Content marketing is a powerful strategy to grow your online auction business by demonstrating expertise and earning the trust of potential clients.
What is content marketing?
Imagine you’re looking to buy a boat.
Like most of us, you’ll start with an internet search on topics such as :
- How to choose the right boat for your particular wants and needs
- How to know you’re getting a good price, and…
- Where to store your shiny new boat
As you doing your research, you realize all the best and most helpful articles about buying a boat are in the same place: The website of a local boat broker. Based on all the great tips you find, you realize this person is probably pretty good at his job, and you decide to hire him.
This is content marketing.
Content marketing is all about creating and sharing valuable and relevant information to earn the trust of potential clients. It builds credibility and authority on a particular subject by sharing your knowledge and offering guidance to your audience.
Content marketing for the online auction business: Where to start?
There’s more than one type of content to consider when you create a content marketing strategy. You have a number of options depending on the type of media you want to experiment with. Here are a few examples:
Start a podcast. Consider it your own on-demand, online radio show. Interview well-known people in your industry or do a short weekly rundown of the latest news items that your target audience cares about. Experiment with ideas of your own.
Create videos for YouTube. Many people go straight to YouTube to learn something new. You can be one step ahead of them. Do your research on what your audience is looking for—where to ask for donations for an online auction, the most popular online auction items, tips for getting higher bids—and create videos that answer those exact questions. When they come looking for help, they’ll find you.
Write an e-book. There’s no need to go the traditional publishing route anymore. Write 20 pages or 200 pages about the topic you know best, hire a designer to make it attractive, and list it on Amazon or your own website. Now you’re an auctioneer and an author!
Write blog posts or articles for your website. Write about trends in your niche of choice, write up top-ten lists, or share your tips for a successful online auction. You can also modify this approach slightly by sending out a regular newsletter via email.
Just as your customers will come to you for advice and information about online auctions, you can find many different experts to help you get started with any of these strategies. It’s never been easier to learn a new skill or master a new medium, so do your research and enjoy the process!
You don’t have to do all of these things. In fact, you shouldn’t! The key to success is to pick one strategy and do it really, really well.
Another thing to keep in mind: success takes time. When it comes to content marketing, think long term.
The unexpected benefits of a content marketing strategy for your online auction business.
Content marketing is a powerful way to demonstrate your expertise and knowledge as an online auctioneer, but this strategy has other benefits as well. Anyone who reads your newsletter listens to your podcast or watches your videos has a chance to get to know you and your personality.
Think back to the boat broker example from the beginning. You can learn a lot about that person and how he does business by reading a few of his blog posts, probably more than you’d learn from a sixty-second commercial or radio ad.
As an auctioneer, you are the heart of your online auction business. Content marketing is your opportunity to show your potential customers who you are, what you know, and why working with you is the right choice.
Recent Comments