Part 5: Content Marketing - How to Market Your Cell Phone Repair Store

Content marketing is all the rage. It has been for some time now. Businesses of all sizes and industries have jumped on the bandwagon. When it costs 62% less than outbound marketing AND generates three times as many leads — it’s not a mystery as to why.

So what is it, exactly?

At its core, content marketing is providing value to your customers. It can be through articles, helpful videos, guides, infographics, and the list goes on. It’s about providing value before receiving (or even expecting) anything in return. It’s solving your customer’s problems. It’s building a relationship between them and your brand.
Even the smallest businesses can reap the benefits if they put in the time. High-quality content is high quality whether it comes from your store’s website or Apple’s. Great content speaks for itself.
It’s not a silver bullet — it’s a marketing strategy. One that takes time to build and grow. But, once it’s off the ground you’ll be glad it’s the path you chose.

So solving your customer’s problems is great. But how does it actually help grow your business?

Why Content is King Of The Hill

You wouldn’t buy a phone that couldn’t get a signal or a charger with no voltage, would you? No, definitely not. And so many businesses wouldn’t adopt a strategy that didn’t return tangible results, would they? Again, the answer is no.
Here are those results:
It Builds Your Authority and Grows Brand Awareness Effective content marketing will turn your website into a hub of information. Which means more visitors and more people linking to your content. It helps establish your business as an authority on the topics you cover.
If your site is the local go-to place for information on phone repair, your brand will become associated with it. And with that association comes local thought leadership. Being known as the best source of information in your area can only help your business.

It’s The Best SEO Tool You’ll Find

With all that authority comes links from reputable websites. Rather, with all those links from reputable websites, comes authority. And authority is the missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to raising your search rankings. Content marketing is hands down, the best way to earn it.
By solving prospect’s problems you’ll be addressing the exact keywords they search for. And if they’re searching for it and you have the best answer? It’s only a matter of time before you’re found.

It Gives Prospects a Reason to Keep Returning to Your Site

A customer can come to your site once to check your prices, services or opening hours. They have the information they need and then they leave. They only return when they need this information again. Content marketing gives customers a reason to keep coming back. You might be thinking: But once they’ve fixed their phone, why would they want to keep reading about phone repair?
And that’s a valid point. But, the scope of your content marketing can expand beyond your singular niche. Accessory reviews or phone optimizations can attract visitors back to your site. Over and over again.

It’s The Best Kind of Promotion

In social media promotion, it can be difficult to create ads that don’t sound like they’re trying to sell. Content marketing is the way around this. When you promote your content, you’re not promoting your business directly. You’re providing value. You’re answering the questions that your prospects are asking. You’re helping them. The fact that it gets your brand name out there and brings them to your site is just a bonus.

How Content Works

So, now that you know what it is and why it helps your business — here’s how it actually does it. There are three primary phases to any content marketing strategy. Each phase works to move your visitors from a prospect and turn them into a customer.

The three phases are:
Attract — visitors to your site by providing content that answers their biggest questions. This brings traffic to your site and builds trust between your audience and your brand.
Convert — those visitors into leads. Traffic, at the end of the day, is only traffic. Yes, that traffic may peruse other parts of your site but it’s still not actionable. The second stage is when you collect information about your visitors. For example, asking for an email address in exchange for an eBook or discount.
Nurture — your leads and turn them into customers. At this stage, your prospects have shown commitment or at least an interest in your brand. Nurture is when you send them content specifically about your business or industry. Content that will make them want to buy from you.

Creating an Effective Content Strategy

The absolute best way to ensure your content doesn’t get lost in the infinite web of the internet is to have a plan. Have a strategy in place before you create your first piece of content. If you have already started content marketing, it won’t hurt to take a step back and go through these steps.

Step 1 — Understand Your Audience

Effective content is content that speaks to its audience. And your content can’t do that if you don’t understand who it’s for.
Here’s what you need to know about your audience:
Objectives — what are they trying to achieve? Are they trying to get the most life out of their phones? Do they want to have the best phone accessories available? Or are they just looking for the cheapest way to get their phone fixed?
Problems — what are they struggling with? What is preventing them from achieving their objectives?
Demographics — where are they located? How old are they? Are they male or female? What’s their education level and tech-savviness? This information will allow you to better target your audience through these characteristics. It will help you focus in on exactly who you’re creating it for, how to create it, and what to create for them.

Step 2 — Plan The Right Content

Once you understand who you’re creating content for you need to figure out what you’ll actually create. This will depend on how far along you are with your content marketing. If you’re just starting out, you’ll want to focus on creating attraction content.
Attraction content is the first stage and answers the big questions. And if you understand your audience — you’ll know what their big questions are. For example, if they're big on DIY repairs, you could write relevant articles for each of their devices. Or if they're worried about the resale value of their phones, compile your data and ease their minds.
As your traffic grows, you can start to create conversion content. And once your lead base grows, create nurture content. But, this doesn’t mean you should stop creating attraction content. It’s your bread and butter. It’s what will continue to bring traffic to your site and tell the world you’re updated and open for business. Content can come in the form of blog posts, eBooks, videos, infographics, and the list goes on. What’s important to remember is that you’re solving problems. And if you’re not so gifted with the written word or design, you can always hire someone to pick up the slack. So whether it’s a post or a video, as long as it provides value and provides it in a compelling way — it’s high-quality content. And that’s the key.

Step 3 — Promote Your Content

Your content could have the answer to every conceivable question about phone repair. But just because it exists, doesn’t mean people are finding it. You need a strategy in place to promote your content.
Again, if you understand your audience, you’ll know where they go to find their information. A simple way to promote your content is to leverage your existing social media presences. Which of your profiles are most active or have the most followers? That’s where you should promote your content and then let it spread. You can also use paid ads on social media, promote to your email list or do some good old fashioned outreach.
What’s outreach?
Outreach is reaching out to sites you know your audience visits. You share your content with them and they may share your content with their followers. This will expose your content to their entire audience. But remember, if it’s a large and popular site, they’re most likely inundated with these requests. So don’t lose heart if they decide not to promote your content.

Step 4 — Analyze and Optimize

Once your content is live and actively promoted you need to analyze your results. You’ll want to track pageviews, time on page, conversion rates and where traffic is coming from. Keep in mind that content, especially when starting out, can take a while before it makes an impact.
After analyzing your results, use that information to optimize your new content. So if your video reviews on the best iPhone cases are bringing in the most traffic — create more of them. If a specific blog topic is receiving more shares than others, create more around that same topic. Optimizing your content will better serve your audience and bring in more traffic.

A Powerful Long-Term Marketing Strategy

Content marketing requires time, commitment, and consistency. It’s not a strategy that you can just dip your toe in and expect results. The internet is awash with new content every single day. And the fact is, a few great pieces of content just isn’t gonna cut it.
To get through all the clutter you need to be creating great content on a consistent basis. It’s about really knowing and understanding who your prospects are. It’s about extending a helping-hand and expecting nothing in return. It’s letting the positive experiences with your brand turn prospects into customers.

Content allows your phone repair business to attract the right kind of prospects. Instead of venturing out and seeking them, they come to you. And the best part? The ones that come to you are exactly who your business needs. Why? Because you literally created all your content — just for them.