In the last few years, not just the big giants but even startups and e-commerce ventures have led in leveraging the power of content. But still, Pradeep Kumaar, CEO of Neil Patel Digital, feels brands have underutilised the content marketing space in India.
“Although big players have come to terms with it, the majority still is lacking in this area,” Kumaar said.
“Many agencies have understood the potential of content marketing and have started implementing the best practices. Companies are devising new and innovative strategies to engage with their users. But that said, we are still not on a par with the West in terms of our strategy, reaching the target audience and in terms of curating the best content. We still have a long way to go. Startups like Zerodha and Policy Bazaar are earning people's trust through strong content and creative ideas, encouraging people to take favourable actions,” he told BuzzInContent.com.
“The biggest challenge I see is measuring ROI and preferring quantity over quality. As I always say, never try to replicate competition, what works for them may not work for you. When we focus on quality content, solutions catered for the user via engaging and informative copy and videos, search engines will notice their content value and will automatically rank your content higher,” he added.
Kumaar believes that content marketing when done right has the ability to evoke a feeling of trust within users who follow a brand, products, or solutions they are searching for.
While marketers try to build their internal content marketing teams, he suggested that they need to bear in mind that having a strong content team in place is vital to connecting with a wider audience.
“Building rapport and providing creative freedom is key. Good content writers have the ability to engage the audience with powerful and insightful copy that resonates with the reader. By doing this regularly, your brand can gain customer loyalty,” he said.
Experts say that content marketing bears results only if it is done consistently in the long run.
But in the current pandemic scenario, when businesses have just started gaining traction, they are looking for quick business comebacks, and Kumaar believes content marketing can support these short-term goals.
Why does repurposing content become vital in such scenarios? To this, Kumaar said, “Brands need to revisit old content that performed well and focus on making it better. They can rewrite the content and update it with the latest information, updates, facts, and add links. We call it ‘Content Repurposing’. By doing this, you can make your content appeal to a larger group of audience and become fresh and relevant. Your search engine traffic is now more likely to receive an instant boost with this simple strategy.”
The Covid-19 situation has led to a lot of brands realising the need and importance of going digital. Added to that, there are a lot of conversations floating around content commerce when brands are upping their e-commerce game due to the pandemic.
Kumaar said that we need to inject more positive content to promote brands and curate content with a proper solution-focused approach in order to gain the trust of users.
The content thus created should be able to solve people's problems by showing a transparent approach where a brand or organisation is trying to fulfil the needs of users, he said. When brands shed light on their efforts to provide the best products or services, then users too will tend to react in a positive manner, thus boosting brand loyalty and image.
And with YouTube's stringent branded content policies, TikTok getting banned, brands staying away from Facebook and several other issues with major platforms, he suggested brands should focus more on vernacular Indian apps and leverage them to reach out.
“With TikTok getting banned, apps like Roposo, Chingari, Mitron and ShareChat are gaining momentum. These apps have huge potential. Brands can shift their focus to these apps, as they have witnessed a huge surge in terms of the user base,” he said.
Apart from this, the performance marketing agency has completed one full year in India. And over the last 12 months, it has won big clients spanning hospitality, pharma, logistics, and e-commerce.
“We are growing at a rapid pace and currently serve over 40 accounts with 60 specialists in place. It is indeed a huge milestone for the entire team and it has been a fantastic journey,”
The agency has clients, including Facebook, Viacom, eBay, NBC, Google among others.
Asked why brands should choose Neil Patel over other content marketing agencies, Kumaar said that its well-versed team in various specialisations help sit understand the business perception of a brand and its value metrics in the market better than most players in the industry.
“As a result, we are able to drive results for brands and provide value addition to respective users and we understand where agencies are missing out and efficiently bridge that gap. We stay updated with the latest global trends and changes, thus giving us another edge over competition,” he added.