A Guide To Understanding Content Marketing

Your customers, leads, and audience members want you to provide them with useful material and the content must be delivered in a way that feels natural and organic rather than being intrusive to the audience. This is where content marketing comes in. It is the process of attracting, engaging and delighting your target markets.

You may achieve just that by focusing on effective content marketing and increasing conversion, brand exposure, revenue, and establishing yourself as an industry leader, among other things. It never hurts to re-evaluate your process and come up with new ways to develop and share the content your audiences desire, whether you are just getting started or rejuvenating an existing one.

Outbound marketing methods (or anything that interrupts your audience) are not as effective as they once were in terms of resonating with and converting them. Today's content must communicate with your target audience in a natural way (in marketing terms, inbound). Making a narrative for your material or presenting a tale is a frequent technique to accomplish this. Your material will feel more genuine, engaging, and personalised to your target audience as a result of doing so.

What Is Content Marketing?

Content Marketing is the process of planning, developing, distributing, sharing, and publishing content via channels such as social media, blogs, websites, podcasts, applications, press releases, and print publications, among others. The goal is to enhance brand exposure, sales, engagement, and loyalty by reaching out to your target demographic.

Marketing with content is not the same as content marketing. It is customer-centric, answering key customer queries and addressing their wants and challenges. Content marketing is the process of continuously publishing relevant information that audiences want to consume in order to reach, engage, and convert new customers. It requires brands acting more like publishers and producing content that attracts visitors to a location you own (e.g your website).

When you peel back the layers of approaches, trends, and possibilities, content marketing is a commercial opportunity. Because it is a tool that can be used to help them grow. We are seeing increasing interest and cash shift to content marketing as the greatest alternative for marketing budgets as organizations struggle to achieve growth in a hard business environment. Because it focuses on providing through leadership, content marketing allows any organization to improve their organic search visibility. Content marketing is becoming more and more connected with customer needs as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and content insights become more important.

What Is Content Marketing

Types of Content Marketing

Blogging, video, podcasting, and other forms of content marketing are just a few examples of content marketing. It can also include in-person product demos, seminars, printed flyers, and phone books. The idea is that the material supports a commercial aim by providing free knowledge or enjoyment.

Social Media

It is simple to see why so many firms invest in social media marketing, given that there are over 3.6 billion social media users worldwide. There are various platforms to work with (for example, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Linkedin, and Snapchat) and several ways to generate and publish content on each of them (e.g photos, live videos, pre-recorded videos, stories).

Infographics

Infographics present facts, statistics, and information in a visually appealing way. Infographics are a wonderful approach to successfully express your material since they combine basic words, concise assertions, and clear imagery. They are great for simplifying a complex or instructional issue so that everyone in the audience can grasp it.

Blog

Blogs are an effective form of inbound content because they provide a great deal of flexibility in terms of aim and topic. You can use a blog to link to other internal and external material and blog entries, add social share buttons and include product information, among other things.

Podcasts

According to a 2020 survey, 49 per cent of 12 to 32-year-olds are listening to a podcast with an average of six hours of listening each week. As a result, a growing number of businesses and media entities have begun to produce and distribute their own podcasts. Podcasts offer a great deal of creativity because they can be about anything. You can also decide on other aspects of the podcast, such as the frequency of episodes, who will be on it, how you will promote it, and how long the episode will be.

Video Promotion

69 per cent of consumers prefer to learn about a brand's product or service through video, according to a study. Video marketing may also help you increase conversions, increase return on investment (ROI), and establish relationships with your audience. You can post your video material on social media sites, landing pages, or on the website of a co-marketer.

Paid advertising may help you reach a large audience and position yourself in all of the places you want to be seen. They are especially useful when used in conjunction with inbound marketing. Paid adverts can be shared in a variety of venues, including social media, landing pages, banners, and sponsored content.

Content Marketing Examples

Content marketing is used by more than 85 per cent of companies. However, only around half of them think they are good at it. Why is this? Because using content marketing exposes you to risk. It allows you to display a side of yourself that your consumers might not see otherwise. You are putting your ideas and thoughts out there and hoping for a response.

The unpleasant reality is that while some content marketing is effective, not all of it is. Below are some of the examples of content marketing that was done correctly.

"Share A Coke" Campaign By Coca-Cola

Coke's "Share A Coke" promotion allowed everyone to customize their favourite beverage. They put the names of the 150 most popular names in Australia on the side of the bottles. And, it drove everybody insane. Coke was the topic of conversation. The campaign took off all around the world. What was the secret to their success? Personalization. Their consumers were made to feel special by Coke and this personal touch is what made content marketing so effective. Coke was not looking at vanity metrics, targeting customers, or analysing internet behaviour. Instead, they focused on the most crucial aspect of a customer's identity: their name. Everyone's favourite subject is, after all, themselves.

According to research, 74 per cent of marketers believe that customization improves customer engagement. However, just 19 per cent of them really uses it. By pushing customers to "share" their product, Coke revolutionized emotional ties. In a nutshell, "Share A Coke" is a viral campaign in a bottle.

The "Share A Coke" campaign showed that it is important to consider your consumers to be humans with feelings just like you. What do you want them to think of you? The importance of personalization and emotional connection cannot be overstated.

"Share A Coke" Campaign

Buffer's Open Blog

Buffer is a social media management tool. It allows you to schedule updates and monitors your social media progress. The magic, though, isn't in their goods. It is all in how they promote it. This is where the "Buffer Open Blog" comes in. Their foundation is transparency, openness, and trust. While it may appear simple, it is genius. They show you not only what they do, but also how you can do it yourself, providing you with tremendous value with each post.

