What Is Content Marketing? And Why Do You Need It?
Everything is content.
Everything is content.
Don’t forget to film it.
Or write it.
Or record it.
If everywhere you turn, you’re seeing some form of content, it’s because Content Marketing is no longer a buzzword.
It’s an important part of how we communicate, work, sell, and even progress in our different endeavors.
Despite the millions of pieces of content published every month, there is still countless people who still don’t know what is content marketing and why it’s necessary for their business.
So let’s clear that up.
What is Content Marketing?
Marketing is an essential part of business. That much we get.
But placing ads in papers, billboards, or sending flyers in the mail are a thing of the past.
To compete, you must market digitally, first.
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach that focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a clearly defined target audience.
From a Digital Marketing sense, this comes in the form of blogs, videos, podcasts, ebooks, infographics, social media posts, and many other forms.
Content marketing aims to provide useful and informative content that educates, entertains, or solves problems for the audience.
This is a crucial point.
If you do it right, the people who consume your content will get to know, like, and eventually trust you or your business.
And it’s that goodwill is what will prompt these people to turn into customers and lifelong advocates of your products or services, ultimately driving profitability for the business.
So yeah, it’s kind of a big deal.
So you’re not necessarily selling but educating, informing, inspiring, motivating, and building goodwill.
You want to provide so much value in your content that when you do ask for the sale, it triggers the Law of Reciprocity; you’ve added so much value that it’s easier to justify spending money on you versus someone else.
One of the earliest examples of content marketing can be found in the Michelin Guide, first published in 1900 by the tire company Michelin. The guide offered useful information to motorists, such as maps, travel tips, and restaurant recommendations.
The goal was to add value in other ways, such as seeing more of the world and engaging in new foods and experiences.
And if you manage to need new wheels before you set out, you’ll probably think of them.
In the digital age, the rise of the internet and social media drastically transformed content marketing. Businesses now had an unprecedented opportunity to create, distribute, and track content with ease.
There’s now unlimited noise, so you have to mix in both content quantity and quality to get noticed and compete.
The Content Marketing Formula
The best Content Marketing has some key ingredients:
1. It Must Provides Value
Sorry, just sending out memes or retweeting current events just won’t cut it. It must offer valuable and relevant content that addresses your audience's needs and interests. It not, then why bother?
2. It Must Help Build Relationships:
You want your audience to look forward to learning and growing with your content. It can foster a sense of loyalty and connection, leading to increased customer retention and advocacy.
3. It Must Be Engaging
Our attention spans are incredibly short. Engaging content captivates the audience's attention, encouraging them to interact, share, and even participate in your content.
4. It Must Establish Brand Authority
Through content marketing, you can show off your expertise and knowledge. So it must be tailored to your brand message and objectives. If you talk about different things in different ways, it confuses your audience. They want to know you for being the best at one thing, so when they spend their hard-earned coins, it will bring maximum value.
5. It Must Drive Conversions and Sales
At the end of the day, Content Marketing is a form of Marketing. So you must use it to lead them down a path to purchasing from you.
So yes, it isn't focused on direct sales pitches, but it does contribute to driving profitable actions for the business.
You’ll be surprised to know that Content Marketing beats out other forms over time like ads and social media.
Make sure it does it’s job, which is to create conversions later.
Types of Content Marketing
There are multiple forms of content that falls in the bucket of Content Marketing. If we look at Content Marketing as a funnel, each type of Content is more effective towards potential customers at different parts of their buying journey.
Of course, everyone who consumes your content will not become buyers. But the content should be good enough to funnel those that may potentially by through that funnel to become a customer.
Here is some common forms of Content Marketing:
Blog posts
Infographics
Videos
Podcasts
Social media content
Newsletters
E-books
Webinars
Whitepapers
Case studies
Testimonials
Social media retargeting ads
If we were to categorize some of these, it will look like this:
Top of the funnel (TOFU).
Building awareness of your brand:
Blogs, videos, infographics, podcasts, social media posts
Middle of the funnel (MOFU).
Helps to evaluate and nurture potential clients/customers.
Newsletters, ebooks, whitepapers, case studies
Bottom of the funnel (BOFU).
Converting the interested to buyers
Webinars, testimonials, ads, etc.
You can focus on one particular type of content or mix and match at different parts of your Content Marketing funnel.
The goal is to eventually do as many forms as possible to appeal to the different ways you ideal customers like to consume content.
Why Do You Need Content Marketing?
Now you know what is content marketing, you’re probably wondering what can it do for you.
Perhaps you already have a business that’s done well without it. You’ve stuck with traditional marketing tactics and those have worked well for you.
All your paid Marketing gets you sales now, but Content Marketing is nuturing your potential clients for sales later. Together, it’s like pouring gasoline on your Marketing.
Here are some other reasons Content Marketing makes sense:
Increased Brand Visibility and Awareness
Content marketing plays a pivotal role in enhancing a brand's visibility and creating awareness among its target audience. Engaging and relevant content encourages users to interact with it, leading to more shares and mentions across various online platforms.
Moreover, content marketing allows brands to establish a presence on different channels such as blogs, social media, and video-sharing platforms. This multi-channel approach ensures that the brand's message reaches a diverse audience, increasing its overall visibility.
Over time, this increased visibility can lead to brand recognition, making it more likely for consumers to choose the brand when making purchase decisions.
Enhanced Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Organic Traffic
One of the most significant advantages of content marketing is its positive impact on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search engines, such as Google, favor websites that consistently produce high-quality and relevant content. When businesses publish valuable content regularly, search engines are more likely to index their pages, leading to higher rankings in search results.
Search engines are where the money resides. If your content ranks, you can gather leads or sales almost on autopilot. The more content, the better.
Blogs and YouTube videos are the best for search engine optimization.
Lead Generation and Customer Acquisition through Valuable Content
Content marketing serves as an effective lead generation tool, allowing businesses to attract potential customers by providing value and addressing their pain points.
By creating content that educates, informs, or entertains, businesses can capture the interest of their target audience and entice them to take further actions, such as subscribing to newsletters or downloading gated content.
How do you get started with Content Marketing?
If you’ve create a blog or social media post, you’re doing Content Marketing. However, you’ll need a long-term strategy to determine success.
Here’s some immediate steps you can take to develop a Content Marketing Strategy
Determine who is your ideal customer by selecting demographics and what kind of content they’re likely to consume.
Come up with some long-term and short-term goals for your content.
Determine what type of content you’ll do at each stage of the customer’s journey.
Determine how you’ll create the content.
Create a calendar and assign the person(s) responsible for creating content.
Have at least 1-2 platforms for distributing the content.
Create and publish the content. Break the content into smaller chunks for other forms of content to be shared on other platforms.
Measure your progress and adjust accordingly. Do more of what works and less of what doesn’t quite stick.
Get going with Content Marketing
Ok, you now have an idea of what is content marketing and you probably notice that it’s more than social media posts.
It’s a constantly growing and evolving field. The goal is to get started and get as many reps in as possible so you see what works.
I recommend a 6 month plan that has at least 1-2 blogs per week. That helps you set a great foundation to branch off to video, podcasting, and other forms of content.
If you need help with content planning or blogging, feel free to . Let’s get your business’ content off the ground!
