Content is what your customers are looking for – on social media platforms, search engines, and the internet. So, it is important to create content that is organic, valuable, authentic, and of use to current and potential customers.
Without the right content, none of the digital marketing or content marketing will ever take place. For instance, if you want to run an ad, you won’t just run it without text, images or graphics. The same goes for other mediums too. In order to reach, connect, engage the audience, all you need is quality content.
Creating content is one thing, making it reach the right audience is another. This is done through content marketing. In simple words, content marketing means to market your ideas to the target audience with an aim to generate sales, widen the customer base, and delighting the target market.
Once you hone the content marketing skills, you will be able to achieve all the objectives mentioned above.
Allow me to tell you that content marketing is for all. Whether you are about to start or you are already running the business online, it is something that goes on and requires revision from time to time. Trust me, it would never hurt you to re-assess your progress and come with novel ways to create and share the content.
In this blog, I will take you through the basics of the content marketing, its definition, types, and strategies.
So, let’s get started.
What is Content Marketing?
Placing your content, be it in any form – Text, images, graphics, tabular data, GIF’s, forms, etc., out on digital media platforms is referred to as content marketing.
This is only useful for the inbound marketing because outbound marketing strategies aren’t as effective as the former one.
The reason is that your audience does not need forced content. They need to feel natural or inbound with the content they receive on daily basis.
Its Definition
Content marketing is the process that includes planning, creating, distributing, sharing, and publishing content through channels such as social media, websites, podcasts, blogs, apps, press releases, etc. The aim is to reach the target audience, increase brand awareness, sales, enhance engagement, and develop loyalty.
Its Importance
As much as creating content is important. Marketing it on different channels is equally vital otherwise what would you do with the content if not market it to the right audience?
Creating a content and not posting it anywhere is never going to give any returns. So, marketing the content is the next crucial step to taking your business to new heights. Now, let us see why is it important. What benefits content marketing can bring to the business.
Content marketing is important because, it helps in:
- Educating the leads and prospects about your products and services
- Enhances conversions
- Builds long-term relationships between your customers and business
- Builds brand awareness
- Informs about the recent updates and shows how your products and services solve their problems
Types of Content Marketing
There are different platforms where you can market your products and services. Let’s see what are those:
Social Media Content Marketing
This marketing is done using platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Pinterest. This marketing is being used by businesses of all sorts (small-scale, and large-scale) around the globe. This is being used widely because today the audience for almost all sorts of niches is there online. They search for solutions to their problems online.
Moreover, this data suggests that there are over 3.6 billion global social media users. Considering the figures, businesses invest in social media marketing.
Through this marketing, one can share content through videos, stories, chats, etc.
Infographic Content Marketing
Infographics mean to display content in an easy-to-understand format i.e., In the form of graphics. With the combination of simple words, short sentences, images, and infographics, one can market the content effectively. This marketing works really well especially if you are trying to simplify any complex topic so that your audience can understand it. This type of marketing also attracts more audience as unlike reading lengthy pages, these does not require a lot of efforts.
Blog Content Marketing
Marketing the content through well-written blogs is another powerful form of marketing. It allows businesses to be creative in terms of purpose and topics. Through a blog, you can promote internal and external content by links, sharing buttons, and incorporating the third-party links, data (stats and figures). Blogs are one of the most widely used form of inbound content marketing.
Podcast Content Marketing
This type of marketing has emerged quite recently and the stats show a happy figure. Let us see:
As per 2020 survey, around 49% of 12-to-32-year-olds in the U.S. had listened to podcasts in the last month. This is the reason many businesses have taken to creating and sharing content through their own podcast channels.
This medium allows you to be creative in number of ways. For instance, you can either be a solo podcaster and speak about your products, services, and experiences. Or you can even conduct interviews and create it like a talk show. Take the topic that would attract the audience and give it a different angel.
Additionally, you also get to determine other factors like episodes, the host, length of the episodes, and so on.
Video Content Marketing
I believe that not everyone is a reader and neither can readers be made in a day. So, what would you create for such audiences? Videos! As per the research by Wyzowl, around 69% of consumers say that they prefer watching a video than reading about a product or a service. This is from the audience that the businesses tend to target.
Additionally, if we count the benefits from the business point of view, the video content marketing boosts conversions, improves ROI, and helps in building long-term relationships. The video content can also be shared on the social media platforms, landing pages, and the websites.
To be able to create engaging content for all the above mediums, it is vital to plan and make a strategy.
Content Marketing Strategy that Works
Having a plan and working accordingly is necessary. Needless to say, if you will create content blindly without knowing who your customers are, the content will go in vain. The same goes for content marketing. If you do not know at what time, where, and how to market the product, marketing will not work.
So before starting anything, it is important to create a plan and then work accordingly. In case you forget a point or go astray, at least you will have a strategy to look back to.
So, let us see the steps you would want to know to build a strong content marketing strategy.
Set a Benchmark
This is the first part of the content marketing strategy. Without defined goals and aims you will neither be able to write content nor will be able to market that. Setting goals will help in improving brand awareness, boosting revenue, increasing conversions, improving brand loyalty, increasing customer engagement, building rapport, trusting prospects, and attracting strategic partners.
Determine the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
KPIs are quantifiable data points that you can use to measure actual performance against your objective.
Decide the Content Type
This can be done by first looking at your target audience. See who are you going to target and then create content around it. Ask yourself the following questions before delving right into creating content:
- What is your audience looking for?
- What problems are they facing?
- Why should they use your product and service?
- How can your product help them alleviate their issues?
Decide the Channel
Next step after creating content is to look for the channels you would like to publish your content. See what better suits you. Decide according to the presence of your target audience. For instance, if your customers are on Facebook, posting the content on snapchat or elsewhere will just be a waste of time, energy, and money.
Set Your Budget
Think about the channels you are about to market the content for. Then, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you need any software to create content
- you need content marketers, writers, and designers
- Do you need to pay for ad space and so on.
Conclusion
The aim of content writing, to marketing is to engage the audience. With right content marketing, you can reach your target audience and enhance conversions. The idea is to extract value from every piece of content you create.
The whole process right from the scratch takes time. Businesses are suggested to outsource the work to the best content marketing agencies. You can reach out to the Big Unit, the best agency in Australia and leverage from its premium services, all in budget-friendly prices.
