Even though we are surrounded by content 24*7, it can be extremely challenging to define what content marketing stands for. When you do a google search for what content marketing stands for, you will get a different set of definitions, however, one that will be on top of several results is this one:
Content Marketing is the business and marketing for building and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.
Now if we break down the definition, there are some things that come to the surface which together highlight what is content marketing.
What is Content Marketing?
You download an app and open it up for the first time. You may see a splash screen that teaches you how to use the app as you swipe through it, or the developers may drop you directly into the experience. The visuals you see — from the navigation dots or animated fingers coaxing you to swipe, to the buttons, menus, basic layout, as well as any audio cues you may hear are all part of UI design.
- The goal is to “attract”. The content which you create must act as a magnet and attract the target audience.
- The content must have a “well-defined target audience”. What this emphasizes is the need for content to attract the right audience who will serve your business.
- It should “drive profitable customer action”. Every content should have a call to action making the next steps clear to the readers or clients.
Now that we have looked at what content marketing stands for, it is time to dive into the different ways it benefits a business.
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1. Helps establish trust
Building quality content helps create trusted relations with the audience. When people start reading your content, they start building an opinion about the brand. So the more engaging, valuable, and educational content you make, the more likely people will think of your brand in the same way.
Another way you can make your brand trustable through content is by publishing them on third-party websites and sharing them with influencers within your target market.
2. Helps drive conversion
The true importance of content lies in the role it plays towards conversion. Here are a few stats which hints towards the role of content in improving the website or app conversions –
- Content marketing gives a 6X greater conversion rate compared to any other digital marketing tool.
- Inbound marketers double their site conversion rates (from 6 to 12%) purely through content marketing efforts.
- According to 74% of the companies that Curata surveyed, content marketing has brought an increase in the leads, both in terms of quality and quantity.
- Video content helps provide high ROI, according to a report by CrazyEgg.
Content marketing enables you to connect with your prospective customers and educate them with the necessary information they need to make the purchase decision.
3. Improves SEO efforts
The key to ruling the web world lies in getting the SEO right. And the only way to push your SEO efforts is to publish content. The more quality content you put on your website, the greater will be the chances of your content ranking high on the web results.
Now, naturally, when your content starts performing high on the google search results, people start visiting your website more, and the chances of them becoming your customer increases.
4. Backs your marketing funnel
A marketing funnel is an approach that is followed to understand what stage a buyer is in. the intention of the funnel exercise is to push people closer to becoming customers. Here is what the different funnels are and the role that content marketing plays in each.
5. Gives you a competitive advantage
In the digital space, the competition is cut-throat. Every brand is fighting for the same amount of screentime from users. With users’ attention time lowering to mere less than 5 seconds, it becomes all the more difficult for a brand to capture and hold their attention.
This is where content comes into the picture. Creatively written content – advertisement, headline, etc. can get businesses the attention they require from their prospective customers.
Now that we have looked at the many benefits of content marketing for a business’s growth, it is time to look at how to reach that level.
We are now going to talk about how you can make the best content strategy for your brand.
How to Make a Content Marketing Strategy?
Set your business goals
Before you start your content marketing journey, it is extremely important to understand what is your end goal with the activity. Is it to get leads? To get more readers? To get subscribers? Only when you know what you want to achieve through content marketing, you will be able to put an effort towards it.
Know your target audience
The success of every content effort is dependent on the knowledge of who your audience is. You should know their age range, the device they use, platforms they go to when they are needing a solution that your brand provides, and the kind of content (video, images, blogs) they interact with the most.
Get your SEO right
Once you know your audience and have established what you want to achieve with your content marketing efforts, the next step is to get your keywords and SEO right. You should have an understanding of what your customers are looking for. This way, you will be able to prepare your content strategy around what they are looking for.
Analyze the competition
Once you know your audience and have a basic SEO strategy in place, you should analyze the competition. Note what type of content they are preparing, where are they getting the links from, and the keywords they are ranking on. The information that you get from this exercise can give you a starting point.
Choose your distribution channel
The content industry is riddled with multiple distribution channels. You can distribute your blog on social media, on PR, through guest blogging websites, etc. What is important is to know which distribution channel works best for your industry, what platforms your customers frequent, etc.
Build an editorial calendar
Build your editorial calendar around the topics you will be putting up along with the platforms and the distribution plan. Then, share the same across your content team to follow.
