How Deep Content Marketing can Position a Firm as an Expert in their Field
by Thomas R. Reich PhD
Experts say that Deep Content Marketing is a form of website marketing used to make you a ‘Thought Leader’ in your industry. ” What does that mean anyway? After all, your company should be developing its brand, it is not talk radio, it’s a local or regional website and thought provoking “conversations” will be rare. Yes I said that, rare, the goal of a great website today is to attract visitors that are interested in what the company it represents is selling. This attraction to the actual content of a website is called Deep Content Marketing. Not just to sell the product, and not to create controversy about a topic within the industry, but to convey good credible information about the product or service to the reader.
Instead of magic and hocus pocus promised by those wonderful unwanted spam marketing emails we all get, look at what we at Cheetah Marketing Group call Deep Content Marketing. We believe in using a core of targeted relevant content as a way to set a business up as the Expert on a targeted subject, product or service as it relates to the products or services represented by that company and build out from that core of information.
When marketing firms start talking about “Thought Leaders” the term usually refers to national companies and their experts attempting to change accepted norms about a topic. In theory, “Thought Leaders” try to compare people’s thinking with a view they may already hold about a product or service with a result of picking a wining thought that will become the new norm. This is a vague and fluffy notion; it really is not what content marketing is all about. Deep Content Marketing is about setting up a website to become an information core centering on a specific topic and remaining disciplined to that topic.
This topic or topics should be representative of the products or services the firm represents. obviously. Therefore, when a prospective client is searching for information spicificly on an item your firm represents, that information can be sourced in depth on your company website. If that same person is searching to have a discussion on the validity of your product or service are they really a prospect? Why have a website devoted to justifying your product or service to an audience who are probably not potential clients, when you can be selling the advantages and displaying the rewards of that product or service in great detail? This is the essence of the Cheetah Marketing Group Philosophy.
A reputable company, secure in their expertise in the market and their products and services wants first and formost to attaract those searching for straight up information on the products or services they represent. These searchers are most likely to be prospects, once within your website and your sphere of influence, it is our job together with you to convince these prospects that your company is the credible expert in the industry for your area. In a nutshell that is what “deep content marketing” is, not a quick solution, not a gimmick, just good old fashioned marketing brought to the internet. Much like Cheetah Marketing Group, a good old fashioned marketing company brought to the internet.
First of all, we believe a local or regional business should not get involved in “Thought Leadership” at all. Doing so this may ultimately be confrontational and repel more eyes than it attracts. A local or regional company will want to give straight forward knowledge about a targeted topic from as many angles and directions as possible.
It is important to vary articles, blogs, instructional videos and pages, not by opinion or thought, but by variety of tangible, knowledgeable information sources that, yes, may bring the reader to the conclusion that they may need to talk to you further about the product or service. Equally important, content that stands the test of time, not content that goes stale in a few weeks like a news magazine article.
In fact, the goal of setting up a Deep Content Marketing Social Media Network around a company website is to create an atmosphere that leads the reader to believe and understand a firm is an authority in a particular field. Further, that the company uses their extensive knowledge and experience to educate and inspire those interested in a particular line of products or services through content. The properly set up social media network in deep content marketing uses pointers and links to send prospects interested in the subject chosen back to the company website that houses the core of targeted content.
The goal of a social media network within a deep content marketing program, especially under Deep Rich Data II protocols, is not to interact with visitors to the social media site but to advance them to the company website. The core of content is housed at all times on the company website, and linked to the outside world mainly through search engines and social media.
In simpler terms, a business can grow to great standing within their community through deep content marketing even though they do not have the resources for a traditional saturation advertising campaign. Add to this program over time with a chosen spokesperson to visit Rotary, Business Groups, Chambers and Industry Organizations and the firm’s standing in the community really begins to cement themselves as THE expert in their field.
Once a firm is considered the expert in the products or services they represent, the famous “word of mouth” effect begins to kick in. Also, if that firm decides at some point to advertise through Pay Per Click (PPC) or traditional advertising, when an interested prospect clicks on the company website, it is now an expert site filled with information pertinent to the product or service they are looking for.
Such a website, well developed over time, complete with a Deep Content Marketing Network of Social Media, is head over heels superior to the standard 5 or 8 page website so many firms seem to be so proud of. Customers searching for answers on the internet want full information, they want good information and they want to know the business representing the product or service they decide on understands that product or service. It is not enough anymore to just have an office and sell a product or have a phone number and a few pictures, which is the extent of most old style websites.
When you decide in the future to add PPC and traditional advertising, the effects will be twice as fast and three times as effective because your name and reputation is already known in the market for exactly what you represent. Your destination website is now the source of information for what a prospect reacting to an ad you have placed is looking for – WIN WIN!
When you decide Deep Content Marketing might be a direction you wish to investigate, contact Cheetah Marketing Group. For over 30 years, we have created marketing programs for large companies and small alike. Our content creation is supervised by PhDs and MBAs, and our results are stellar.
Cheetah Marketing Group,
Experience Matters,
Celebrating 30 years in Orlando and still going strong.
407 274 7255