Marketing promotion: How to do content marketing well?

Speaking of content marketing , everyone must be familiar with this video that swept the circle of friends a while ago

This video is a promotion for the movie Peppa Pig, which will be released on the first day of the Chinese New Year. The ad placement at the end of the video is very direct.

Because this video is so popular, the blowers in the video are all available on Taobao, with the cheapest one being 110 yuan and the most expensive one being 288 yuan.

Just imagine, if there was no such content and you were asked to buy this blower directly, would you buy it? Although Peppa Pig looks cute, I believe no one will buy it. It’s different now, otherwise people would buy it to collect or even buy it as a gift.

That’s the power of content marketing.

So what exactly is content marketing?

My conclusion is:

Deliver valuable content to target audiences through media such as pictures, text, videos, and live broadcasts, ultimately achieving business goals.

Many places will say that it is for the purpose of achieving sales, but I think it is more appropriate to use "commercial purpose". Because in the era of mobile Internet, not every time you reach out to consumers is for sales. Sometimes it is for app downloads, to form traffic entrances, and to bring in revenue through other forms. So I think it is more appropriate to change it to "commercial purpose".

At present, the common content marketing positions are as follows:

Of course, Toutiao, Qutoutiao, etc. are also content marketing platforms, so I won’t list them all here.

In fact, content marketing is nothing new.

David Ogilvy, a legendary figure in the advertising industry and founder of Ogilvy & Mather, once said in his book Ogilvy on Advertising:

[The number of people who read general articles in newspapers is about 6 times the number of people who read advertisements. The conclusion is that editors understand the way of communication better than advertising people.]

There was no concept of content marketing at that time, but Ogilvy had already realized that "advertising should be done with editorial thinking" and applied this thinking to Ogilvy's advertising strategy, achieving amazing results.

Let’s look at two classic cases:

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars:

The loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce at sixty miles an hour was made by the electric clock.

The Man in the Hathaway Shirt

Americans are finally beginning to realize the folly of buying a nice suit and ruining the whole effect by wearing a cheap shirt. Therefore, "Hathaway" shirts became popular among this class of people.

First of all, the Hathaway shirts are extremely durable - for many years. Second, because of the "Hathaway" cut - the low slung and "tailored" collar - it makes you look younger and more distinguished. The entire shirt is tailored with great care to make you more "comfortable".

The hem is long and reaches deep into your waistband. The buttons were made of mother-of-pearl—very large and very manly. There was even a kind of antebellum elegance to the sewing.

The most important thing is that "Hathaway" uses the most famous cloths imported from all corners of the world to sew their shirts - cotton and wool blended twill from the UK, woolen rippled silk from Australd, Scotland, Sea Island cotton from the British West Indies, hand-woven silk from India, broadcloth from Manchester, England, and linen from Paris. Wearing such a perfect style of shirt will give you a lot of inner satisfaction.

The "Hathaway" shirts are made by devoted craftsmen from a small company in the small town of Waltaway, Maine. They, young and old, have been working there for 114 years.

If you would like to purchase a Hathaway shirt at the store nearest you, please write a postcard to "G. F. Hathaway," Wortville, Maine.

If we carefully analyze Hathaway's copywriting, we will find that there are actually some patterns that can be learned from.

1. The first part points out that it is stupid for many people to wear a good suit with a cheap shirt, and throws out an "adverse consequence" to arouse users' curiosity. What exactly is the reason for the popularity of "Hathaway"?

2. The second part is to promote Hathaway, highlight its highlights and selling points, and arouse users' awareness of the product;

3. The third part emphasizes that the raw materials come from all over the world, giving people a sense of awesomeness, and then emphasizes that it was sewn by craftsmen, and the 114 years prove the length of time. To express it in today's terms, it is the "spirit of craftsmanship". So it can be seen that the "spirit of craftsmanship" is not a recent concept. Grandpa Ogilvy knew about it decades ago, but there was no such word at that time.

4. The last part is to tell you how to buy and achieve sales conversion through the finishing touch.

The structure of this article is very classic. In fact, if you study carefully, many of the current content marketing templates are similar to the copywriting style of Grandpa Ogilvy. It proves the saying that "classics last forever".

