Mostly when we hear content marketing, we think about Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and viral YouTube videos.
But, do you know? Content marketing has been around, far longer than the digital era.
How?
Content marketing is just like storytelling, and humans have told stories when they start speaking. We are always attracted to great storytellers and building the content marketing strategies around such exciting stories is behind the success of a marketing message.
In 1982, Marvel and Hasbro collaborated to launch their comic book series with a simple marketing strategy.
So, what happened next?
Twenty percent of their target audience between the ages of 5 and 12 had atlest 2 or more G.I. Joe toys purchased 2 months of releasing their first comic series. And at that point of time there were only 2 stories in their comic book.
After 7 years, that series was one of the Marvel’s most popular one, and 2 out of 3 boys owned at least 1 G.I. Joe action toy.
Isn’t it a cool idea to use your content as a part in marketing your product?
A lot has changed since then, as what worked back in the eighties won’t necessarily work today. However, with the new marketing channels, the opportunity to create exciting content marketing ideas is standing right outside your door.
So, let’s take a look at what I will cover in complete content marketing strategy guide.
Definition of Content Marketing
According to Content Marketing Institute, it is defined 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.
The above definition shows that content marketing is a long-term technique that aims to build a strong relationship with your target customer by consistently providing them high-quality content.
So, when customers make a purchase, their loyalty is already with you because they prefer to buy your product over competitors.
Today, everyone wants to feel like you care about them, which happens in content marketing.
The world is noisier and louder than ever before, and getting people’s attention is your priority.
Table of Contents
Importance of content marketing
- It educates your prospects and leads about the services and products you offer.
- Content marketing helps boost conversions.
- It helps to build relationships between your business and customers that result in increased trust and loyalty.
- You can show your target audience how your services and products can solve their problems with content marketing.
- It also helps to create a community for your brand.
Now let’s dive in further to explore the various types of content marketing.
Types of Content Marketing
You can choose many types of content marketing to incorporate in your business strategy — let me share some of the most common:
Social Media
There are over 3.6 billion social media users across the globe; that’s why so many businesses invest in Social Media marketing.
There are several social media platforms such as
- Snapchat
You can work with these social media to create engaging and sharable content that ads value to your marketing messages.
Example:
Infographics
Infographics display data, information, and text in an easy-to-understand, graphical format.
Infographics is an important way to communicate because they contain;
- A mix of textual messages.
- Clear Images
- Short statements with numbers.
Infographics work well if you’re trying to distill down a complex and educational topic.
Example:
Blog Content Marketing
Blogs are a powerful type of content, as it allows you bring a lot of creativity in terms of the topics selection and purpose. With the use of blogs as content marketing specialist, you can explore different blog post ideas to increase organic traffic to your website.
Sharing blog posts, can promote your site articles brings unique set of benefts. You can add social share buttons and product information within your blog posts.
Example:
Podcast
A survey conducted in 2020 shows that 49% of 12-32-year olds had listened to a podcast within one month, with an average of 6 hours a week in the United States.
This is one main reason why many businesses and media industries have begun producing and sharing their podcasts. As additional benefit, you can always publish transcribed podcast to your blog with audio link, helping you to bring some organic visitors through online search traffic.
There’s always room for creativity when it comes to Podcasts, as they can cover any topic of your choice.
Example:
Videos
Research by Wyzowl shows that 69% of customers prefer to learn about a brand’s service or product through video.
According to the content marketing specialists, the following are the benefits of video content:
- People like to watch videos as compared to reading text content.
- Videos are easier to rank, on organic searches.
- High conversion rates and improves ROI.
- Video marketing helps you to build long-term relationships with the target audience.
You may choose to share your videos on landing pages, social media platforms, or other websites.
Example:
Video content of Dollar Shave Club has gone viral because its marketing efforts are entertaining and humorous, brining good brand engagement among audiences.
Interestingly, one of their videos crossed 27 million views on YouTube.
How did it happen?
It happened because they established their brand name through engaging video content marketing.
Over the years, Dollar Shave Club has experienced impressive brand recognition and exponential growth.
Paid Ads
Another type of content marketing is “Paid ads.”
They can help you reach a big audience to position yourself in all places you want to be seen — paid ads are more beneficial when mixed with inbound marketing.
You can share paid ads on many places, including;
- Social media
- Landing pages
- Banners
- Sponsored content
Example:
How to start content marketing?
Content marketing can feel overwhelming, so a successful content marketing campaign should be sustainable. These steps will help you to get started:
- Identify your target audience. You need to have a clear idea of the target reader’s choices, problems, and preferences.
- Choose the right formats. A suitable format, such as a video or a checklist, will best help you showcase value.
- Writer, editor, and proofreader of your copy. An audience will judge the quality of your content. Identify the right resource to create your text. Better to hire a professional proofreader before it goes out the door.
- How you’ll distribute the content? Will you email the content to people or post it on your website? For instance, a checklist can be shared via social platforms, while an article can be shared via email.
- Set a schedule. You can make a CM plan that’s overly ambitious, but don’t follow it; it’s useless. Instead, once you know the formats and target audience, craft a short-term (3 months) plan based on your budget. Keep a record of how long it takes you to create one article so that you can build that time into your schedule.
- Best practices to follow. Compelling content is clearly written, should also include how-to advice.
Bottom Line
With effective content marketing, you can grow your business or brand awareness, reach your target audience, and boost sales.
As you go through the content marketing process, the useful strategy is to set your goals, a plan, and have a way to measure your targets.
Content marketing not only helps you to boost revenue but also builds relationships with your customers.
If you ask me one piece of advice, I would say, never forget to extract more value from every piece of text you produce.
To get started, determine which type of content works best for your brand and target audience. Then always go ahead with a content marketing strategy to begin boosting your bottom line today.
What is your favorite type of content marketing, and why? Let us know in the comments section.
