Content marketing is the love doctor your brand needs.

The candles are lit, the wine is poured, and the boeuf bourguignon is slowly cooking while its savory scent fills the air. Ah, yes, a perfect night. And then the phone rings. You pick up and hear, “I’m sorry, I don’t think this will work out. Word on the street is that you’re not good enough for me.”

Word of mouth can be quite the aphrodisiac when connecting a brand to its customers. However, it can also be a mood killer and deliver not-so-welcome results. All it takes is one negative review, regardless if it has merit or not, to steer people away from your brand. It can be hard to get into the conversation when many rely on opinions from everybody but the brand. I have been steered away from products due to a friend’s recommendation only to later find out that they were actually the right fit for me.

The good news is that content marketing, a hot trend for the past few years, has become the love doctor that can help create an eternal bond between brand and customer. Let us start by understanding what content marketing is, as defined in this excerpt from the Content Marketing Institute’s website: “Content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behavior. It is an ongoing process that is best integrated into your overall marketing strategy, and it focuses on owning media, not renting it. Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling.” – Content Marketing Institute

So here are three things Dr. Content Marketing can offer to help repair your love.

Trust.

Trust is the foundation of a great romance. It is why word of mouth is so powerful, because it comes from a reliable source. Content marketing can create that trust by providing valuable content that positions your brand as a dependable thought leader. For example, if you were a shoe brand, instead of flooding your inbound channels with sales-type messages, share information like “10 Tips to Take Care of Your Shoes,” “How to Match Shoes to Your Outfit,” “Different Types of Shoe Fashions for Different Occasions,” and so on. This is valuable information to any shoe aficionado, and it will position your brand as a trusted source.

Value.

There must be a “physical attraction” that gets the butterflies going in a customer’s stomach. You must understand your date (i.e., your audience) and deliver valuable content that really enhances their experience. Doing so allows content marketing to be a crucial component in the overall customer experience. For example, Callaway , a maker of golf equipment, offers videos that help golfers become better. What golfer wouldn’t be interested in improving his or her game? Callaway enhances the experience of being a golfer by delivering content that really hits home with its audience. By providing that value, a brand can begin to dance the tango with potential and current customers.

Time.

Infatuation is not a great ingredient for a long-term relationship. You must take the time to slowly build that connection, and content marketing, by nature, slowly builds that connection over time by continuously delivering value to potential and current customers. Done correctly with marketing automation, it can even provide that sneak peak of a brand’s inner soul to then deliver personalized content to customers that will show them how much you, as a brand, care. And, ultimately, they will appreciate you.

Using this relationship advice, content marketing can help create the trust needed to own the conversation with your potential and current customers. It can amend the separation that has taken place with the rise and power of “word of mouth.” However, it’s important to remember that content marketing isn’t competitor to “word of mouth.” Rather, it’s simply a way to get your brand in the conversation. And as a way to create that everlasting love. ♥