A key component to a successful marketing plan is understanding your audience’s key concerns and addressing them with meaningful content.
Developing relevant, helpful content for your audience will equip them with the tools and knowledge to better understand how your business will serve them well and help them solve problems. This shows respect for your customers’ needs and helps build meaningful connections to help you stand apart from the competition.
So, what does relevant, helpful, and self-directed content look like?
A good strategy for developing relevant content to your audience is to reverse engineer the frequent questions you receive from them. Some common topics among frequent questions for direct to consumer and wholesale strategies are:
DIRECT TO CONSUMER
Common Problems With The Industry Or Product
By addressing common problems with the industry or product, you can dispel your customer’s hesitation. You can also use this type of content to answer their common questions up front, shortening the buying cycle and saving yourself and your customer valuable time. Think FAQs.
Comparisons
Comparisons are an excellent way to start differentiating yourself from your competitors. Done in a sincere and authentic manner, it’s a powerful way to be honest about your business and your product and build trust in the eyes of your customers.
Reviews And Testimonials
Reviews and testimonials are a form of social proof. Social proof is an extremely powerful motivator when convincing your potential customer to make a purchase. People want to have what others are having. Reviews have been proven to be an essential element to the purchasing decision across industries.
Best In Class
Have you won an award? Let your customers know! Don’t let this go to waste. It’s a huge indicator of social proof.
WHOLESALE
Capacity To Produce Volume & Follow Through On Promises
The capacity to scale and produce needed volumes is an important criteria in establishing and nurturing new wholesale relationships. Addressing questions around your capacity to deliver and follow through in your marketing content is an important component of creating trust and confidence.
Consistency Of Product Quality And Delivery
Can your customers rely on you to produce the same quality product they love and deliver it on time? Along with the capacity to deliver the volume, the ability to produce the same product time and again is key. Help your wholesale customers tell your story and sell your product with confidence by demonstrating the ways your quality control and internal procedures lead to consistent quality and what that means to you. Case studies and testimonials can work very well here.
Your Personal Story
Consumers are more interested than ever before as to where their food comes from and the story behind the meal. Help your wholesalers and distribution partners share your story by providing resources in your marketing plan.
What’s your personal story? Let your audience know why you chose to go into the aquaculture business, and what it means to you. Tell them what you love about the business and show them transparency, sincerity, and authenticity. This will cultivate a personal connection with your customers. You aren’t just a business now; you’re a person with a unique personality and a life story—just like them.
Consider using a video to do this and posting it to your site, or putting it in an automated welcome email. Video is an extremely effective medium to use when trying to make that personal connection with your audience.
Where Can You Post Your Content?
Aim to develop your content once and use it in many places, but in various forms:
- Post it to your website
- Use it in social media posts
- Use it in your email campaigns
- Use it as brochure content
- Create videos of your written content
While it can seem overwhelming to add a content marketing wing to your business plans, your customers need this content to make a fully informed buying decision. By answering your target market’s specific questions and concerns, you’ll form a connection with your customers that will differentiate your business, build customer loyalty, and increase your bottom line.