When you read their blog, it is as if you have been given the key to a secret club, where hundreds of people are roaming aimlessly but you know how to get to all the delicious details. They tell the stories that people are interested in hearing. They are solving specific problems for specific people, and they are doing a fantastic job at it. The takeaway from this is to concentrate all of your time and effort on adding value. Customers should be informed and educated. Provide solutions from behind the scenes. How would they know you are amazing if you don't tell them?

Game of Thrones With Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media management application that allows you to control all of your accounts from one location. Not exactly what you would call an interesting topic of discussion but their marketing crew, on the other hand, had a different perspective. And it all began with this incredible viral video (shown below). The HBO series "Game of Social Thrones" was a big success. It accomplished what any marketing campaign should. It elicits strong feelings. It is amusing, topical and makes you want to shout, "Hey, Buddy!" if you are a die-hard fan of the series. And, if you are someone who hasn't seen more than five minutes of the first episode, you will notice that it is an awesome product that cares about its consumers and not just the hard pitch. When it comes to content marketing, have a good time. Educate, but do so in a unique way. Find a fresh and intriguing method to engage your audience.

Game of Thrones With Hootsuite

Microsoft And Stories

The guys at Microsoft know how to tell a good story. And what better place to do it than a blog? Storytelling releases the feel-good hormone oxytocin and if you can get your audience to feel emotion with your story, they will trust you and will buy from you. This is the foundation of the author and entrepreneur Seth Godin's entire marketing theory. You will connect with your audience better if you deliver better stories. The stronger the relationship, the better the connection. If there is one thing to take away from their content marketing strategy it is to be human. It is the one trait you and your customers have in common.

McDonald's Question Time

Have you ever wondered what goes into a beef patty? McDonald's will tell you all you need to know. Through honesty, this content marketing technique is shifting public attitudes. McDonald's Canada chose to take on the task of answering all of its customer's questions. Answering 10,000 customer queries has a way of assisting in the development of solid relationships. McDonald's took a stand in front of the brand and stated the truth. And others admired their openness. "If you have a terrific story to tell, tell it," said Joel Yashinsky, Chief Marketing Officer for McDonald's Canada. "However you must do so in an authentic manner."

This helps to foster faith and trust. You can use this to turn even the worst reputation around. While doing content marketing always provide excellent customer service and engage the customer on their terms and at their level of understanding.

McDonald's Question Time / Content Marketing
McDonald's Question Time

Difference Between Content Marketing And Traditional Marketing

Content and traditional marketing - These are marketing tactics in which businesses develop useful content in order to educate potential customers and entice them to buy. This can be accomplished in a variety of methods, including blogging, postcards, films, quizzes, and email newsletters. Its goal is to offer value to the lives of your potential customers so that they appreciate your existence and become loyal customers. However, though having the same goals, traditional marketing and content marketing have distinct differences.

Traditional MarketingContent Marketing
Interruptive Marketing Technique - Delivered to customers while they are doing something elsePermissive Marketing Technique - Customers have given consent to be marketed
Rented Audience - Traditional marketing strategies are seen by a "rented" audienceEarned Audience - The audience of a content marketing receives something of value to them
One-Sided- Some classic marketing methods such as advertising, do not require an immediate response from the audienceConversation - Content marketing is to initiate a dialogue with your target audience
Static - Campaigns are made public after they have been completed, and the outcomes are analysedHone-able - Gives marketers the ability to fine-tune their initiatives in real-time
More Expensive as compared to content marketingCost less when compared to traditional marketing

Traditional marketing happens when their consumers are watching television, driving, or listening to music and it interrupts their activities. Traditional marketers pay money to other platforms with an existing audience in order to have their message seen by a specific group of people. It includes things like renting billboard space, buying radio airtime, and buying Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisements.

One disadvantage of renting an audience is that once the campaign is over and the hired audience is unable to view your message, you are left with a mob of potential customers. Traditional marketing informs the audience about the goods or services in the hopes that they will be motivated to purchase them.

Some traditional marketing approaches, such as television advertisements and print advertisements, are not possible to be tweaked because it is impossible to update commercials once they have been presented to the public. Research has shown that when comparing traditional and content marketing, it is shown that traditional marketing is more expensive.

Consumers discover content marketing and consume it whenever they want because they have given their consent to be marketed to. This implies that they have control over them and they are your personal audience. The advantage of earning your audience's trust is that it is more effective.

Content marketing is to familiarise your audience with your brand so that they can trust it and finally opt to purchase it. Webinars, in-person events, and other content efforts that inspire dialogue with potential customers are just a few examples.

Content marketing allows marketers to concentrate on the techniques that are effective and ensure that their marketing investments are profitable. Marketers can use analytics programmes to properly allocate their time, money, and energies based on the campaign's effectiveness. Research has shown that when comparing traditional and content marketing, content marketing is 62 per cent less than traditional marketing efforts and generate 3X as many leads.

Conclusion

You can reach your target audience and enhance conversions with smart content marketing. To increase revenue, brand exposure and recognition, and establish relationships with leads and customers, there are various approaches to market using content marketing. Remember to get more value out of every piece of content you produce.

Begin your content marketing by establishing which types of content are most effective for your company and audience, and then create a content strategy based on it.

Reference

What is Content Marketing

Type of Content Marketing

Content Marketing Examples

Difference Between Content Marketing And Traditional Marketing

Content Marketing Example

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Written by Pinky

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