3 min to read
Sharp content marketing strategies can crush the competition. How can you use it in your subscription box business?
So you’ve got yourself a subscription box business. Great! It’s a good market to be in; growth rates are at 100% per year, and companies like Dollar Shave Club have been bought out for huge sums of money – a reported $1billion.
But there’s also a lot of competition, so there’s a constant struggle to attract new customers. And an even more important question is; how do you retain customers? Some subscription box companies see churn rates of 14%, with the average subscription length being 6-8 months. This exemplifies the importance of maintaining contact with the customer throughout. A great way to do this is by perfecting your content marketing strategy.
Here, we use Dollar Shave Club as a case study to demonstrate 3 key pillars of an effective content marketing strategy.
1 – Create the Perfect Buyer Persona
Before you even start to think about creating content for your buyers, you’ve got to think – who are they?
Dollar Shave Club know exactly who they’re targeting. It’s men. And more importantly, it’s not the archetypal man portrayed in Gillette adverts. It’s just normal men, those who love to eat too much food, and have Dad-bods.
Given that the majority of men aren’t chiseled Greek Gods, it’s ironic that Dollar Shave Club have found their niche in the largest proportion of the market. They haven’t really done aspirational marketing, they’ve used the buyer persona to understand what people really want. Simple, but effective.
2 – Use Social Media Content to Personify Your Brand and Drive Engagement
Dollar Shave Club have used social media expertly. They make sure that their content is up-to-date, taking advantage of whatever is happening in the world at the time.
Take for example, their use of Father’s Day as a tool to maintain engagement. They use humor to make light-hearted jokes about relatable things; Dad-bods, the way Dads’ text, and their lack of technological expertise.
They make sure viewers engage with the content, telling them to tag their Dad, and by jumping on the meme bandwagon, customers also tag their friends. This shows how Dollar Shave Club maintain engagement with their customers even when they have completed the purchase.
Staying in the psyche and maintaining a brand experience makes the customer feel like they know the company.
So the key take away from this; use social media consistently to produce a brand and to engage with customers constantly.
3 – Leverage Value-Driven Video Content
Appropriate video content is a great way to maintain engagement with the customer and keep them coming back for more. Video accounts for a massive proportion of internet activity (over a third), and when a customer enjoys a video, their purchase intention increases by 97%. Impressive stuff. In fact, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.
Video content is a great way to add extra value to the customer or potential buyer by teaching them how to use your product or service. The more you can inform and empower your target market, the easier you make it for them to buy from you.
Dollar Shave Club uses humor to make their content more palatable. That isn’t to say that every company should aim to be the funniest. It’s about making sure that you understand your buyer personas, carry that through to consistent social media management, combined with the best video content for the job.
Getting started on your content marketing strategy
Effective content does not happen by coincidence. It occurs as a result of research and planning.
To get started building your content plan, check out our free template and content planning guide.
Codedesign is a digital marketing agency specializing in data-driven online sales and lead generation solutions for brands in a variety of verticals. Contact us to schedule a consultation with one of our digital marketing experts.
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