Online marketing, specifically content marketing, has become one of the most effective ways for a company to expand its influence on digital platforms, particularly on social media networks.
Of course, that comes as no surprise since that’s where people gather—and where there is an audience, businesses, naturally, will flock to earn and convert people into their consumers. It’s this trait that appeals most to brands and persuades them to join the still-growing community of digital marketing in the Philippines.
Heck, who wouldn’t be interested in it? After all, the people are already right there for the taking. However, this is also, often, the reason why many companies make the shift abruptly—without first being equipped with the proper understanding of content marketing. And that’s where the problem lies.
To truly make use of content marketing for your brand, you must familiarize yourself with not only its benefits but the probable pain points that you’ll face while utilizing it. If you are aware of these potential problems, you can create a strategy to fully counter them.
To make it easier for you, we’ll be listing down the most common pain points that brands and social media management agencies in the Philippines face when it comes to content marketing. So, start taking notes!
Not Knowing Your Target Audience
When it comes to content marketing, you must know who you want to reach, talk to, and engage with. After all, that’s how you’ll build your community, spread awareness of your brand, and improve your influence online.
Part of this means that you need to define your target audience. You must create profiles or audience personas of your ideal consumers, which should come complete with relevant demographic data such as their: interests, online habits, personal information (name, age, race, gender), buying patterns, and more.
By doing this you come to understand your target audience, specifically what they need and want from you content-wise. And when you know who you want to persuade, creating an appropriate marketing strategy or plan becomes a walk in the park. Your messaging will also be more personalized, leading to more effective campaigns.
Content Generation
Another main pain point that many brands encounter when it comes to content marketing is producing original, high-quality quality content. Some believe that simply publishing whatever content comes to mind is enough to stay relevant online, but that’s far from the case.
Your content should revolve around what your brand is about and what problem you want to solve through your products and services. It should always provide value to your viewers and consumers since this is what keeps them coming back and is what develops you into a sought-after thought leader.
Also, make sure that you diversify the type of content that you release and make publishing consistent. You can use videos, stories or reels (Facebook & Instagram), infographics, your brand’s blog, and more.
Using the Wrong Social Media Platform
Businesses new to the idea of content marketing will almost always make this mistake the first time they venture online. They think that they need to be present on all platforms to stay relevant or use the most popular social media networks to reach more people and sell. However, that could not be farther from the truth.
What you need to do is find a social media network that hosts your target audience. Because if not, you set yourself up for failure. The materials, promotions, and campaigns that you’ll be releasing will be meaningless. In other words, you’ll be fishing in the wrong pond.
Choose a channel that will connect you to who you want to persuade. That’s the only way you’ll get the most out of your content marketing strategy.
Measurement, Monitoring, and Analytics
Verifying the effectiveness of your content marketing plan or strategy will be important in knowing whether you’ve been successful in your promotional activities or not.
What you need to do first is to identify the metrics that are relevant to your content marketing goals. This includes follower count, engagement (likes, shares, comments), web traffic, page visits, lead generation, conversions, revenue generated, ad spend, and more which will be included in your social media report.
By keeping track of these statistics, you’ll be able to see what parts of your online content strategy are getting results and what areas you need to work on or improve upon.
It’s Not the End, It’s a Start
If you’ve hit these content marketing paint points, regardless of whether you’re new or already fairly knowledgeable, you need to see it not as the end, but as a beginning. As they say, “just a bump in the road.”
Use the opportunity that it opened to improve your content marketing strategy and tailor it even further to the likes and tastes of your target audience.
Note: Of course, besides those that we mentioned above, you should also put effort into refining other aspects of your brand’s digital marketing strategy, particularly your website.
Employ search engine optimization (SEO) to further improve your website’s Google Search Result ranking. The higher you are, the easier it is for people to find and notice you!
Ask SEO services in the Philippines for help if need be! They’ll lend you their expertise and help you climb to the top!