If your company is expanding into new markets, it’s critical to build brand recognition among your target market segments. One of the best ways to make your brand a household word in new markets is through content marketing.
Content marketing does two things — and does them well. It increases search visibility for your products and builds trust in your expertise among prospective customers.
It’s a win-win content strategy — but you need to target your prospects carefully to succeed.
Here are some tips that can help put your brand on center stage.
First, Create New Buyer Personas
Whether your company is expanding into new territories or simply broadening your product line, chances are that at least some of your new market segments will have different needs, pain points, and demographics from your current market.
Taking the time to research your new prospects can help you target them with content that focuses on meeting their needs and solving their problems. Using your social media and content analytics, identify who these new prospects are and how you can help them.
Then create new buyer personas that reflect their unique perspectives and challenges. Doing so will put a human face on your prospects, making it easier for your content planning and creative teams to come up with topics that will spark their interest.
Image by Brightspark Consulting via Marketing Insider Group
Next, Determine Which Brand Differentiators Will Attract Your New Audience
Large companies’ marketing teams have already identified their products’ brand differentiators among their current customers. However, new market segments might have different needs, which other features of your products might meet.
For that reason, you’ll need to define what unique advantages your products bring to these newer customers. For instance, if your company is a car manufacturer and you’re expanding into a country where people drive on the left side of the road, you’ll want to point out your cars’ safety features that help drivers deal with the specific challenges those traffic patterns bring.
Localize Your SEO Strategy
Including your location in your content naturally without awkward phrasing is a must if you’re moving into new territory. Identifying the needs local people have and making them your focus keywords, too, helps search engines guide the locals to your brand.
Don’t forget to localize the language you use, too. Even if people in your new location speak English, differences exist in both spelling and common search terms.
In fact, if you don’t do your homework, you could end up with cringey content that drives people away rather than building brand recognition.
So brush up on your localized (er, localised) expressions before you sit down to plan content. If in doubt, engage in content collaboration with one of the natives in your across-the-pond offices.
Partner with Established Non-Competitor Companies on Content
Double your brand visibility when you partner with established companies already in the area. Non-competitors in related industries will likely be glad to have access to your audience, and you’ll get access to theirs.
For instance, let’s go back to our example of the car manufacturer. Although that company wouldn’t likely partner with a rival maker, their marketing team could partner with an aftermarket car accessories company in a blog post like “How to Make Your Chevy Look Like a Million.”
Partner with Influencers
Similarly, popular influencers that aren’t direct competitors can help you win audiences in new markets. For example, our fictional car manufacturer’s content team could reach out to a race car driver popular in their new market to create a video or blog post on safe driving tips or saving on fuel.
Take Advantage of Your PR Department
When you create thought leadership-level content that forges new ways to solve nagging issues among your target audience, don’t keep the secret to yourself. Get out of the departmental silo and ask your PR team to promote it in industry publications or, if of keen general interest, in the nightly news.
Make your brand the go-to source for information about your niche. When you do, journalists who are strapped for time and short on material will likely contact you for your take on the latest industry developments.
Tell Compelling Stories
As HubSpot’s Allie Decker advises, creating stories that involve your brand gives your company a human face, connecting your audience with your brand on an emotional level. Since studies show that most people base purchasing decisions on their emotions, it pays to take the time to create compelling stories around your products.
Whether you’re dishing out advice like a wise Yoda or showing how your products helped a customer solve a perplexing challenge, stories are a great way to tug at your audience’s heartstrings. And, since their heartstrings forge a deeper connection with their purse strings, more of them will likely engage with your brand on a deeper level, eventually becoming customers.
Encourage Your Audience to Share
One of the best ways to grab greater market share is to encourage sharing among your audience members. They might not be in the market for your products currently – or even your advice – but if they find some valuable nugget of wisdom that a friend or colleague could use, they’ll be likely to share if you make it easy enough for them.
“Click to Tweet” and share buttons on both the top and bottom of your blog posts make it simple for your readers to share. And, if you include a call to action like “Find this post helpful? Share it with your friends and colleagues,” you’ll be more likely to earn their willingness to share.
Sharing with others who might need the advice you can give is yet another reason audience targeting by interests and pain points is integral for reaching new markets quickly.
Use Paid Social Posts and Search to Boost Recognition
No matter how large your company might be, entering new markets is a challenge. Amplify your best-performing blog posts and videos in your target markets with paid social and search.
With today’s search engines and social media’s capabilities to dig down into the data to find people whose interests match what your offer, you can target precisely who you need to reach. It’s one of the most effective strategies to quickly connect people in your new audience with the information they need.
Finally, Create Actionable Content for Every Stage of the Buyer’s Journey
Building brand recognition doesn’t stop at the initial contact. When you create value for your target customers at every stage of their buyer’s journey and beyond, you create the kind of trust that earns both loyalty and referrals long after the sale.
A content roadmap can help you and your teams plan content that addresses your prospects’ needs no matter where they are along their journey. Addressing their needs after they become customers with how-to and troubleshooting tips can help them get the most value out of your products.
Building brand recognition in new markets demands a content marketing platform that can handle multi-channel initiatives, analytics that you can integrate with your company’s sales and CRM platforms, and content planning across the enterprise — no matter where your company goes next.
DivvyHQ’s content platform has all that and more — including a content strategy metadata feature that will save your teams time and save your company money. Try it free for 14 days starting today!