In China, many years ago, when traditional advertising was still king, Shi Yuzhu, a great marketing god of his generation, used content marketing on "Nongfu Spring" and achieved success. The well-known "Only give away Ningfu Spring as gifts" was just Shi Yuzhu's later masterpiece. 20 years ago in 1998, Shi Yuzhu started the sales of Ningfu Spring in Jiangyin, Wuxi. His main marketing strategy was to release soft content: "A Woman at Forty", "Sweeping the World", "Can Humans Live Forever?" 》. Its main content is to collect global reports on Melatonin, combine them with the interests of consumers, and make statements, which has been successful.

Let’s take a look at one of the articles, “Women at Forty”:

Once women are over 40, their skin becomes increasingly rough, they get more and more wrinkles, their bodies become bloated, their hair keeps falling out, and various spots increase. They are concerned about their appearance but cannot face the reality in the mirror. Coupled with the arrival of menopause, this leads to huge psychological and physiological changes. So some people say: A woman at the age of 40 is like tofu dregs.

Modern science has discovered that all of this is determined by the most important organ in the human brain that controls the body's life clock - the mesophysical body. The brain structure is composed of layers, like an onion. The outermost layer is the cerebral cortex, and the innermost core is the medulla oblongata. The amount of Melatonin it secretes directly controls the aging of all organs in the human body. By the age of 40, the amount of Melatonin secreted is only 30% of that in childhood, so most of the body's organs have begun to age.

If you drink an appropriate amount of Melatonin every day at this time, you can restore the body's organs to a youthful state. A large number of new skin cells are produced (during deep sleep), dead cells are removed, and loose skin becomes elastic again, greatly delaying the formation of wrinkles; the intestines enter a youthful state, effectively preventing various toxins that damage the skin from invading the human body, eliminating spots, and even delaying menopause. An authoritative American paper analyzed: If women start drinking Melatonin every day at the age of 35, menopause can be delayed by at least 15 years. Even some postmenopausal women started menstruating again after drinking Melatonin for a long time.

Is supplementing with Melatonin really effective for women's beauty? An American expert wrote an article telling us a quick test method: within one week of drinking, do the body feel energetic, sleep deeper, and have smooth intestinal tract? If so, it means the skin is improving; if not, it is not the case. Fortunately, most women who drink Melatonin experience the above symptoms within 3 to 5 days. However, many women who wanted to save money bought fake Melatonin (no oral solution, no government approval number), and not only did they not get the above-mentioned effects, some even experienced discomfort.

Drinking Melatonin can restore the body to a youthful state and make middle-aged women become as youthful and energetic as young girls. A woman at forty is a flower, not tofu dregs.

Does this article structure look familiar to you?

In the first part, we hit users with content statements, making everyone curious about how to solve the problem?

The second part, starting from scientific arguments, supports the scientific basis of the content of the first part and lays the foundation for the introduction of the product in the third part.

The fourth part highlights the effectiveness of Melatonin through the endorsement of American experts.

Therefore, it can be seen that:

One excellent content editor is worth 100 excellent sales representatives, because the era of "content-driven products" has fully arrived.

"Content marketing" can not only promote sales, but also help shape the brand image and achieve product and sales integration.

Content marketing that doesn’t help you achieve your business goals is not content marketing; it’s just content. The content of the content alone is not worth investing your time in.

What is the difference between content marketing and traditional marketing?

1. Meeting user needs vs. advertising bombardment

Content marketing: meet user needs, solve user problems and cultivate user trust through content. When the user's trust value reaches a certain level, they will spontaneously purchase the product.

For example:

Although Zui'e Niang's WeChat readership is only a few thousand, and her Weibo followers are just over one million (perhaps in the eyes of many people, bloggers with over one million followers are everywhere), she has captured vertical users in the wine field with her professional content. Her Tmall store has been open for more than a year, and its 2018 turnover has easily exceeded 10 million. She is a typical leader in content marketing!

Traditional marketing: intensive bombardment through advertising to occupy the user's mind, for example:

For example: Hengyuanxiang, Sheep Sheep Sheep

For example: Looking for a job, go to Boss Direct

2. Value attraction vs. price attraction

Content marketing: likes to deliver product value to users.

Through interesting titles, in-depth content, and product comparisons, users’ attention to product value is strengthened, their attention to price is weakened, and emotional consumption is encouraged.

