As the world adopts the digital economy, we believe this is the time to build brand equity through a strong web presence.
From designing to hosting and maintenance every aspect of your website must be streamlined for your business to deliver value to your customer.
Part of that has to do with making sure you have a reliable web hosting provider.
Green Phoenix looked from the customer’s point of view and discovered that website can make or break the business.
Your website is the liaison between you and your customer. Leaving it unmanaged will not only kill SEO rankings, but raise questions about your overall sustainability as a business, especially in the digital age.
A poor web hosting provider can lead to more loading time, loading errors, and poor hosting quality. If a customer is dissatisfied with your website, they’re going to move onto the competition pretty quickly.
That’s why it’s so important you ensure your site is quick, reliable, and fully mobile-optimized. Don’t spare any customer; make sure anyone and everyone can interact with your site without any errors.
This is especially important if your site doubles as an e-commerce front. If you’re about to make a sale and your web hosting provider glitches out on you, you just lost that sale! Even if the customer can reload the page, you’ve already raised questions about your reliability. Remember: you only get one chance to make a good first impression.
At Green Phoenix, we offer comprehensive web hosting and maintenance service so that you keep up with the flux of the market dynamics. As a web hosting provider, you can trust our reliability.
From web hosting to domain management, backups, content management, graphics optimization; we cover the whole maintenance spectrum to optimize your business
Online Presence Analysis lets us look into how your business is doing online.
We will look at your website design, functionality, and content as well as ideal keywords and locations in respect to your competitors in relation to your competition.
We can also analyze your web presence in great detail so that you will ultimately be able to pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses.
A Key Part of Online Marketing Strategy
Any business, big or small, should have the online presence expansion as a key part of their online marketing strategy. Through an active online presence, you will increase visibility and build your brand’s reputation.
This allows you to reach out to potential visitors who continue to inquire about your products and services.
In order to see exactly where your brand stands with respect to your industry, we offer what we call an Online Presence Analysis.
This analysis will help us determine how well your business is seen among potential visitors as compared to your major competitors.
What Does an Online Presence Analysis include?
On-page and Off-page analysis
Competition comparison
Content reporting
Where you stand when searching keywords related to your website
Social Media presence
Brand’s visibility among search engines
Design and functionality of your website
Competitor analysis
Competitor analysis
Web-traffic analysis & increasing traffic
Ideas to gain more business
Your Online Presence Evaluation Consists Of:
A video review of our proprietary 30-point an analysis
A detailed summary of our findings, recommendations, and resources
A 30-minute phone consultation
Free email follow-up to insure results
Why Online Presence Analysis is Important:
If you have never monitored your presence on the Internet to see how well your marketing activities are working, you should do one now to set a baseline for measuring your improvement over the next few months. As you increase your visibility, great things can happen for your business.
What have I missed? Is there something else we should include in this analysis? let us know how well you are doing.
More times than not, your customers see your ads, consume your content, and ultimately leave your store without purchasing anything. Sometimes, they’ll even put something in their cart (virtual or physical), then for whatever reason, abandon it. Maybe they’ll search for something, find it, then have something come up. Whatever the case, the ratio of engagements & interactions to conversions is never quite where you want it. So how can you turn more impressions into more conversions? Through effective retargeting!
How Does Retargeting Work?
Retargeting captures digital data (cookies) from your site visitors. It then uses that data to deliver personalized ads to those visitors after they’ve left your site. Those customers aren’t seeing random ads; they’re seeing ads for a product or service they’ve already shown interest in. Best of all, you can even use retargeting to upsell or cross-sell as well!
For example, if a customer buys a particular product, retargeting can advertise for a related product, add-on, or accessory to complement the purchase. It’s all personalized, based on the customer’s history, and carefully integrated into their overall digital experience.
Retargeting is an invaluable tool for brand awareness because it helps engrain your brand into your audiences’ minds. Remember, it takes several interactions with your brand before a customer is ready to buy. Effective retargeting is a way to strategically progress those interactions and convince the customer they need to buy now!
