Internet usage in Sub-Saharan Africa has been growing rapidly over the last decade, with the number of internet users in Ghana growing from just 26 percent of the population in 2013 to more than 50 percent in 2020.
As a result, content marketing is overtaking traditional forms of marketing such as radio and TV as businesses chase the younger, tech-educated Ghanaians that spend a lot of time online. You might have heard the phrase “content is king” and wondered what it means; well, in the modern world, consumers are fed up with in-your-face sales messages and are more interested in valuable, relevant, and consistent content that answers their questions and ultimately serves their needs. If you want to grow your business, here’s how to create a content marketing strategy that actually works.
Learn more about your customers
Before you start creating content, you must first research to determine who your customers are. What do they look like? What are their interests? What are they struggling with? When you answer these questions, you’ll have an idea of who your ideal customers are which will help you create content that is relevant to their key interests as well as your core business. For example, if your business sells women’s clothing, you’ll need to create content that revolves around what women deal with in relation to clothing such as size guides or fashion advice.
Decide on content types
After identifying your ideal customer, the next step is to think about the types of content that will suit them and your content marketing strategy best. Most successful content marketing strategies have a central core of written content that can be repurposed and shared on multiple platforms.
However, make sure that you understand the difference between web writing and copywriting before creating written content. Copywriting involves creating content whose primary purpose is to persuade readers to purchase, opt-in, or engage with your products or services. On the other hand, content writing involves creating actionable, valuable, and sharable articles that help create brand awareness and establish your authority in different subjects related to your core business.
Other types of content you can use include videos, social media posts, infographics, ebooks, webinars, and more.
Create and share your content
Once you have identified the ideal types of content, the next step is to allocate the required resources to create and share it with as many prospective customers as possible. Regardless of the type of content you want to create, you must do thorough research to ensure that you are providing real value to those who end up consuming it so that you build trust with them.
You also want to create content in a format that your audience will be able to access. For example, if you are making videos, they need to be in a format that’s accessible by the mid-range smartphones that most Ghanaians use.
After spending time and resources to create your content, share it on platforms where you’re most likely to reach your target audience. For example, you’re likely to get a lot more Ghanaian viewers for video content on Facebook as it is a lot more popular than YouTube or Instagram.
While it may require some investment to carry out, content marketing can help you attract new customers, educate them on how to use your products and services, and help you grow your brand. Whether you are a new small business or a large enterprise that has existed for decades, you can ride the exciting content marketing wave and flourish.
ALSO READ: How Digital Marketing can help your local Business grow
Author: Bri Braithwaite
The author is a freelance writer who enjoys contributing to various sites on the topics that she finds important
