Content marketing has been one of the best ways to attract customers for many years and can be phenomenal if executed correctly. But what exactly is it? Knowing what content marketing is important for you and your business. The Content Marketing Institute found that 70% of content marketers are creating more content than ever before. So there’s no denying that content marketing is important.
It is a marketing technique that involves creating and sharing free valuable, relevant, engaging and consistent content to attract new customers and to convert existing customers into repeat buyers. The type of content you create is closely related to what you sell. In other words, you are educating people on your industry so that they can trust your business and work with you.
Content marketing is all about getting first class content on your site that people will want to link and share with others. So how does content marketing help? If you go back to marketing basics, you’ll remember the four steps in the buying cycle? Content marketing taps into the first two steps of this cycle. By engaging your readers with a topic that is interesting and offering valuable content you are creating awareness of information similar to the services you provide. They are expressing a need by searching your industry, unaware of the solution. Content marketing allows you to be the information source for potential customers, boosting your traffic and your brand awareness.
Using social media has now become essential in building business brands online. Creating and promoting content through social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is a strong and promising way to engage your target audience and promote your business. Social media allows you to create and mould your own community of people within your industry. By using content marketing and sharing your content via different social channels you can generate interest and opinions specific to your sector on platforms other than your website.
Creating content for exciting industries such as travel, food, culture and tourism can be fun and entertaining to write, but what about tricky software or highly technical industries? What about when you have to write about different office chairs? As a digital marketing agency, we know how difficult it can be to make what may seem ‘boring’ into engaging and exciting topics. All however, is not lost!
First off, provide informative content. When consumers search online, they are looking for information and answers. Creating informative content that provides those consumers with answers, is not boring. Whilst the topic itself might not be conventionally exciting, useful information will always be beneficial to your target market.
Remember who your audience are. Think about the topic you’re writing about and think who will be reading it. If your article is aimed towards industry professionals, there’s no need to oversimplify the terms you use. If however, you want to address prospective customers who aren’t familiar with your industry, using highly technical jargon will work against you.
Address specific questions. By addressing specific questions rather than general topics may exclude some viewers but this way your content is much more likely to be read rather than glossed over. This tactic will also serve your results for Google voice search queries that are linked to specific questions. Voice search is predicted to increase rapidly so this is very important.
Creating factual content. Did you know that content marketing is estimated to be 62% cheaper per conversion than standard outbound marketing? Giving your audience figures and facts can help you create content that is interesting for your readers.
Still unsure about what content marketing can do for you? Check out these case studies:
Red Bull - Red Bull run a YouTube Channel that not only creates content but also news. Posting videos about dirt bike scenes, storm canoeing and world records secures Red Bull lots of views, although they are not directly marketing themselves.
BirchBox - Alongside providing monthly beauty boxes, Birchbox produces countless numbers of tutorials and how-to videos on hair and makeup. These tutorials in their site place their products right in front of their customer’s eyes while providing information that their customers are asking for. Instead of a promotion, these tutorials become a solution for potential customers and builds brand awareness to every step.
Virgin Atlantic - Other than flying people all over the world, Virgin Atlantic run a blog on their website offering travel advice. Virgin create posts about places to visit, things to do and must have travel experiences. By creating a blog on their website, they are attracting many customers who love to travel right to their business and their services.
Be inspired be brave, it is essential if you want to stand out in a crowded world.
