Using Content Marketing as a Tool to Establish Expertise

When operating a business in a certain market it is expected or at least common for that business to have the know-how or expertise regarding the market or industry in general.

An example of this would be a garden centre being somewhat of an expert on plants that thrive in the local climate. This knowledge can create great content for the nearby market that places its brand ahead of other local competitors. There are four main methods used to establish this sense of expertise.

Text-Based Medium

This can come in the form of blogs, articles, reports or analysing a case study. This can provide great depth in a certain topic that has the primary goal of informing the audience of your expertise or leading them to a place where they can access more information.

Books and E-Books

Essentially, this is an expansion from the article or blog post. This can provide another source of revenue for your business or can be used to simply build brand awareness and given out for free or at a low price point.

If your brand has a great depth of knowledge on a topic, there is no other major barrier preventing a book than the time it takes to get pen to paper. This can have widespread traction for your business depending on the appeal of the book to the market.

Guest Posting

Most common in the form of blogging or collaboration on YouTube/social media. If you can find a mutually beneficial reason for an influential figure in your market to post your content, this can cement your position as an expert in your field or market.

An example is in the world of fitness. If a nutritionist wants to cement their expertise, they can reach out to a fitness influence and get them to share the content. It is mutually beneficial as it is relevant to the influencer’s audience and allows awareness to be spread for the nutritionist.

Video

Video has various applications from interviews (including collaborations), demonstrations of a product through to informative lessons for your audience. This adds an extra dimension of connection and can be particularly useful for visual learners in your audience.

References:

Zimmerman, J. and Ng, D. (2017) Social Media Marketing for Dummies: All-in-one. 4th Edition, Wiley, Hoboken, New Jersey.