Arguably the most effective way to make retargeting work is through push notifications. You’ve probably seen or received a notification along the lines of “you forgot these items in your cart!” That’s retargeting in action. It’s also the product ads on the side of the screen-for products you’ve previously viewed and considered buying.
Why Does it Work?
Most first-time visitors to a website never return to that site once they leave. That was the reason retargeting was invented in the first place. If not for retargeting, customers would have to either bookmark a site or type in the URL each time they wanted to visit. If nothing else, retargeting provides an easier way for customers to get back to your site in the first place.
While the majority of retargeting is aimed at turning one-time or first-time buyers into regular, loyal customers, it can also be used to create first-time buyers. In other words, you can retarget an ad to a customer who has shown interest in a similar product. Maybe your product is cheaper, better, more accessible, etc. Whatever the case, make sure you let your customers know why they should buy from you in your ad!
In a nutshell, retargeting gives your brand more opportunities to engage the people most likely to spend money on your business. Let’s look at the different types of retargeting.
Types of Retargeting
Search re-targeting: target people based on keywords and search engine queries. Once a user searches a target keyword, he or she will start seeing custom ads automatically. Be careful, however, as just because someone has searched for something related to your business doesn’t mean they’re ready to buy now.
Site re-targeting: target visitors to your website. However, instead of a blanket or catch-all, you can focus on visitors to specific pages-like product pages on your e-commerce site.
Contextual re-targeting: target people who engage with content related to your product/service. For example, if you purchase a seat on a flight, you’re likely to start seeing related ads for hotels, rental cars, and other things travel-related.
Engagement re-targeting: target customers based on their level of engagement. You can also personalize these to deliver video ads to folks who consume more videos, infographics to folks who like infographics, and so on.
Email re-targeting: target customers based on their interactions with your branded emails. For instance, you can create personalized ads for the folks who regularly click your links and different ads for the folks who open but don’t click.
Geofencing: Target customers based on where they are geographically. Geofencing is particularly effective for event marketing, breaking into competitors’ markets, and improving brand awareness (especially if your brand is just starting out).
Creating content is hard. Between staying true to your brand values, cultivating engagement, and being creative, you’ve got your hands full. Even harder yet is keeping your content fresh across platforms. Why is content optimization so important and how do you do it? Let’s examine!
Selecting the Right Platforms For Content Optimization
Part of the challenge of consistently creating engaging content is selecting the right platforms. You have to not only know who your customers are and what they want but also where they spend their time. The latter part is especially important; you don’t want to be wasting time creating content few people will see or interact with.
Selecting the right platforms for your content goes beyond posting on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. It’s choosing the most effective media types to raise brand awareness, drive engagement, and engineer more conversions. That means taking advantage of things like videos, blogs, events, and even interactive content.
For example, maybe a blog would help interested customers move closer to making a purchase. But creating and implementing a blog on its own isn’t going to move the needle. What you need is content optimization. That means creating the blog post as part of a series directed at specific customer personas–and supplementing it via other platforms and channels.
Content Optimization Tips
The most important thing to remember about content optimization is that you’re creating content not for your brand but for your audience. That means what you find interesting might be boring to your audience. Know your customers inside and out. That means knowing what they want, why they want it, and who they want to be. You’ll get more people interested in your content, which will ultimately drive more folks through the conversion funnel!
In terms of content optimization, be sure you’re using the right platform for its intended purpose. For instance, blog posts don’t belong on Twitter. A blog would be better suited to your website, supplemented by links and posts on Facebook or Instagram. The actual copy itself stays on your website.
Another way to keep your content fresh and interesting is to lead with emotion. Whether that’s humor, empathy, or something in between, getting your customers emotionally involved is the key to creating an effective relationship with your brand. After all, emotion is the most important driver of purchasing decisions! Look to connect with your customers beyond their wallets and create emotionally-driven content.
Properly optimized content is effective content. If you plan your content optimization strategy in advance, however, you’ll be able to stick to your calendar to help create an effective plan. For example, you might want to improve website traffic and unique visitors–content optimization will help ensure all the content you create aligns with these goals.
Don’t Forget About User-Generated Content!
The best part about user-generated content is you don’t have to create it yourself. The next best thing is, if properly optimized and implemented, it can be more effective than branded content.
