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Content is King! I’m sure we’ve all heard this phrase. But what is Content Marketing?

A match made in heaven for any business. 

Entering into the marketing world can seem a bit daunting. Especially with the many varieties of marketing on offer. If you’re already in this world, I’m sure you’ll be familiar with these.

What about digital marketing? What is digital marketing? Social media marketing, search engine marketing, Digital mktg?! That’s a thing? Ah… Digital marketing. Influencer marketing, guerilla marketing… The list goes on. 

So what is content marketing? We’re here to help clarify and define. Whether you want to know more about a service before hiring, or to take it on yourself. 

We’ll go over what it is, how it works, why it’s important and the different types.

What is Content Marketing?

Content Marketing Definition:

It’s a type of marketing that involves the creation and strategic distribution of online material. These could be blog posts, ebooks, videos etc. 

Essentially, it can be a variety of digital content to provide information to your audience and is an essential part of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). 

Better SEO’s mean the Google gods or whichever engine you’ve focused on, will look down on you more favourably, giving you a better ranking in search engines.

Why is it important?

Content marketing has many creative and low cost strategies available. Not only that, but there are some impressive ROIs, making it a no-brainer. As we’ve just mentioned…

• SEOs
  Want to be the top result on the web? Ehem, or, to be more professional, SERPs (Search Engine Results Page). You’ll need to be slick with SEO. Search Engines will favour certain websites and content. This is if they have good SEO. In short, being first page SERPs and being favourable equals more leads.
• Brand Awareness & Trust
  Being present and offering valuable, relevant content for your customers is essential. Once customers know and recognise a brand, there’s a higher chance they’ll buy. By offering information and presence, familiarity and trust will grow.
• Cost Effective
  With content marketing, you’re avoiding the steep costs of traditional advertising. You can either do this yourself, or there are many affordable services available who will do this for you. Generally, still working out cheaper than traditional advertising.
• Lead Generation and Conversion
  By having high quality, interesting content distributed, you’ll have a higher lead generation and conversion. Content can attract people at different stages of the marketing funnel.

How Does Content Marketing Work?

1. Planning & Research Phase
   It’s time to put a strategy in place. This is where the important questions will be asked.
   
   Who’s your ideal avatar? What type or types of content marketing are you going to use? What are your goals and KPIs for each campaign? Do you need a calendar and planner? What are your buyer’s needs and behaviours online? Do you know your relevant keywords? Will you do it yourself, or will you hire someone?
2. Create & Disperse!
   Time for the fun part! Get creating.
   
   Relevant and Engaging:
   Using your research, you can create content that’s relevant and interesting for your target audience. Overtime, this will draw in the customers you are looking for.
   
   SEO:
   Use those keywords! Yes, even on social media, keywords are essential. This means you’ll show up for the right search terms, matching you to your target audience.
   
   Get it out there:
   Now your content is ready, it’s time to distribute it through the relevant channels. A lot of material can be repurposed, make the most of it by ensuring you’re using all streams that your active users will hang out.
3. Performance and Analysis
   
   Gathering the stats:
   This is where we’ll get the good stuff. You’d hope! Metrics and statistics will be tracked to get a gauge on the performance of the content. For example, traffic from social media, the type of demographic it’s reaching etc.
   
   Analysis & evaluation:
   From the statistics, you’ll then be able to see which content is performing well and which content may need some adjustment. This is the perfect time to try out different things and tweak as needed.
   
   Come back stronger:
   It’s time to refine your strategy and hone in on what you’ve found works, adjusting this continually for consistent improvement. 

The Buyer Journey

Content Marketing works very neatly with a buyer’s journey. Here, we detail the 3 stages of someone deciding to buy something.

1. Awareness
   The buyer realizes they have a problem or need. They will then begin to research for a service or product that will fulfil this need. This is where they will come across your service or content, along with competitors.
2. Consideration
   After gathering various different offers, the buyer will then take into consideration which one best suits their needs. They may need more information to decide.
3. Decision
   They’ve now arrived at the final stage. With all the information and options, an informed decision will be made as to which service is best for them.

Content Marketing plays into all of these 3 stages. By creating a valuable and well-thought-out content marketing strategy, you’ll begin to generate and close leads.

Types of Content Marketing

So, now you know what and why. Let’s have a look at the many types of Content Marketing available.

Blogs

Blogs are one of the top content marketing strategies. It’s easy to understand the appeal, with a worthy ROI adding the icing on top.

