Have you, for once, thought about what influenced your buying decision the last time you paid for a product or service online?
How about that intriguing and attention-grabbing post that won’t stop showing in your Instagram feed until you feel compelled to take action?
Perhaps you may have searched for a solution for a specific problem and saw that brand that won’t just give up your attention.
You saw that they addressed a pain point, and they seemed to care much about the problem or challenge you might be facing. They even gave bread crumbs but somehow left you hanging and wanting more.
If one or more of those resonate with you, then it’s likely that you have been exposed to “content marketing.”
Successful companies or brands don’t just sell products or services. They speak to your emotions, demonstrate expertise, and gain your trust by creating and distributing content that is relevant, value-driven, and captivating to elicit a reaction from you.
They do this with a terminology known as content marketing—a subtle marketing approach that does not scream the words “I am here to sell.”
Content marketing is what companies or brands use to get your attention or advertise themselves so that you can be aware of what they are offering.
But the creation of content alone is not marketing; there has to be a combination of content and strategy. That is a content-plus strategy for proper marketing to take effect.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a form of marketing that involves the use of content to market a business.
Businesses create content and then promote their business by promoting the content to their target audience.
This is done to address a specific need or provide a solution for a specific problem.
Examples of content formats include: videos, blog posts, podcasts, newsletters, ebooks, online courses etc.
Why Content Marketing?
It Creates Awareness
Content marketing creates awareness. Therefore, the level of attention that a brand or business gets influences its bottom line.
No matter what amount of value a business provides, if they are not known or seen, that business will suffer, and that is why it is not just enough to create content, the content has to reach its target audience.
Content marketing employs various ways to give visibility to already existing brands. These include the various formats of content that can be created (blog posts, videos, infographics. etc.) and distributed which we will later discuss in this post.
It Helps Build Trust
When businesses prioritize quality content, trust comes easily from prospective customers.
Quality and valuable content also position a brand as an authority and customers tend to have faith in businesses that are considered reliable and knowledgeable in their industry.
Great content relates with its audience by fostering emotional connection, and humans want to feel heard and understood. If content addresses any of these, then it is easy for a brand to be trusted.
It Saves Cost
One great piece of content can generate leads that will ultimately drive sales for months or even years when compared to running PPC Ads (pay-per-click).
With content marketing, the ROI (Return on investment is long-term. One great content can generate leads for months or even years when compared to traditional advertising which stops the moment the ads stop running.
Although the initial cost of creating and distributing content may be relatively expensive, over time, valuable content can get organic reach.
One blog post that is optimized for SEO and laced with value can generate income and traffic for years with no additional cost.
Content marketing would generate more leads than traditional advertising like outbound marketing that employs a more direct approach to selling.
How to Do Content Marketing
Set a Realistic Goal
Writing blog content or social media posts or creating videos without a clearly defined goal will lead to nowhere.
First, ask yourself what you are trying to achieve with your content. Is it engagements, following, or lead generation?
This will help you come up with the right content and strategy. For example, if your target audience depends on Google searches for results, then a blog post might be the right type of content for your content marketing strategy.
Define Your Audience
Understanding key demographics of your target audience, such as age, gender, social class, interests, pain points, or even their motivation, will help you tailor your content in ways that best suit their needs.
Apple is a successful brand that has a clearly defined audience, which helps in its marketing and brand identity.
You too can define your audience by researching your niche and the market in general. What social media platform does your target audience spend most of their time on, what are their interests, and what is their social status?
Use Fewer Platforms when You are just Getting Started
One of the mistakes beginners make is trying to be on every platform or social media channel when they are just starting.
The need to build authority is understandable, but it is important to utilize one or no more than two social media platforms at the start.
Resisting the urge to promote content across all social media platforms slows focus and productivity.
Rather, you should find a platform that suits your business needs and focus on it. You could choose two platforms, which would allow you to thrive consistently while you show up more for your audience.
The topic of your content determines what platform to choose.
If you are in the business of web design, where video tutorials are effective for easy learning and retention, TikTok may not be the ideal platform to promote content.
The same goes for a recipe brand, where the ideal platform will be YouTube.
YouTube as an e-learning platform offers a wide repository of educational content, which comes at no cost.
As a platform that engages learners, it is more suitable for serious learners with a high attention span than TikTok, where its users are more likely to swipe on multiple posts in a short time.
However, TikTok may be a suitable platform for fashion brands that target young people.
Your Content Should be Value-Driven
No matter what type of content you are promoting, if it doesn’t come with a value pack, your marketing effort will yield little or no results.
What is this value that people talk about? Value is the solution you provide for a specific problem. But value encompasses many things.
Value could be how you relay your message, your unique selling point, how easy it is for your content to be understood (for online tutors), the price of your service in comparison to what your competitors are offering, etc.
Structure Content Around Keywords Prospects Might be Searching.
Content marketing thrives on visibility, and since the goal is to be seen, an important thing to consider when creating content is to research relevant and profitable keywords in your niche and then frame your content around those keywords.
This technique increases the chances of your content ranking in search result pages (SERPs), in the sense that whenever prospective clients search for keywords that are related to the solution you provide, your content can rank for those search terms.
A free resource like Google Trends (a keyword research tool) provides insight into what niches or topics have a high search volume.
To get advanced results, you may opt for paid tools like Ahrefs or Ubersuggest. These tools show how difficult or easy it is for a keyword to rank in search results pages.
Prioritize Quality over Quantity
Prioritize quality over quantity. A thousand mediocre pieces of content stand no chance against one quality of content.
It is easy to feel that you need more content since you’re just starting, but speed does not beat value and results in content marketing.
One quality content can distinguish your brand, thereby giving you more long-term relevance, trust, visibility, and customer loyalty than numerous low-quality types of content.
Use Storytelling and Brand Narrative
Integrate storytelling in your content to build connections because people can remember how you made them feel rather than what you said.
Humans are emotional and want to feel seen and heard. It is not enough to create content. If you can, share success stories that the use of your product or services influenced.
You can also narrate how you started your journey, the roadblocks, and your vision.
An example of storytelling incorporated into brand advertising is: I started this business when I struggled with my rent. At that time, I could barely afford reliable health care. But now, the business has grown so much that we closed a $100,000 deal in less than one week.
I hope you found this post helpful?