What is Content Marketing?
How many times have you heard about Content Marketing? I believe too many times.
What did you think first when you heard this term? YouTube videos? a Facebook post? a blog post like this one?
Well, you are right, almost anything related with content on the internet is called Content Marketing. However, the term “Content Marketing” is not something new, because it was founded over 300 years back!
People were doing Content Marketing but did not know about the term “content marketing” until it was born in 1996 at a discussion of some journalists and until today this term is one of the most important things in marketing.
Marketing obviously was not like today’s marketing which is almost about technology, it was in a traditional way.
To get you understand better, people back then they were creating posters, banners, flyers, drawings and other similar old marketing types of content to promote their business, work and other things.
Although, one of the most important ways to “promote” content back then, it was storytelling.
Storytelling is anything we know today for every brand, business, traditions, and customs of certain people of the past.
A similar term of today’s marketing world to storytelling, would have been described as “word of mouth”.
What is the Definition of Content Marketing?
According to Wikipedia, Content marketing is a:
“Form of marketing focused on creating, publishing, and distributing content for a targeted audience online.
It is often used by businesses in order to achieve the following goals: attract attention and generate lead, expand their customer base, generate or increase online sales, increase brand awareness or credibility, and engage an online community of users”.
That is very accurate statement, because with content marketing you can achieve everything, from goals like lead generation, brand awareness, expanding your market niche to sales!
The most important thing about Content Marketing is that you can boost your online presence by posting useful content to your followers and remind them who you are, your brand identity!
To get you understand more the definition of Content Marketing just read the below simple example:
Think about what a fisherman usually does to catch a fish step by step.
Apart from the appropriate equipment, the first thing he does is to bait the hook, and then start fishing. In our case the fish is our target market, the hook is our social media or our website and the bait is the content marketing.
The types of Content Marketing
Below I write some types of it, into points
- Blog Posts
- Videos
- Podcasts
- Infographics
- Photos
- E-books
- Whitepapers
- PowerPoint presentations
- Tools
- Courses and Webinars
- Apps
- Social media posts
All of those types that I mentioned are some types of Content Marketing that marketers and many other people use to get organic reach, increase their fans and sales.
Why Content Marketing is Important
Content Marketing is Important and that is generally accepted by everyone.
The reason?
The reason is that anybody should use content for their businesses. With Content Marketing you can see what your fans and followers like and dislike or better what they demand to see from you.
Moreover, the real meaning of posting is not like posting a random photo every week just to say you have uploaded something and that’s it.
This is wrong because you have to post something that gives real value to someone who is going to spend time to read it, even that content is a quote, an infographic, a blog post or anything else.
A tip to upload special and helpful content is to ask yourself some questions about the reason you upload this content and why do you want to upload it, in order to make it more successful and targeted.
Post something unique and valuable or not post at all. This is very important! Content is all about branding, uniqueness, and loyalty. You can’t underestimate the power of Content Marketing.
For example, how many politicians and popular people like footballers change the opinion of people about something by posting a simple tweet of a few words or a single photo?
There are many examples on Social Media that changed the mind of many people just using a bit text and a photo or anything else.
“Content is king” that was said by Bill Gates back in 1996 and until today, it is still very accurate and truthful statement.
Strategy for Content Marketing
1. Strategic Plan
Strategic Plan aims to focus especially on your goals and how to reach them. A plan is always helpful, and it also guides you step by step in order to what to do next.
This infographic plan above we made, can guide you to find out everything about your customers, your targeting and your selling proposition through your Content Marketing.
2. Position you Brand
Build the right impression in your customers’ mindset by positioning your brand properly.
What do I mean with right positioning?
Just ask some questions about your brand and you will find out how you can easily position your brand in the market and specifically to your customers:
- How do other competitors market their brands?
- Who are my customers and their characteristics?
- What is my brand’s unique selling proposition (USP)?
- Which problems does my product solve problems of customers?
- Why choose me instead of choosing a competitor?
3. Create a Unique Selling Proposition
The creation a Unique Selling Proposition is a must for a business or brand to beat other competitors.
But may some of you asking what is a Unique Selling Proposition right?
A Unique Selling Proposition according to Wikipedia is: “unique value proposition in a business model canvas of informing customers about how one’s own brand or product is superior to its competitors”.
So, by having a “USP” can always be a benefit for your brand as you show to your visitors or followers that you offer more or better services and products.
4. Business Care
Showing value to your audience is one of the most important part of a successful things for your “business health” and also great content strategy.
Moreover, to attract new fans, readers and followers, Content Marketing is very helpful and the right marketing channel to achieve it.
At this step, it is great to identify business goals that your agency needs to achieve and think about how your process will bring your business a step closer to them.
Also, It would be nice to consider how many resources and funds do you need to invest in your content marketing strategy? What results can you expect by doing this action?
How to Use Content Marketing to Grow Your Business
This tactic is one of the best practices to gain customers, followers, likes, comments and in general any type of engagement.
Firstly, Content Marketing is all about sharing useful content, tips and other helpful information that anyone can find interesting.
Below I am going to analyze in some points how you can use Content Marketing to grow your business and make it more powerful.
1. You Know your Audience Better.
Anyone who is experienced with Content Marketing can easily agree with that.
This huge “tool” is here to prove everyone what I like the most and what I do not like at all.
Let’s say for example that I own a fast-food restaurant business.
I post a single status on Facebook with a text like “We announce you that by next Monday will have 1+1 offers on each order.” It gets 10 likes.
Then I post a nice photo showing some of the best food of the restaurant with awesome graphics and as a caption I write the same thing. It gets 50 likes.
Which content type won the audience?
Obviously, the photo post!
That’s why I mean Content Marketing proves and tells a lot by its own.
2. Improve your SEO.
That’s another good reason why Content Marketing is excellent marketing channel especially for those who have a website!
Content Marketing can boost your SEO rankings up to the top.
That’s why many people have blogs on their website and write continually new pieces of useful content!
More content means more chances of getting ranked higher on Google search.
3. Content Gives Value to your Business.
I know that I keep saying about content, content, and content continually but that’s not the only point.
Sharing content to your audience should be unique, valuable with your prototype design and colors.
Also, apart from unique and helpful content, you should aim to share content that your audience really want to see from you to engage and heal their “pain points”.
So, your content should give value to users in order to build brand awareness and trust.
In conclusion, in this blog post I talked about the definition of Content Marketing and some of its types. Also, the importance of it, the strategy and how to use it properly to grow your business. Content Marketing, in my opinion, is a very powerful channel and anyone should use it wisely and correctly to become successful.