Highlights

• Building a community & trust: Your customers won’t get bored with information they WANT to know about. Once you have someone interested and engaged, you’re one step closer to receiving profitable customer action. It also answers a lot of FAQs, so you’re inadvertently improving your customer service as well!
• SEO go getter: Blogs are a fantastic way to boost your SEO’s, also while drawing in new customers coming from different angles.
• Generate more leads: With an uptake in traffic coming to your site from blogs, you can then generate leads. Customers will feel safer using your services or products when they have more information on you and your knowledge. 

Infographics

Infographics are a visual representation of information. This could vary from charts, to text etc. It’s a way to understand information quickly at a glance. 

Highlights

• Effortless Engagement: By making something easy and attractive to read, it boosts how engaged your audience is. Higher engagement means higher interest in your content and brand.
• Improved SEO: With full engagement comes better SEO results. SEO favours the customer experience, so if you’re making your content interesting and engaging, Search Engines will favour you for it. See how it all links in together?
• More Backlinks and exposure: By having interesting and useful information, the chances of other blogs and people referring back to your infographics will increase. This boosts your SEO ranking as it builds authority. People are more likely to share your infographics, if they are useful and engaging. That translates to free advertisement and exposure!

Podcasts

Firstly, who doesn’t love a podcast? Since it’s gained popularity, it’s not come down and looks like it’s here to stay.

Highlights

• Boost Organic Traffic: If you make a podcast good enough to build a fan base or even pique interest, you’re guaranteed to have a boost in organic traffic coming to your business.
• SEO Keyword Goldmine: By including a transcript or show notes with your podcast on your website, you’ll have a whole bazaar of keywords for a search engine to rake through. That’s why it’s helpful to centre episodes on areas you’re trying to rank for. Podcasts also show up on SERPs for relevant terms and keywords.
• Loyal Audiences: People love to talk. That’s why if you have a great podcast with a loyal audience, they’ll become brand advocates, recommending it to their friends and family. This is fantastic for brand awareness and trust. It can also move people through the marketing funnel towards a future sale.

Loyal Audiences: People love to talk. That’s why if you have a great podcast with a loyal audience, they’ll become brand advocates without realising, recommending it to their friends and family. This is fantastic for brand awareness and trust, also moving people through the marketing funnel towards a future sale.

Videos

Videos are a dynamic and magnetic way to market. With such a diverse use, it’s hard to find a drawback. They can be used in various formats such as Live videos, Showcase videos, Tutorials etc.

Highlights

• Direct Sales: A great video can persuade a customer to buy straight away. If not, it can plant the seed for future sales.
• Awareness: By creating videos that are informational, educational or even commercial, it means you are creating exposure to your brand in a memorable way.
• Enhanced Engagement: Videos are much more engaging and attention grabbing compared to static text and infographics. Social media reels are an excellent example of this.

Email Marketing

This type of marketing is still as relevant as ever. These campaigns are super flexible and can be tailored to difference target audiences.

Highlights

• High ROI: As of last year, according to HubSpot: ‘email ROI is an impressive $36 for every $1 spent’. I’d have to say that’s hard to compete with. 
• Boost Sales: Through this medium of marketing, you can personalise. In addition,direct offers, such as exclusive discounts, personal product recommendations etc can close the sale.
• Builds relationships & trust: By having direct contact with your customers, you can:
  1 – Tell them your story and who you are (building trust).
  2 – Update them on news (building trust and familiarity).
  3 – Send personalised content (increased engagement).

Ebooks

Much like podcasts, Ebooks are another tool to get your brand out there and offer something for potential customers.

Highlights

• Builds authority and credibility: By writing eBooks relevant to your industry/your services, you can show off how much of an expert you are. Furthermore this establishes a brand as knowledgeable but also as authoritative. Also authority also boosts your SEOs.
• Increases Traffic: By raising awareness of your brand, you can draw in new traffic from audiences who’ve read your eBooks.
• Trade for a Trade: Ebooks work beautifully for trade-offs. A lot of businesses will offer free ebooks in return for an email marketing subscription. Or, perhaps contact information to use for further marketing.

Round Up

We’ve covered the essentials for understanding what the content marketing meaning, what it is, how it works and all the types available out there to use.

To see results, it’s important to maintain consistency and be flexible with your strategy!

Did you know much about Content Marketing before reading this article?

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