Hajra Naz
Value-first marketing makes me think of putting your customer over yourself as the brand.
We hear as marketers to “add value” to our customers all the time, but what does this mean? Since what we may consider important to our clients may not truly represent their current pain points or issues, we must first learn what is valuable to them.
That brings us to the core of value-first marketing: giving your audience access to excellent information, inspiring conversations, and resources for addressing problems that will support their development and enable them to make wise decisions.
From here, the idea is to establish our brands as trusted sources and thought leaders by providing for our audience without expecting anything in return. And, naturally, remaining in their thoughts.
Removing the “Buy Now” Mentality
You can argue that there are situations when you need a speedy sale in which case I think it’s simple to get sucked into the ‘buy now’ mindset. This indicates that you are looking for clients who are prepared to buy your good or service right now.
The majority of your audience isn’t there yet in actuality.
Customers may take months or even years to decide whether or not to buy what you have to offer, therefore it may not be in your best interest to continually ask them with ‘buy now’ emails too soon.
In fact, according to a 6sense survey, purchasers don’t interact with sellers until they have accomplished 70% of the purchasing process. Furthermore, 83% of the time, customers initiated contact, indicating that they will approach you when they are ready, according to the survey. Therefore, you will have succeeded if you can help them throughout the purchasing process till they reach the point of readiness.
Value-first marketing is crucial for this reason. You have established a degree of credibility and trust with consumers by investing in them from the moment they discover your brand until they are prepared to make a purchase.
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Advantages of Adopting a Value-First Approach
At this point, the advantages of value-first marketing speak for themselves but I’ll still lay out a couple of concrete benefits for using this approach in your own stratThe benefits of value-first marketing are already clear, but let me still list a few specific advantages of implementing this strategy into your plans:
- Develop Loyalty and Trust: In a study carried out by Clear Channel and JCDecaux, 81% of customers said that trust plays an important part when making purchases. You may establish a certain level of trust between prospective customers and your brand even if they are not yet your current clients by providing them with tools, support, and information.
- Stay Aware of Your Mind: Value-first marketing gives you the chance to repeatedly appear in audience feeds, messages, and audio platforms because it is content- and media-heavy. Many contacts with potential customers are created as a result.
- Boost Brand Reputation: Providing value on a regular basis naturally improves the reputation of your brand. Furthermore, a positive brand reputation increases a company’s reach, trust, and acceptance.
- Drive Sustainable Growth: Value-first marketing usually doesn’t provide quick satisfaction in the form of a consumer purchase, but it does create a strong rapport with them early on, which helps to drive sustainable long-term growth.
Implementing a Value-First Strategy
Numerous considerations must be made when incorporating this strategy with your current marketing plans. But, for this article let’s simplify value-first marketing into four steps.
Step 1: Understand Your Consumer
You are confused about what should and should not be providing for your audience if you do not know what they want. Take a close look at your target audience and what they require to grow and grow before moving forward.
Some subjects you can talk about with your target audience are:
- Goals
- Interests
- Pain points
- Challenges
- Preferred marketing channels
Step 2: Provide Consistent, High-Quality Value
Now it’s time to get creating. After you have an idea of what your audience finds relevant and valuable you have to build it.
This may come in the form of:
- Blogs
- Events
- Videos
- Podcasts
- Downloadables
- Interactive quizzes
- Knowledgebases
- Online communities
Remember that quality, not quantity is what we are considering here. To provide as much value as you can, I don’t suggest trying to complete the entire list above because you will probably end up producing a lot of poor-quality content. Rather choose the channels that are most relevant to your audience (i.e. where they spend the majority of their time) and start with those.
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Step 3: Engage, Engage, and Oh, Engage
No, the process doesn’t end when you click “publish” on any content you produce. You also need to interact with your audience.
Interact with viewers who have taken the time to read, share, or leave comments on your work. This gives your brand a more human feel by showing that you value their feedback and are available.
Step 4: Evaluate and Innovate
In summary, review your goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) and evaluate how your content and advertising affect them. Did your LinkedIn posts perform poorly yet you saw an amazing rise in audience engagement? That indicates that you should either improve or change your LinkedIn strategy.
Value-first marketing should be focused on the areas where your target audience is most likely to receive the greatest amount of you guessed it—value. To do this, use data from all of your marketing channels as well as audience feedback.
Brands That Are Successful with Value-First Marketing
HubSpot
Of course, HubSpot is a go-to brand that offers value to both customers and non-customers. HubSpot is well-known for its large content collection, which includes free courses and certifications, downloadable eBooks, manuals, reports, and blog articles on marketing, technology, sales, and customer service in addition to a whole network of podcasts.
After years of focusing on providing value to the industry, HubSpot has become a household name and a reliable product for any sales, marketing, and customer support organization.
Gong
Gong is a platform that provides revenue information and has gained popularity in the field of content marketing. Gong gave a significant amount of money into creating webinars, blogs, templates, and guides—all aimed at revenue leaders. They also release a podcast called Reveal and a beloved newsletter called The Edge.
Gong has established itself as a reliable resource and thought leader thanks to their priceless assets.
Wistia
You’ve probably heard of the video marketing platform called Wistia. They have created a full learning centre that includes webinars, blogs, reports, and videos, of course. Check out their LinkedIn videos to see how much effort they put into making their marketing entertaining for both customers and non-customers, even as a B2B platform.
By focusing on value, they are making a lasting impression on viewers when it comes to video software.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a popular social media tool that many are familiar with blogs, free courses, webinars, and free tools like hashtags, social media captions, and SEO generators on the Hootsuite marketing website.
Personally, we have included Hootsuite as an option for us in 2024 based on the reports that the company regularly publishes and our team finds to be very helpful. So it has paid off that they gave us value first.
Read More: Read More: Why a Unique Marketing Approach is Essential for Business Growth
Value-First Marketing: Keeping the Consumer in Mind
Dharmesh Shah CTO and co-founder of HubSpot said, ‘Many companies have forgotten they sell to actual people’. Consumers are interested in the complete experience not just the promotion sale, or assistance. In the current day solving problems for people is the only way to succeed.
In simple terms, a value-first approach involves enhancing the client journey rather than just focusing on strategy for marketing. When consumers take their time and compare and research products, trust is becoming increasingly important. Building a relationship with an audience member before they are even ready to buy is achieved by providing value upfront.
When companies adopt this mindset, they not only increase their consumer value but also develop a strong brand that is ready for customer marketing.