Plus, user-generated content shows that there are others with a connection to your brand. Real customer testimony is many times more likely than any brand messaging to inspire other customers to take action because it’s impartial. Why else would word of mouth advertising be so effective? While customers may doubt the authenticity of branded statements and messages, they’re more likely to believe the objectivity of a random customer who isn’t being paid to create that content.
User-generated content captures the attention of both your brand’s followers and the creator’s following, which means it’s a great way to boost your visibility! While you might not be able to nab a big-time influencer to create content on your brand’s behalf, sometimes quantity can trump quality. In other words, if you can create buzz around your brand from average people, it’ll be just as effective as if you landed a celebrity spokesperson!
No Content is Bad Content
Your brand can’t survive if your customers aren’t aware you exist. You also can’t expect to build a relationship with customers without having a personality for your brand–a personality you build through effective content marketing. Your content tells your customers not only what you do but who you are and why you do it, both of which are significantly more important than what products or services you offer.
Unless your content is out of left field, hypocritical, or contradictory, it’s probably not bad content. But if you can optimize your cross-channel content to drive customers through your conversion funnel, you’ll essentially be automating the sales process and building relationships simultaneously!
Sometimes writing copy is the toughest part of creating effective content. There’s a lot to balance–using the right language and keywords, selecting the right channels, and keeping it all interesting. Let’s look at five winning copywriting tips to help make your content more effective!
Copywriting Tip 1: Keep it Simple
Who is your audience? The average person reads at the 7th to 8th-grade level, which means your long-winded copy is probably going to get skipped. Unless your audience is more educated or verbose, keep your copy simple and direct. Use short sentences, try to use commas instead of periods, and keep the fancy words to a minimum.
Even for longer copy, make sure to capitalize on headings, subheadings, and short paragraphs. Before your reader actually reads content, they scan it. If it’s a lot of words, they’ll skip it. If it’s formatted properly and “easy to read”, they’re more likely to give it a go.
In most cases, write the same way you talk. Don’t write words you wouldn’t use conversationally. Think of most content as a conversation with your audience. How can you make sure they feel respected and understand your messages?
Copywriting Tip 2: Don’t Overoptimize
Remember, your content should be written for humans, not computers. While it’s important to include the proper keywords for SEO purposes, forcing keywords not only makes the copy harder to read, it hurts your SEO efforts. Search engines can pick up when you’re trying to keyword-stuff–and they’ll penalize you for it.
Instead, try to incorporate the keyword(s) as often as you can–naturally. It’s okay to break up keywords or phrases with punctuation, articles, or prepositions, especially if it makes the copy read more naturally. Search engines can pick up on this and won’t penalize you for a slight alteration.
Titles, tags, and headings are also great places to capitalize on your short and long-tail keywords, so don’t try to stuff it all into the actual copy. This is most helpful for blogs–for longer, more specific keywords, it helps to put the blog title in the actual URL!
Copywriting Tip 3: Show What You Can Do For Your Audience
Your natural instinct might be to boast the accolades and accomplishments of your brand, but how does that help your audience? Rather than write what you’ve done, write what you can do for your audience. People are much more interested in what you can do for them, and in most businesses, past performance is only as good as the customer’s last experience.
Be direct in stating how your brand, products, or services can solve real problems and meet your audience’s needs. Instead of “our product is great for X,” try something like “Never deal with X again thanks to our product!”
If possible, personalize your copy–especially if it’s interpersonal communications like emails or push notifications. Even taking the time to include your customer’s name goes a long way.
Copywriting Tip 4: Start With a Hook
Scientists theorize that the human attention span is now shorter than that of a goldfish. Most people can’t pay attention to something for more than nine seconds, especially if they don’t find it interesting. Let’s face it: your customers probably won’t be inherently captivated by your marketing content. If you can hook them with the first sentence, however, they’re more likely to keep reading.
Capitalize on direct quotes, stories, statistics, and especially emotion. Copy that makes your reader feel something is more likely to inspire them to take action than something bland or uninspired. Plus, if nothing else, it’ll get them to pay attention!
