Chris Marr is the founder of The Content Marketing Academy, the UK’s largest membership organisation of its type. He was the speaker at the February 2017 evening meeting of the Club.
Chris is the leading voice of the growing content marketing movement in the UK. His pioneering work has helped countless organisations grow through content marketing.
Like all educators, Chris is also a dedicated student. He’s interviewed and facilitated events with many of content marketing’s most notable thought leaders. The knowledge he’s learned from the likes of Jay Baer, Ann Handley, Marcus Sheridan and Mark Schaefer has been shared freely with the members of his growing community.
Chris told Club members and guests how to use content marketing to make their business stand out.
The key points Chris made were:
- Trust is everything in sales
- People are increasingly buying over the web – cutting out interaction with sales people – because if they’re in ‘buying mode’ they will make that choice themselves. Hyundai Rockar has found just 53% of customers opt to drive a car before buying one
- Trust in online shopping is increasing
- We want things faster and more conveniently
- Product quality is increasing, and prices are reducing. This results in commoditisation of products
- We have more access to information (content)
- Traditional marketing is putting its head in the sand, ignoring these facts
- Given the importance of trust, how do we communicate with digital consumers? Answer the questions they have! Why? Because 70% of buying decisions are made before the consumer contacts the retailer and if they contact you they’re close to buying.
- So investing in marketing, instead of sales teams, makes sense
- Doing this pre-qualifies your customers by ensuring all their questions are answered before they contact you and eliminates the time spent answering the same questions repeatedly. It also builds trust and can position your business as a thought leader in your sector
- Answering questions, solving problems and providing valuable and helpful content about your industry also helps you rank better on Google Search results
- The best organisations in the world: 1) Know more about their customers; 2) Get closer to their customers; 3) Emotionally connect with their customers
- Building trust takes time
- If you’re not creating content, you don’t exist to potential customers
- Content marketing is “The art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. It is non-interruption marketing. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyers more intelligent or perhaps entertaining them to build an emotional connection.”
- See yourself as a teacher for your customers – “they ask, you answer” Become the Wikipedia of your industry
- The Big 5 Questions to answer: 1) Prices; 2) Problems; 3) Comparisons of products; 4) Reviews; 5) What’s best?
- Content marketing builds trust by: 1) Providing helpful & valuable information; 2) Giving it away; 3) Accelerates your progress along the Know-Like-Trust journey for the potential customer; 4) Makes you the ‘Go-To’ Resource; 5) Builds your authority
- Don’t rely on traditional media – become a publisher of content
- Your answers need to be long enough to be valuable but short enough to be Google-friendly
- Don’t outsource your content marketing because it’s your source of competitive advantage!
To replay the Facebook Live broadcast of Chris’s talk, click HERE. Members can request a copy of his slides by emailing the Club.
The Content Marketing Academy’s annual conference, TCMA, takes place June 8 and 9. For more information about it, content marketing and The Content Marketing Academy, go to https://www.thecontentmarketingacademy.co.uk/
