I always keep my eye out for Brissie brands doing good things in the content space, and in the past few months I’ve noticed a few – some tiny, some slightly bigger – doing a pretty bloody good job of their content marketing. They have either completely figured out what clicks for their audiences or are well and truly on the way.
The latest research on content marketing trends in Australia shows 84% of marketers say their top priority for the year ahead will be to create more engaging content, but only 28% of businesses overall believe they are effective at creating that content.
There’s a raft of reasons why your digital content may be missing the mark, but more often than not it’s because your audience’s needs aren’t at the centre of what you’re doing.
These three Brisbane businesses have learnt that the “social” is just as important as the “media”, and that attempting to just sell their product or self-promote on their websites will have their audience heading for the nearest cat gif or, worse, clicking the exit button.
Check out what has been successful for them and the key takeaways you can apply to your business.
Pawpaw Cafe’s #foodporn Instagram
Key platform: Organic Instagram posts
I love this Woolloongabba cafe’s Instagram account. I drool at their pictures daily. I may or may not have licked the screen a few times. And I’m guessing all 38,000 of their Instagram followers often do the same thing. And here’s an example of why.
Yes, 38,000 followers. For a cafe.
They have instant access to an audience bigger and of a higher quality than most local newspapers, and they achieved it by not just posting #foodporn pictures but by creating a community around their cafe (the social in their social media).
Pawpaw Cafe’s social media folks take the time to answer questions and engage with the people who comment on their pages, creating not just customers but advocates. And the best customer you’ll ever have is the one you’ve already got. I would also hazard a guess that Pawpaw can measure an upturn in customers in line with certain posts on their social accounts, and that my friends is the tastiest dish on the business menu.
Key takeaway: Create advocates by taking the time to answer your audience’s questions and engage with them – a friend in need is a friend indeed.
Brad Bell Real Estate’s bloody brilliant website
Key platform: Website and gated content
I don’t care how big or small your real estate business is, Brad Bell’s website is the Alpha real estate website. The Omega. The good stuff. The Wishart real estate agency concentrates on one thing: helping its audiences get where they want to be bloody fast, and being extremely useful when they get there.
Thinking of selling? Click. Already a client and need to log on? Click. Inquiring about getting your property managed? Click. What is my house worth? Click. None of it pushing a sales message, all of it purely helpful.
Scroll down a bit on their website you’ll find even more impressive evergreen content the business has created to help clients at different stages of their buying journey.
Guides about selling or managing your house, property reviews of the area, useful videos about how to better manage particularly painful points as a landlord, and a constant stream of blogs that are all about the audience’s problems set up Brad Bell Real Estate’s website and staff as being the most trustworthy and authoritative agents in the area.
Key takeaway: Your website’s content needs to solve your customer’s problems and answer their questions. This builds trust and authority, and as a completely awesome bonus just happens to help Google push you up the rankings when people search for the answers. Being there automatically when a customer searches for something? Priceless.
Manly Harbour Village’s ‘place’ posts
Key platform: Boosted Facebook posts
There’s an extremely helpful book called Town Inc by Andrew M. Davis and in it he talks about why businesses need to “market the place they do business, not the business they do”. It’s something you should write on a piece of paper and stick to your wall near your computer, and Manly Harbour Village has started to do a good job of it.
The copy in this post isn’t overly inspiring but why does it need to be when you’re sharing something so breathtaking?
Yes, this post has excellent engagement (likes, shares, quality comments) but the kicker is the fact it inspires visitation to the area through emotionally engaging visual content. Scheduling these kind of posts regularly will do a whole lot more than just getting likes and comments – it will create fans and eventually bring visitors and revenue to the businesses in the area.
The key is consistency and I’ve noticed Manly Harbour Village regularly boost these kinds of posts because people engage and participate in them. These pictures have helped to build an audience, which should be at the top of your marketing goals.
Key takeaway: If you build a loyal audience over time by “marketing the place you do business, not the business you do”, getting them to buy in to your product down the track becomes a lot easier. Also, read Town Inc to learn how much further this concept can take your business (like, waaaay further).
What doesn’t work for them so much are the many event-style posts, which can come across as a bit too promotional. But event marketing ain’t easy. You can learn a bit more about how to do that here.
The key takeaways from each of these businesses all share a theme – they put the interests and problems of the audience at the centre of what they do in their content marketing. Remember: solving the people’s problems is a powerful thing so identify their pain points and help them on their way. Your bottom line will thank you for it.