Copywriting Tip 5: Inspire Action
Before you write any copy, ask yourself what the purpose is. What are you trying to do? Are you trying to raise awareness, build interest, or capture more conversions? Since the goal of your content is to drive action, your copy can make a difference. Always include a call to action and try to create a sense of urgency. Even if your offer isn’t time-sensitive, you don’t want a potential customer to think too long on it.
Lead your customers to take the logical next step and act as soon as possible. Otherwise, they’re likely to forget about your offer altogether, and when they finally decide to take action, it might not be with you.
Follow These Tips and Start Seeing Results!
Creating effective copy boils down to a few key components: keeping it simple, direct, and engaging. Hook your audience in the first sentence, keep them hooked by showing how you can improve their lives, and speak to them respectfully–and as a real person would.
If you follow these tips, you’ll create more effective copy–and you’ll start seeing more results, like improved engagement, more brand interest, and ultimately, more conversions!
Creating great content starts with interesting your audience. Building great content marketing campaigns takes it a step further. Not only are you getting folks interested in your product/service offerings, but you’re also building relationships. Let’s examine how to build a successful content marketing campaign from the ground up!
Strategy
The first part of developing a successful content marketing campaign is figuring out who the content is for. Define your audience and their needs. What are they looking for? Once you know who you’re trying to reach, it’s time to figure out how to reach them. That means selecting a format or medium for your main lead magnet. What’s going to attract people and make them want to be a part of your brand?
Another way of looking at your content marketing strategy is through three rings inside one another. The outside ring refers to what your brand does. Inside that ring is a smaller ring; that refers to how your brand does what it does differently than everyone else. At the center is the most important ring–the ring that defines why you do what you do differently than everyone else. That’s where the heart of your content marketing campaign strategy comes from.
With your lead magnet and audience needs in mind, come up with a strategic and useful content plan to get people interested. Once you’ve got your content marketing campaign all planned out, it’s time to execute.
Execution
Planning and mapping out content is one thing–executing it is another. The best way to execute a successful content marketing campaign is through devoted landing pages. Think of your content as a magnet that attracts people to that landing page. If additional content can inspire them to want/need your product or service, that’s as good as a cross-sell/upsell!
Great execution starts with great research, organization, and copywriting. You have to really know what your audience is looking for. If you want to move folks through the funnel, your content has to be organized properly. In other words, each piece of content should have a specific function, whether it’s to raise awareness, drive interest, convert, solicit feedback, or something else. Finally, your copywriting needs to be on-point. Keep things direct, personal, and interesting!
Each piece of your digital presence plays an important function in any successful content marketing campaign. For instance, your social media–a preferred channel for content–complements your website, which is subsequently complemented by email marketing, and so on and so forth. The more you take advantage of each channel, the more likely you’ll be to inspire customers to jump on the funnel!
Follow Up
Content marketing is essentially a way to put your content to work as a salesperson. Since the customer isn’t being overtly sold to, he or she is more likely to pay attention to the content, and in turn, go through the sales funnel. Like a sales pitch, content marketing needs to follow up with the prospect.
However, unlike a sales pitch, your content marketing followup doesn’t involve knocking on the prospect’s door, calling them, or asking for the sale. Instead, the content itself moves them through the funnel. In other words, your follow up typically consists of more content–albeit with a sense of urgency. Let your content tell customers they need to act now. Keep the salespeople at home!
Content Marketing is an Ongoing Process
Though a content marketing campaign might be finite, content marketing is an ongoing process. That means one campaign should follow another. To that end, part of what makes content marketing successful is data and analytics. At the conclusion of a campaign, review all available data. What worked? Were you able to get enough leads? How many of those leads were you able to convert?
As with any successful part of marketing, the more honest feedback you get from your audience, the better. While you can’t directly ask a customer what pieces of content were the most useful in helping them make a purchase, you can review engagement and interaction metrics. Which pieces of content drove the most traffic to your website? Was there a particular medium (text/audio/video/infographic, etc) that got more engagement?
The most successful content marketing campaigns are data-driven. They take the data from past campaigns and then leverage it to create more effective content in subsequent campaigns. Whether you’re promoting a new product or building brand awareness, the principle is the same: content marketing works!
