What Is Content Marketing

Traditional marketing is quickly becoming obsolete. Gone are the days when the only way to reach your audience was through billboards, flyers, magazine spreads, and newspaper ads. Not to mention that there’s no guarantee that the people who see your ads are interested in your products.

Enter content marketing. A new dawn in advertising where brands get value for their money.

Companies want to see that their ads are reaching their intended audience. They want to see it make a tangible difference to their bottom line.

But what is content marketing anyway? Does your company need it? Here’s everything you need to know about it.

What Is Content Marketing – A Brief Overview

Traditional marketing methods are interruptive. They involve plastering ads in front of people and hoping that those who are interested take action. Those who are not, simply ignore them and go on about their business. Talk about a wasted effort. Not forgetting the fact that billboard ads aren’t exactly cheap either.

Content marketing takes an entirely different approach. It involves creating interesting and captivating content to draw your audience in, entertain them, educate them, and nurture a relationship between them and your brand. It’s about giving your target customers (and existing ones too) more value to keep them coming back for more.

Content marketing takes several approaches. The most popular ones include blogs, articles, newsletters, videos, podcasts, infographics, quizzes, and emails. Unlike traditional advertising that shoves products and services down the throats of prospective consumers – in a somewhat intrusive way, one might add – content marketing takes a different approach. It is more permissive. It gives customers the freedom to seek out and consume your content any time they want.

That way, you can be certain that every person who takes the time to read your blogs or watch your videos is genuinely interested in what you have to say.

Types of Content Marketing

Content marketing comes in several different forms. Choosing one over the other ultimately boils down to who your target audience is and whether or not they are online. Suffice it to say that if you’re selling retirement homes to retired seniors above the age of 60, content marketing may not get you the traction you need.

But, if your target audience and potential customers fall in the 28-38 age-bracket, content marketing can be a powerful tool to reach your intended audience.

With that being said, here are the most popular options for businesses looking to increase their online presence.

Social Media Content Marketing

SEO Copywriting

If you’re looking for an effective way to reach your target audience and boost traffic to your website, SEO copywriting is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal for inbound marketing.

Depending on the goal of the blog content you’re creating, it’s a great way to promote and educate your customers on the products and services you’re bringing to the table.

Email Marketing

Email marketing remains one of the most effective content marketing techniques, particularly for businesses looking to build a subscriber base. A whopping 94% of B2B marketing campaigns have email marketing as the backbone of their strategy.

It keeps your subscribers engaged and is a great way to enhance your business’ relationship with new, existing, and previous customers, to promote brand loyalty and repeat business.

What to Look for in the Best Email Marketing Tools

Any effective email marketing strategy needs the right set of tools to make an impact. To do this, you need to know what to look for.

For one, it should have an easy-to-use interface that allows you to create highly captivating and engaging newsletters. You want one that has a drag-and-drop capability.

It should also support marketing automation. This means that it needs to be capable of sending highly-personalized bulk emails to your subscriber-base without too much effort.

Additionally, you should be able to manage your contacts pretty easily using the tool and segment your subscribers into different categories. This makes it easier to track how your email marketing campaigns are performing.

Above all, the right tool will make sure that your emails don’t all end up in the spam folder of your subscribers’ emails!

Content Marketing Strategy – How to Develop the Best One

A content marketing strategy is the portion of your plan that focuses on the creation, delivery, and management of the content you produce for your brand. Some of the things you need to keep in mind when developing a strategy include identifying:

• Who your target audience is
• What problem your product or service is looking to solve
• What sets you apart from the competition
• Which content formats you’ll use to get your message across
• What channels you intend to get it published on
• How you’ll create, manage, and publish your content

A solid strategy makes sure that your content always remains useful, usable, relevant, well-structured, and findable in the different platforms you post it on.

Use Content Marketing Services to Tell Your Story

Everyone loves a good story, especially if it resonates with them. It creates a lasting impression that transcends the realms of human reason to create connections that are built to stand the test of time. Content marketing is how you tell your brand’s story.

It’s a great tool for connecting with your audience on a personal level and keeping them engaged. The best part about it is – anyone can use it to their advantage to propel their narrative.

Are you ready to tell your brand’s story? Get in touch with content marketing services experts to help your brand connect with its customers and inspire them on a deeper level.