Looking at current trends, and those speculated for the future, it’s hard to think of a brand’s expansion without content marketing. According to statistics, about 72% of marketers agree that content marketing strategies increase engagement.

While 91% of B2B marketers depend on content marketing to influence buyers, 73% of businesses have a dedicated team to monitor content. And over 80% of marketers plan to spend highly on content creation.

New to this mode of business strategizing? Here are some effective marketing and content marketing models that can help you reap maximum benefit:

1. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix

Also known as the Growth/Share Matrix, this marketing model was conceptualized to help marketers with long-term strategic planning and business growth opportunities by reviewing the portfolio of their products.

Divided into four quadrants – Dogs, Stars, Cash Cows, and Question Marks – this model helps businesses analyze market growth and market share before devising a marketing strategy. It is used to boost sales and leads with the help of each quadrant, where:

• Dogs – products with low market share or growth
• Stars – products in high-growth markets with high market share
• Cash Cows – products in low-growth markets with high market share
• Question Marks – products in high-growth markets with low market share

Nestlé used the BCG Matrix to rationalize its portfolio by retaining only profitable brands and selling off those that reported both poor sales and low market share.

2. ToFu, MoFu, and BoFu

Top-of-funnel (ToFu), middle-of-funnel (MoFu) and bottom-of-funnel (BoFu) are the three main approaches that marketers and sales professionals take to influence their customers. Let’s take a closer look at each of them.

ToFu

This type of content provides relevant information that addresses the customer’s need, question, interest or problem, with subtle brand integration. For instance, an article on the different cuisines one can experiment with on weekends, with the ingredients linked to a grocery shopping website.

MoFu

Here, the content is meant to educate consumers, but it will also position a brand and its products as a viable solution to their needs. For example, in an article titled ‘What to do when faced with a financial emergency’, a personal loan from a certain bank/NBFC might be suggested as the best option to beat the cash crunch.

BoFu

This is the final stage, where marketers make a direct sales pitch. Here, the brand or product plug-in is evident and is aimed at convincing consumers to trust the brand. For example, consider an article titled ‘Why car insurance from XYZ company can help you during tough times’. The entire article will talk about the features and benefits of XYZ’s car insurance.

According to the ToFu-MoFu-BoFu model, a brand starts off by taking the ToFu and MoFu approach to make their presence felt to customers, before gradually moving towards BoFu to establish their place in the market.

3. Brand Positioning Map

This segmentation, targeting, and positioning model allows marketers to paint a brand’s picture with respect to certain attributes that are important to consumers. It helps brands derive insights about how a product will perform in relation to customer expectations.

• The model facilitates the assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of competing brands.
• It shows potential opportunities in the market for new brands and repositions existing ones.
• It helps marketers identify ideal points on the map as markets mature, giving them a competitive advantage over others in the industry.

For a practical application of this marketing model, read about Chipotle vs. Taco Bell’s fight for market share. But to better understand the model itself, check out the image below that explains this concept through the example of the automotive industry.

4. Modern Consumer Journey Model

Consumers travel through a series of steps before they make a purchase. This is called the consumer journey. The modern consumer journey has five stages:

a. Interest (Awareness)

A customer’s interest in a particular product or service will urge them to seek information, during which they become aware of specific brands through videos, ads, social media, newspapers, billboards, influencers, etc. In this regard, to make yourself known to consumers, ensure your brand has enough online and offline presence. You can rely on specific media tools (social media, radio, etc.) depending on the demographics of your target audience.

b. Search (Findability):

When in need of something, consumers search either on the internet (organic searches), maps, dictionaries, or app stores. To make your brand discoverable to consumers, you need to have an online presence in the form of a website or blog, and social media handles that offer useful information.

c. Research (Reputation)

Once a consumer finds you online, they will try to verify your credibility and assess your products or services by researching and reading reviews, blog articles, checking social media, etc. Based on this, they decide whether to choose your brand. So, to convince new and potential consumers, you need to establish your reputation in the online and offline space.

d. Purchase (Conversion)

Based on the consumer’s assessment of the brand, they will decide on making a purchase. Depending on their convenience, they will either shop on the website/app, or go to a store and talk to a salesperson. It is only after a consumer purchases from you that they become your customer.

e. Experience (Advocacy)

Upon using a product or service, a consumer decides if the experience has met their expectations. They share this experience through a review, social media post, blog, or just talk about it to their peers. It is this advocacy that contributes to the brand’s reputation and influences new consumers.

As a consumer moves from one step to another, brands need to play their role to leave an imprint on them.

5. Customer Lifetime Value

Ever come across the three magic words ‘Return on Investment‘ or ROI? The Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) model is a significant tool in its calculation. Yet only 42% of companies can calculate their CLV.

The easiest way to understand CLV is as ‘the projected revenue that a customer generates in a lifetime’. It helps you understand where your resources are best invested and which customers bring the most value to you.

[(Average Order Value) x (Purchase Frequency)] x (Average Customer Lifespan) = CLV

The best way of improving your CLV is through enhancing your customer service.

The Cloud Alchemist, a boutique vapor liquor brand based in Seattle, improved its CLV in an online industry by being relevant and personalized, and by rewarding loyal customers.

Parting words

Around 64% of marketers have admitted that they would like to learn how to build a better content strategy. Which is why we hope you can use these marketing models to make better data-driven decisions when creating your content marketing campaign.

Source:

http://www.slideshare.net/hschulze/b2b-content-marketing-report-40688285

Updated on 16th July 2020