Less than 1% of visitors to search engines will go past the first page to find what they’re looking for. That means if your brand isn’t already on their mind, it had better be on the first page of search engine results. So how do you improve and rank higher on SERPs? Here are a few tips to propel your site from anonymity to renown!
Optimizing Your On-Site SEO
The single most impactful way to rank higher on SERPs is to optimize your on-page SEO. Fortunately, there are tools available to help. Depending on the content delivery service you utilize, there are built-in SEO plugins to help optimize your content. For example, if your site is on WordPress, you can use the Yoast plugin to make sure your content is properly optimized for SEO before you publish it.
It goes without saying, but you’ll also want to make sure your site has the proper HTML markup, alt tags on images, the right H1/H2/H3 use of headlines & tags, and no grammatical or spelling errors. Finally, your content should be written for humans–not robots. If your copy is unintelligible, stuffed with keywords, or otherwise dubiously presented, you’re doing more harm than good.
A Better Website Will Help You Rank Higher on SERPs-What Does That Mean?
In addition to optimizing your on-site SEO, the most obvious way to rank higher on SERPs is to improve your website. But what does that mean exactly? Does that just mean creating a more efficient website? Yes and no.
First of all, as mentioned, getting to the first page of search engine results requires a considerable amount of SEO work. That means not only choosing the right keywords for your site, but the right density, as well as the proper layout, appearance, functionality, and accessibility. If you have dead links, for example, your site will never reach the first page. If your keywords are off-base from what your brand does, you’ll never reach the first page.
However, if your website is securely hosted, full of reputable backlinks and properly formatted images, you’ll be on your way to moving up the rankings. At the same time, while your site may rank on the first page today, it doesn’t mean it will tomorrow. For best results, continually add to and update your page with engaging, keyword-driven content, connect and sync external accounts (like social media and Google My Business), and take advantage of other channels, like paid ads and email marketing, to drive traffic to your website.
The more search engines pick up that users are engaging, interacting, and sharing your website and content, the higher they’ll rank your domain authority. And while producing long-form content like blogs or whitepapers is more of a lead-generation tactic than SEO, it still has the potential to drive significant traffic to your website–and that’s where the higher ranking comes from.
Data & Analytics Are Your Best Resource!
Since part of ranking higher on SERPs has to do with creating better content, how do you know what content will drive traffic? That’s where data and analytics come in.
Tools like SERanking, SEMRush, and Google Analytics can give heaps of insight. Not only can they tell you how your site ranks for target keywords but they can give further insight into which keywords are driving traffic and what people are looking for. That means you can optimize your website–and content–for those keywords to keep things consistently fresh, relevant, and exciting!
Again, obtaining and maintaining a spot on the first page of SERPs is not a one-and-done process. Like most areas of life, maintaining superiority and success comes with constant hard work and improvement. That means if you want to rank higher on SERPs, you have to consistently put in the work. That means regularly auditing your content, getting feedback from your audience, making constant improvements, and of course, continuing to produce the kind of content that got you there in the first place!
People love video content. Whether it’s a funny cat video or a how-to on the latest tech gadget, your customers probably can’t get enough of it. Need proof? Both TikTok and Instagram have over a billion active users! When it comes to videos that get your customers engaged, which is better: TikTok or Instagram?
Why is Video Marketing So Effective?
First of all, let’s look at what makes video such an effective marketing tool.
People are 95% more likely to remember a message from a video than from written text. Shorter videos also account for the average person’s shorter attention span. Plus, the multimedia nature of videos makes them more likely to appeal to a wider audience. Finally, more than 50% of internet users watch online videos on a daily basis! It’s safe to say more people watch videos than read long-form internet content–especially on a regular basis.
That’s because video has the power to not only tell stories but show the way things are. Just like customers are less likely to believe a brand statement than a peer review, they’re less likely to believe written content–let alone pay attention to it. Whereas a list of brand features tells you what a product can do, a video of a customer using that product shows you what it can do. For example, including a video on your website or landing page can increase your conversion rate up to 80%!
