding promotional campaigns of an event. The short answer is – yes, it can be used. Besides implementing high-end image and video SEO methodologies, you can hire experts to write long-form content complying with SEO fundamentals on your website blog.

Moreover, relevant off-line SEO strategies should also be utilized in order to popularize the content across various platforms. Strong SEO means your content receives more organic traffic, consistently. You have to take care of choosing the perfect keywords for building the content.

Utilizing The Potential Of Social Media Platforms

You can’t think of any form of content marketing without involving various social media platforms. Social media is undoubtedly a sophisticated, user-friendly, effective, and seamless tool that can bring quick results for your brand, business, event, etc in a highly cost-effective manner.

The key here is to amalgamate, rather bring every social media platform under one centralized roof to apply the marketing solutions and monitor the performance. Creating a buzz on every platform and intensifying it manifold is the test of expertise in such cases. You should be absolutely clear about the things you want to convey, establish and sustain.

Various forms of Topical Content You Can Consider

You can experiment by blending multiple forms of topical content to promote the event.

• Blog posts/website articles – From short news pieces to long-form content, you can try out different things. Also, there could be an interview of an artist or business tycoon, or other celebrity participating in the event.
• Promotional videos – Creating a VLOG or a series of promotional videos (with teaser) could provide a stupendous impetus to the event by creating a craze. Ensure the videos are short in length, with proper implementation of SEO.
• Textual/visual updates – Through a series of social media posts, you can update the target audience on a regular basis about the topical event.
• Remarketing ads – These ads could also be used effectively in providing more digital recognition to the event.

Two Great Content Marketing Ideas For Topical Events

You can use these ideas in rendering an extra edge to the events. The first one is creating a podcast with one of the key participants or even a couple of participants of the event. The second idea is creating Instagram Reels with select images related to the event, in order to pique the interest of the target audience.

Distinct Benefits

The prominent benefit you receive from content marketing of a topical event is obviously a big spike in sales volume. People get more involved in your brand / company / product / service / message.

In addition, there is more digital recognition, which automatically helps at the time of marketing for the next topical event.

The third benefit is of course keeping a firm control on marketing budget, as content marketing of this category is quite cost-effective.

Bonus Tip

Here is a bonus tip to add more value to your marketing strategies. Try to keep some souvenirs or takeaways from the previously organized event, creating more curiosity for the current target audience.

In today’s world, traditional marketing has become far less persuasive than it once was. Traditional methods have been outdated, and especially after quarantine, digital consumption has boomed drastically, decreasing the face for out of home and print ads.

4 Minutes Read

Here enters content marketing: a way to provide your audience engaging content while increasing conversions, raising brand awareness, boosting revenue and more at the cost of zero expenses.

But what is content marketing exactly? And where do you even start implementing? Let’s take a deep dive into the knowledge ocean of content marketing.

What is Content Marketing?

To understand content marketing, first, you need to know about the traditional marketing approach. TV, Print, Radio, Out of Home are advertising mediums and have dominated the market for centuries. But with the advancement of digital consumption, the average customer has moved to digital mediums like smartphone and computer screens. Traditional shopping has been partially replaced by online shopping, and even the services and consultation have come to virtual platforms. That’s where content marketing comes into play.

According to the definition of content marketing, “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

So instead of selling your products or services through bombarding media, you’re providing useful and relevant content to your prospect customers to help them out and solve their issues. It can also be said that it is a long-term strategy that focuses on building a relationship with your prospects.

Why Invest in Content Marketing? Or What is the ROI of Content Marketing?

If executed in a good way, content creates brand equity. A brand becomes more valuable over time as you continue to create valuable content. The audience appreciates your content and follows your brand as a leader in the respective field; this creates a flywheel effect where you start to generate more and more momentum until suddenly, you’re dominating your field.

The content provides value to your business through organic traffic. People start discovering you on search platforms like Google and Youtube and look forward to your opinions on respective matters.