There is a classic case in the content marketing industry: Zebra Craft Beer, which drove nearly 380,000 sales through an article:

Traditional marketing: prefer price war

Especially in traditional e-commerce shopping scenarios, there are a large number of homogeneous products for users to choose from. The main problem consumers face is "which one to buy". At this time, the price and whether there is a promotion are the key factors that many users consider.

3. Easier to share vs. easier to block

Content marketing: It arouses users’ interest, and users are easily attracted or impressed by the content. Content marketing can better utilize the communication advantages of social media and expand the influence of brands and products.

The documentary series "A Bite of China" that was popular all over China at that time, although its original purpose was not to sell products, after each episode was broadcast, the products in the program were always bought crazily by the audience on the e-commerce platform. Even on social platforms, the program was shared a lot, and the products in the program were also widely recommended.

Traditional marketing: Consumers are increasingly distrusting advertisements, the opening rate of advertisements is getting lower and lower, and they will actively block advertisements through various means.

Good content marketing is inseparable from content production and content distribution

Good content production is about producing valuable content. How to produce valuable content?

First of all, you have to be able to tell a story.

Chinese people have grown up listening to stories. When we were young, our parents would tell us the story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and the story of the policeman. The advantage of storytelling is that it can bring more value and is easier for users to accept. Moreover, stories have a subtle influence on people through the accumulation of thickness. Stories are a kind of brand asset.

When it comes to storytelling, we have to talk about "Little Can Tea"

In order to create a product that can represent the pinnacle of Chinese tea today, in June 2012, Xiaoguan Tea embarked on a journey to find the best Chinese tea. It took three years and more than 400,000 kilometers of travel to all the core tea producing areas in China. After continuous investigation and screening, we finally impressed eight leading tea masters with our innovative ideas and sincerity. Each master is responsible for creating a product for Xiaoguan Tea that represents the peak level of his or her personal skills.

It has never happened in history that eight leading tea-making masters have come together to create a brand and set standards for good Chinese tea, but Xiaoguan Tea has done it.

It can be seen that through this text, Xiaoguan Tea paints a story about searching for high-quality tea over a long time, over a long distance, and through untold hardships. One can't help but believe that the quality of this tea is absolutely amazing.

If the "more than 400,000 kilometers" in this set of copywriting is changed to "4,000 kilometers", "lasted 3 years" is changed to "lasted 3 months", and "8 masters" is changed to "4 tea-making masters", you will find that this set of copywriting is not so attractive. This is the power of content, especially there is a little trick of content marketing in it, which enhances the effect through "numbers".

Secondly, the content should be scenario-based

When you see lipstick advertisements, you will find that people always paint their lips. Soy sauce advertisements always feature the whole family having fun together, dining together or cooking. Chocolate advertisements always have a male and female protagonist, soothing music and a sweet atmosphere.

Why? It is to let users think about the usage scenarios after purchase and make the beautiful picture related to themselves.

Scenes are real things in life that you and I often see. If the content wants to leave a deep impression on consumers, it is necessary to combine the product with the life and work scenarios that are familiar to consumers and describe them in simple and easy-to-understand words. Let consumers further understand the product through scenes and trigger the desire to buy. The content output in this way is scenario-based content.

A scenario-based content that touches people's hearts can inspire customers to feel as if they are in the scene, thus occupying their minds. The scene you choose determines what emotions will be aroused in customers, and emotions will determine whether a purchase will occur.

For example:

Self-heating hot pot has been a very popular product in the past one or two years. When many businesses promote hot pot, they focus on the following points:

1. Delicious, authentic taste;

2. The materials are carefully selected and are purchased from various places of origin;

3. Convenient, fast and hygienic;

4. If there is a promotion, they will also make a fuss about the price;

After reading too many similar articles, consumers have become immune to the content. When everyone is talking about how delicious it is, where it comes from, and how convenient it is, how can we find differentiation through content that consumers will remember?

As for self-heating hot pot, a very important usage scenario is actually traveling abroad. When abroad, many Chinese people are actually not used to Western food. If they can eat hot pot at this time, it would be so satisfying.

During Tmall’s Double 11 last year, when a colleague who wanted to go abroad for the Chinese New Year heard this scene, she suddenly felt it made a lot of sense. She didn’t like Western food and European rice, and it just so happened that she wanted to travel in Europe for 10 days after Double 11, so she bought 2 boxes without hesitation.

Third, the content should be creative

For example, for a product like milk, people's demands are that it should be nutritious, delicious, fresh, pollution-free, etc.