There’s only so much emotion you can evoke from a still image or even the sharpest copy. Conversely, videos are a fantastic medium to evoke emotion, especially if they’re synced with music, sound effects, or natural human noises like laughter or conversation. Put it this way: which are you more like to interact with–a cat video or a picture of a cat?
TikTok or Instagram?
Again, there are over a billion active users on both Instagram and TikTok. So which is better to help gain exposure, interest, awareness, and conversions for your business? Let’s take a look at some statistics.
TikTok
-The biggest influencers typically see an engagement rate of about 18%.
-Almost half (~47%) of TikTok users are between the ages of 10-29.
–53% of Instagram influencers are between the ages of 25-34.
–72% of users made a purchase decision because of content they saw on Instagram.
TikTok or Instagram: The Takeaways
While there’s no denying the burgeoning success and limitless potential of TikTok, Instagram arguably has more power–right now–to attract, engage, and influence your audience. While both TikTok and Instagram allow customers to purchase in-app, there are both more overall users and more users with actual purchasing ability on the latter app, as well as more functionality–like stories, reels, and posts, compared to TikTok’s singular video capabilities.
However, neither TikTok nor Instagram allows you to link external content to your TikTok/Instagram content, and TikTok only stores data for up to 28 days. That means if you want to keep engagement data long-term, you have to do it yourself. Finally, both TikTok and Instagram are pretty saturated with businesses. How can you make your content rise above the rest?
Which platform is more likely to generate interest and conversions in your brand? Is TikTok here to stay or is it simply the flavor of the month? More importantly, where are your customers more likely to spend their time–and where are they more likely to be influenced? Before you dive headlong into a TikTok or Instagram strategy, make sure you have the answers!
Even the smallest business has big dreams. Whether you want to take your brand global or lock up the bulk of your local market share, the principle is the same: you have to think big. In other words, think global, act local. So what does that mean exactly?
Think Global, Act Local
Think global.
Despite our obvious fundamental differences, human beings are by and large the same across geographical barriers, cultures, etc. We may look different and have different customs, cultures, and even expectations, but there are a few major similarities. For instance, human beings, as a whole, crave connection. Across cultures, human beings are looking to connect: both with each other and with entities that share a purpose or a way of thinking (i.e. your brand).
By thinking globally, you’re (hopefully) not having dreams of uniting the world. Even Amazon, arguably the world’s single greatest business entity, has its detractors. There are undoubtedly folks in the tech company’s namesake region for whom Amazon has no purpose–and certainly no market. Instead, thinking globally means cultivating a brand that will resonate with people outside your locality. It means coming up with a purpose for your brand that goes beyond providing a product or service.
As for acting locally, for starters, treat every customer like they’re in your neighborhood. Your brand isn’t just in a community, it is a community. If you can think of your brand as a family, community, or neighborhood, you can give your customers that connection they’re looking for. What’s more, you’ll create the kind of brand loyalty you see in brands that have successfully managed to take their business global.
Go Global, Stay Local
A small, local business has significantly fewer problems than a global brand. For starters, the infrastructure is drastically different. Bigger brands have to keep up their customers 24/7–as their customers never sleep! However, as smaller businesses grow–adding more locations, breaking into newer markets, and even introducing new product offerings, it’s important to keep those logistics in mind. At the same time, part of the concept of “think global, act local” means, again, treating every customer like they’re local.
Some businesses have a tendency to put the needs of new customers ahead of the needs of their existing, loyal customer base. One example is businesses that put the need for a sale ahead of the need for a happy customer. Interestingly enough, one of the most effective ways to build your brand is via grassroots, word-of-mouth marketing. Even the best pieces of content won’t measure up to a trusted source vouching for you. Again, since you don’t know whether that trusted source is down the street or halfway across the Earth, your best bet is to treat every customer like they’re part of your community–because they are!
Stay True to Your Values
Think of some of the biggest, most well-known brands worldwide. Now think of the brands that briefly came to worldwide prominence, only to fall by the wayside. What’s the common theme? Authenticity.