It’s literally different from other kinds of traffic on digital medium for one important reason — you are creating a loyal audience base. These people are actively searching for information related to subjects business and when in need of opinions, they come to your content.

It is a great way to create followers and spread awareness about your core product. Even this piece of content (this blog) is a part of the content marketing paradigm. This blog is teaching you something for free. Plus, on the website, you can find different blogs about advertising and marketing technology, and everything is free.

 

Related Post – Content Strategy: Your Company needs it, Surely!

 

Best Practices for Creating a Content Marketing Strategy

Now that you know content marketing is a good method of advertising and promotion, you need to create a strategy to implement the best practices in content marketing. Here they go:

A content marketing strategy is a plan for building an audience by publishing, maintaining, and spreading frequent and consistent content that educates, entertains, or inspires to turn strangers into fans and fans into customers. In simple words, you are building relationships and solving problems by providing helpful content.

Slice the content into three parts: Awareness, Consideration and Decision. In other words, content should be staged to provide awareness about your brand- what is it about? How does it work? Then comes the consideration stage- how the brand will benefit? What are its uses? Why should someone consider the brand? And lastly, there is the decision stage: how is it better than the competitor? Why should someone only choose you?

But before you start pumping out content like a machine-based on the stages mentioned above, you need to do three things:

1. Determine who your customer is (Demographics, Geographics, etc.)
2. Figure out what information they need (Their problems)
3. Choose how to say it (Style of writing or elocution)

What are the Types of Content Marketing?

The most common type of content marketing is blog posting. Blogs can contain a wide variety of content on their own, with plenty of ways to draw more traffic to your site. A blog is where most of your evergreen content will be. E.g. The blog you are reading right now is a content marketing type. You are reading it because it interests you and the subject intrigues you. Plus, it is free on the internet.

Other content types include videos, infographics, white papers, articles, social media posts, e-books, etc. Based on these types, you can decide your plan of action to execute various types of content marketing strategies.

 

Related Post – 9 Reasons Why Content Marketing Should Be Part of Your Marketing Plan

 

Content Marketing Strategies For 2021

There’s a reason Seth Godin calls content marketing “the only marketing left” – it’s authentic, useful, and perfectly suited for the internet generation. But which strategies to choose in 2020. Here is a list to help you out:

1. Results-focused content
2. Video and live-stream take centre stage
3. User and search intent drives content creation
4. Conversational marketing continues to evolve
5. Content gets tailored to voice search and smart devices
6. Personalized content gets a shot of steroids
7. Podcasts keep catching on
8. Topic-focused content to build authority
9. The battle for the snippet
10. Data-driven content creation

At The Bottom

We hope that by now, you feel a bit better with the decisions you need to make on a content marketing level. This blog is a brief overview of what content marketing is all about. There is a lot of fish to explore in this ocean, and only hands-on experience will teach you that.

So let us know in the comment section below- What has worked for you in terms of content marketing so far? What hasn’t worked and why?

In case you face any problems then do reach out to our experts at Seagull Advertising one of the best advertising agencies in India. We will help you out with all your queries regarding digital marketing.

Every year, Google handpicks a select group of its top-performing agencies, to take part in their prestigious Elevator Program. So our team at Seagull Advertising are incredibly proud to break the news that we are one of those top 15 Agencies in India based on performance and metrics that Google thinks valid.

Getting selected for this program implies that these agencies are some of the fastest-growing agencies in India and are well-equipped with a team of domain knowledge experts.

For us, it enables our team to receive advanced training on advertising solutions and business acumen, as well as Google’s support in winning new businesses. It’s an excellent opportunity for our agency, and we are excited to share the knowledge we learn with you (our partners) over the coming months.
How does it work?

Google selects the agencies based on who have been consistently providing outstanding results to their clients and their perception about the agency’s potential for further growth. So, over the course of the next few months, the agency heads are invited for 1-to-1 group sessions & coaching session.

 

We understand that it is an outstanding opportunity, and we are so stoked to implement what we learn in everything that we do!

(Featured image Source: https://www.seoworks.co.uk)

 

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