Regarding the demand for pollution-free, many people may introduce to everyone how natural and pure the growth environment of dairy cows is, but some people will tell the story of "the life of a cow". The latter may be more attractive and credible, and the content is also more creative.

In summary, content marketing has the following value:

1. Content marketing can promote business purposes.

2. The content comes in a variety of forms, including text, pictures, videos, live broadcasts and other carriers.

3. Content can be shared and delivered.

4. Content marketing is applicable to all media channels and platforms.

5. The marketing value of content needs to be measurable.

In the field of e-commerce, there is a brand that has achieved very good results in the industry through content marketing. The content of this brand is very worthy of learning and reference. In fact, I have written about it systematically before. You can click here to review it: In-depth丨Annual sales of 1 billion+, this domestic brand that was founded 4 years ago, what did it do right in terms of content + channels?

Finally, let me share:

Some of my experiences and lessons in content marketing:

1. Is a big channel a good channel? No!

Let me share a project I worked on: Tmall Fresh Global Harvest Season, for example, which deployed three types of WeChat bloggers:

The name of the specific account is hidden here. If you are interested, you can add me on WeChat to communicate.

Top cultural accounts, food vertical accounts, and fashion accounts. Each type of number segment has different output content. Next, we will analyze the content structure of these types of number segments:

TOP cultural number segment: (Account 01, Account 02)

The article style of TOP accounts is basically that the first 80-90% is the tone of the account itself, and the last part is for advertising implantation.

Food vertical number:

There are two different content frameworks for food vertical accounts:

The first one is: (Account 03)

(Kiwifruit) Introduce the ingredients –> How to make the ingredients –> Promote the recommended ingredients from their place of origin –> Release purchase benefits;

The second one is: (Account 04)

(Avocado) Endorsed by celebrities, it is their favorite ingredient –> This ingredient has various advantages, and can even help you lose weight and be beautiful –> Plant the Mexican avocado introduced this time –> Release purchase benefits

Fashion account: (Account 05)

(Mao Crab) Introduce the literary background of Maori Crab and the blogger’s own experience of eating crabs –> How to choose a good Maori Crab –> Promote the recommended Maori Crab –> Release the word-of-mouth evaluation of the recommended Maori Crab users –> Release the purchase benefits

Can you guess which type of content leads to the best user conversion, cost of attracting a single new user, cost of purchasing a single user, cumulative GMV of user purchases, and ROI?

The answer is: Account 05;

The copywriting of account 05 is a very standard product promotion copywriting, which is similar to the classic copywritings such as Ogilvy's "Hathaway" shirt and Shi Yuzhu's "Nongbaijin";

The ROI of account 05 and account 04 are both over 1, and the user conversion cost and new user acquisition cost are also the lowest.

The overall performance of the two cultural segments is the least ideal, although they have the highest number of readers and fans;

The so-called content marketing, in the field of e-commerce, pays particular attention to the integration of product and sales. If my goal is to promote products and guide GMV, then no matter how many readings there are, if it cannot drive sales, it is just invalid reading and just a number.

Some people will argue that although the conversion data is not good, the reading volume is very high, which is also a very good opportunity for brand exposure.

Brand exposure? That’s not how it works. Just invest in a few public accounts and get hundreds of thousands of views, and your brand will be exposed? If brand exposure is so easy, then everyone can create a brand.

The purpose of brand exposure is to make users remember your brand. Such an effect cannot be achieved with just a piece of content on a WeChat official account. Even if the reading volume is 10w+, it will only reach a single user once. If you cannot effectively, intensively, and multi-channelly capture users' attention in a short period of time, and if there is no event marketing, topic creation, etc., the brand exposure effect will be very weak. Especially for some new brands, if they rely on the reading volume of a few WeChat public accounts, it is impossible to make users remember them, let alone brand exposure.

2. Can users be further segmented?

Previously, we launched three types of accounts for the bird's nest category day:

Female emotions, motherhood, fashion.

You can guess which account has the best bounce rate and purchase rate;

Before launching the campaign, we always thought that accounts targeting mothers would have the best effect. As mothers, they definitely have purchasing power. Moreover, mothers work hard every day, so they would definitely be willing to buy supplements for themselves and reward themselves.

As a result, the results of the campaign were shocking. The bounce rate and purchase rate of accounts belonging to mothers were the lowest.