In fact, the very essence of “think global, act local” is authenticity. Customers can smell a fake from a mile away, and once they catch on that a brand isn’t what they thought it was, they’ll be looking for a connection to fix that broken connection. The important lesson: stay true to your values and customers will follow. Whether you express those values through content or brand identity, keep them consistent–even as you grow.
Start Thinking Globally and Acting Locally!
A brand is nothing without its customers. A business is nothing without a purpose. Whether your customers are in your neighborhood or around the world, your way of thinking should be the same. Similarly, whether your purpose is to change the world or to sustainably do what you love while being your own boss, if you can think global and act local, your business will be in good hands!
While there are tons of types of content (videos, blogs, etc.) and even more channels to consume that content, there are really only four content archetypes. Each complements one another to successfully drive customers towards an intended goal. What are these archetypes and how do you use them? Let’s take a look.
Content Archetype 1: The Promoter
Most branded content is promoter content because brands love to talk about themselves. While other content archetypes technically promote the brand as well, promoter content is the most persuasive. It’s argumentative content that persuades customers to make a decision–buy a product, sign up for a subscription, or simply click “learn more.”
The best way to use promoter content is by showing your product or service in action. Persuasive copy and even other customer reviews can only go so far–customers need to be able to see the benefits with their own eyes.
The downside of promoter content is that it doesn’t facilitate that all-important human connection. It might make your customers’ lives easier, but it doesn’t give them a reason to care about your brand on a personal level. That’s where the other archetypes come in!
Content Archetype 2: The Teacher
Here’s where you can start to make connections with your audience. While promoter content shows people the tangible benefits of your brand, teacher content feeds the passions and interests of an already engaged audience. In a nutshell, teacher content shows your audience something new–or something they may have overlooked.
A good way to describe teacher content is thought leadership. Teacher content starts conversations and gets folks thinking. That means it often offers a fresh perspective or unique point of view. Because this type of content is immensely valuable to your audience, it lays the building blocks for creating those connections.
Unfortunately, teacher content is hard to create. It requires authenticity and dedication but also more effort and planning than the other content archetypes. If you’re going to create teacher content, first make sure you know what you’re talking about. Then, make sure you’re willing to commit to effort in to be an industry authority or thought leader.
Content Archetype 3: The Thinker
This type of content is perfect for brands whose competitors might be perceived as “better.” Thinker content doesn’t profess the creator to be superlative; it instead positions the creator as progressive, unique, or different. Thinker content appeals to your audience for two reasons. One, it differentiates your brand. Two, since its primary tool is emotion, it appeals to your audience in ways the other content archetypes can. Like teacher content, it helps start conversations.
Instead of trying to corner the market by being “the best,” change your audience’s parameters for thinking. Thinker content works because it can help your audience uncover truths or insights, which can drastically change the way they think and act. More importantly, it can help position your brand as a thought leader, which means more connections.
Like teacher content, thinker content is hard to create. Not only do you have to know your subject matter but you have to think differently. If you want your audience to see things in a new perspective, you have to see that perspective first in order to be able to share it.
Content Archetype 4: The Helper
This type of content drives awareness and engagement for your brand by helping solve problems for your audience. Compared to promoter content, which shows the benefits of your brand, helper content tells the audience why those benefits should matter to them.
On the plus side, compared to the other content archetypes, helper content is fairly straightforward and easier to create. It doesn’t require the immense thinking and planning of teacher content nor the ingenuity of thinker content. However, it’s more complex and not nearly as boastful as promoter content. It’s the sweet spot that shows your audience your brand has a customer-first mindset.
Though it’s arguably the most effective type of content for driving customer decisions, the downside of helper content is brands can become too dependent on it. In other words, be wary of creating too much helper content. The key to a successful content marketing strategy is a perfect balance of content archetypes, which work together to create the optimal conversion series.
To Recap
Promote: promote your brand through product-focused, branded content that drives customer actions.
Teach: inform your audience through insightful, conversation-starting content that adds value to their everyday lives.
Think: show your audience a new way to think about things with creative, refreshing content that appeals to their emotions.
Help: prove to your audience your brand has a customer-focused mindset with provocative, problem-solving content that hits on their desires and pain points.
If your content doesn’t fit one of these four major archetypes, it might not be worth creating!
