If you’re reading this, you likely have some questions about content marketing. What is it? How can it help my brand? Does it actually work?
Content marketing may seem like a relatively new aspect of marketing. But, in reality, it has been around for decades. One of my favorite examples of content marketing comes from, where else, Hollywood.
Think about a movie trailer. A trailer is its own creation. Its own piece of art. The team that cuts and creates a movie’s trailer is typically completely different from the editor and director of the film.
Essentially, a movie trailer is a micro-movie made to drive interest in a movie. It’s a sizzle reel meant to pique your curiosity without giving away too much of the film. The production studio wants you to want to learn more – to go and watch the movie!
That’s what content marketing is. Your marketing team creates content to fill the gap between the questions your target audience is asking and the answers/solutions your product provides. When done correctly, content marketing drives increased interest, and eventually increased sales, for your product/service.
So, keep reading to learn the definition of content marketing, types of content, effectiveness, and tips to improve your content marketing.
The Content Marketing Institute, one of the foremost authorities on the topic, defines content marketing as – “A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience – and ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
But let’s break down this definition even further. There are a few pieces to focus on to understand this kind of marketing better. The first word to key in on is “valuable.” Every piece of content should provide value to a customer or add value to your product/service.
What are your customers searching for? What information would help move your customers along the sales cycle? If you ask and answer questions like these, you’ll be in a great position to create material that proves valuable to your customers and, consequently, your business.
Another part of this definition to note is “relevant.” Everything you create must be relevant to both your product/service and your target audience.
If you’re a massage parlor, you don’t need content talking about the best places to eat in your city. Unless you plan to serve your clients a post-massage snack, this is irrelevant to what you do and what your desired customers are searching for.
The final piece of the definition to pay close attention to is “a clearly defined audience.” As with any part of marketing, it’s vital to define and understand who your customer is and what problems you’re will help them solve. Create detailed customer profiles and always ensure you build your content around these profiles.
Content marketing can be many things. Here are some examples of possible material your company can use to bolster its marketing efforts.
Social media is one of the most prevalent forms of content marketing. Everything you post on social media helps build your company’s audience, craft your brand, and even sell your products or services.
Social media was built to connect us across geographical and physical barriers. Businesses can use this tool to effectively connect to more customers, at a much cheaper price, than possible through traditional media.
An infographic is typically a long vertical graphic that combines statistics, graphs, or other noteworthy information with a visual element. Infographics are great tools to generate social media engagement and garner backlinks from other websites.
Blogs are one of the most utilized but possibly misunderstood content marketing tools. Yes, blogs are an excellent way to boost your inbound marketing efforts. Still, expect bare results if you’re putting in a bare minimum to your blog. A quality blog that significantly assists your marketing efforts takes time, effort, and a planned-out strategy.
If you’re alive in 2022 and don’t know what a podcast is, I’m not going to bother explaining it here. A 2020 survey found 49% of those aged 12 – 32 in the U.S. listened to a podcast within the last month and averaged six listening hours a week.
But you might not understand how you can use a podcast as part of your content marketing strategy. Creating or even simply guesting on a podcast introduces you to another potential audience who may have never even heard of you. Depending on your product or service, a podcast can help you generate sales or other speaking opportunities.
Like podcasts, videos are excellent content marketing tools to help expand your brand and introduce your business to a potential new audience. Still, videos, even more so than podcasts, are an underutilized piece of marketing for many companies. But you don’t have to be Martin Scorsese to produce cheap, good-looking videos to help promote your brand or product/service.
With smartphones and YouTube, it’s easier than ever to make and distribute quality videos. Plus, your customers are likely looking for videos. According to Wyzowl research, 69% of consumers say they prefer to learn about a brand’s product/service through a video.
Initially, a whitepaper was shorthand for an official government report. Today, technology companies use a whitepaper to describe a theory behind new technology. But for marketers, a whitepaper is another tool in your content marketing toolbox. You can use a whitepaper to educate your target audience about a specific product or service.
To make a quality whitepaper, you need to ensure you’re answering a question your customers are actually asking. If nobody wants to learn the answers your whitepaper is providing; it won’t capture any leads. So, make sure you base your whitepaper on a real problem your target audience faces.
You may be confused seeing books on this list. But you don’t have to be a dedicated author to benefit from publishing a book. Like whitepapers, books can be a helpful tool to drive interest in your brand, business, product, or service. Even if you only publish it in PDF form, you can use a book to capture leads and grow your brand.
SponCon, or sponsored content, is material you pay to place. Typically, when people think of SponCon, they think of influencer marketing – advertising through social media influencers. But SponCon can also be a story you paid to place in a magazine.
If you use SponCon, clearly label it as sponsored or paid-for content. Your SponCon could be categorized as deceptive marketing without a proper label.
Content marketing provides your business or brand with several tangible benefits. These advantages include, but aren’t limited to:
One of the top reasons to implement content marketing is to generate more leads. Almost any content marketing tool used above is a great way to generate and capture new leads. According to Profitwell, businesses with blogs get 67% more leads than other companies. Similarly, per CMI, 72% of B2B marketers say content marketing increases the number of leads generated.
Another cause for content marketing is to build a better, more loyal customer base. While brand loyalty is arguably at a nadir, it’s still essential to cultivate loyal, repeat customers. Quality material can keep you top of mind and reminds your customers why they choose your business over your competitors. Per Marketing Insider Group, 47% of buyers view 3-5 pieces of content before buying. Remember, it costs 7x more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.
Like effective advertising, quality content marketing can help introduce you to new customers and boost your sales. Companies using content marketing can expect 6x higher conversion rates. Similarly, 60% of buyers said thought leadership convinced them to purchase a product or service they had never previously considered.
In addition to all these benefits, you can engage in effective content marketing more efficiently and cheaper than most other forms of marketing. Content marketing, on average, costs 62% less to execute versus different types of campaigns. So, per Marketing Insider Group, you can use content marketing to drive 6x more ROI from your marketing while spending 62% less.
Here are my top five tips to improve your content marketing efforts.
I often see material that is either written well OR designed well. You rarely get both. But to maximize the effectiveness of you content, it needs to both look AND sound good.
Don’t focus on crafting world-class visuals if you’re going to put no time into the copy. Conversely, even if you’re the Hemingway of copywriting, you’ll need your content to look good, or it won’t get the clicks it deserves.
As we touched upon at the top, it’s vital your content, in whatever form, adds value to your target audience. Before creating anything, you must decide who your target audience is and determine what questions they ask about your product or service.
Your content must answer these questions and solve their problems to add value. If it doesn’t, your customers will look elsewhere for answers.
This one is important, so read carefully. Content marketing is a long-term strategy, NOT a short-term one. Don’t expect immediate results for most of your content efforts. You should give your campaign six months before expecting any significant results AT THE LEAST.
I fancy myself, like many marketing professionals, a creative fellow. What I like the most about my profession is how I get to be creative. Still, I recognize the data side of marketing is just as important. It’s essential to track the performance of any marketing campaign, including your content marketing.
My final tip is possibly a cliché but is so because it remains true, especially for content marketing. When creating your content focus on quality over quantity! It doesn’t matter what type you’re making. Whether it’s a video or a blog post, it’s far better to have a few pieces of high-quality content than a bunch that’s poor-quality.
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