Emotional accounts are the best, followed by fashion accounts. The data of mother accounts is only one-third of that of emotional accounts.

We have summarized the reasons, which are roughly 2 points:

1. Mothers are generally "stingy". They are more willing to invest time and money in their babies. There are all kinds of women, such as emotional or fashion women.

Second, the content of the account starts from the fact that mothers have a hard time and should treat themselves well. Such content is actually difficult to impress mothers because most of the content has this tone. If the account starts from the fact that mothers who eat bird's nests will give birth to fair-skinned babies, or that breastfeeding mothers who eat bird's nests can improve the quality of milk (not necessarily scientifically based, just an example), it will be easier to impress mothers because they will feel that it is for the good of the baby, rather than just considering themselves.

Speaking of this, I think of an example of diapers.

When Pampers launched its first diaper, things were not smooth sailing. Initially, Procter & Gamble discovered through research that poor sleep is a huge pain point for new mothers, so the company launched the slogan "Use Pampers to help mothers get a good night's sleep." But after a period of promotion, P&G found that its sales were not good. So P&G conducted further research and found that this appeal concept would make mothers feel guilty about using diapers and feel that they are incompetent mothers.

Procter & Gamble discovered the problem with its promotional strategy and changed the slogan to "Use Pampers to keep your baby dry and sleep well at night." By changing the appeal point, the change in promotional strategy made Pampers popular overnight. At this time, mothers unanimously agreed that they would feel guilty towards their babies if they did not use Pampers. As a result, countless ecstatic mothers and their babies were welcomed.

Many times, when we profile the users of our products, they are basically 25-35 years old, female, first- and second-tier white-collar workers, etc., without further segmentation. In fact, for women, we can further segment them based on their family and social status, so that we can better improve the reach rate of the target group of marketing.

3. Are there two types of content: creative and low-level?

We often hear: Wow, this content is so creative! This content is so cool! But you may also hear: This content is so low! Is there a difference between high and low content marketing?

As for content, it serves a purpose. If it can satisfy our purpose, it is valuable content.

Let’s take an H5 we have launched as an example:

At that time, two WeChat accounts were launched, one was a top-level emotional account, and the other was a humorous account;

(Section 1)

(Section 2)

Segment 1 has no content at all and directly points to "Read original text" to guide users to click, including the title, "Super Accurate Test", which also gives a tacky sense of déjà vu. Segment 2 is the standard routine of TOP emotional accounts, with an emotional story in the front and then advertisements implanted to lead to the H5 page. As a TOP account, the content cannot be said to be bad, and the editorial team's efforts can also be seen. But what is the result?

The price of emotional accounts is 5 times that of humorous accounts, but their effect on attracting traffic to H5 is less than one-fifth of that of humorous accounts.

Valuable content does not lie in how well it is written, but in how it can better serve target users through words and better achieve the purpose of this commercial promotion. Only such content is valuable.

4. Beautiful pictures are more likely to impress consumers

Take the new YSL product we worked on as an example. We placed ads with bloggers who usually have good cooperation data, but the results were quite different. You can take a look at the following two sets of copywriting to get a feel for it:

(Section 1)

(Section 2)

It is obvious that the actual effect of segment 1 is about 10 times that of segment 2 (the effects include bounce rate and purchase rate).

For a product like lipstick, only words are not enough to encourage people to buy it. As visual animals, humans are more receptive to pictures than words. Women in particular have no resistance to lipstick. Bloggers can directly present the effects of lipstick through pictures of lipstick test colors, which can impress women more than written words.

Summarize

From the 19th century to the present, no matter how technology develops or how the form of content changes, "storytelling" is the eternal theme of corporate content marketing. It used to be! Now it is! The future too! Therefore, the strategy of corporate content marketing is always based on making good products and telling good stories.

Of course, while telling a good story, we need to pay close attention to the development of new technologies, changes in channels, and changes in brand audiences. Therefore, we need to analyze what changes will occur in the content format, distribution channels, and content audiences of content marketing in the future.

These changes are mainly reflected in two aspects:

• The rapid development of new technologies such as voice-controlled devices, AR, and AI has led to changes in the form of content;
• The rise of new consumer groups such as those born after 1995 and 2000 has changed the marketing audience, and it is of great significance to study their unique lifestyles and consumption habits.

Source: Marketing Lao Wang