What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is an approach that focuses on the regular sharing of original content which is entertaining, educational or/and relevant to your businesses’ target audience.

Examples of content include images, videos, animations, blogs, infographics and more.

The regular distribution of such content can help you reach your target audience while gradually nurturing them until they become a customer and purchase your product or service.

A content marketing strategy focuses less on the constant selling and promotion of your business and more about the entertainment and education of your audience.

This marketing approach leads to your potential and existing customers viewing you as a valuable source of information and entertainment instead of a business that simply want to sell things.

WHY IS CONTENT MARKETING IMPORTANT?

All of the top brands use content marketing because of its effectiveness in reaching new audiences and generating high levels of engagement. Sharing valuable content is now one of the most important aspects of any marketing strategy.

Don’t just take it from us, here are some stats to prove it:

• 80% of video marketers claim that video has directly increased sales. (Wyzowl) 

• 70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing. (Hubspot)

• 77% of companies say they have a content marketing strategy. (SEMrush)

And here are just a few benefits of content marketing:

• Helps nurture your audience and drive purchases/sales.

• Improves your reputation and builds trust with your audience.

• One of the most cost-effective marketing strategies.

• Helps you stand out against your competitors.

• Shows off your industry expertise, portraying your business as an industry leader.

• Improve your SEO efforts through the use of regular blog content.

CONTENT MARKETING AND THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY:

Content marketing has a huge influence over the customer journey too, helping push people who have never heard of your product/service to become valuable customers.

Before purchasing any product or service, customers usually go through a four-stage journey.

1.) Awareness - Customer becomes aware of something they need.

2.) Research - Customer starts researching the product/service that they are looking for.

3.) Consideration - Customer starts comparing different products and services to make sure they choose the best option.

4.) Purchase - Customer makes a decision and makes the purchase.

At every stage mentioned above, content marketing is key in pushing your customers through each part.

Awareness: A customer discovers a piece of your content on social media. They follow your account and regularly view your future content.

Research: Customers could use your website’s blog content or social media content to learn more about a relevant topic.

Consideration: Your audience watches an entertaining and educational video shared on your social media platforms. This eventually make a connection to your business, helping you stand out against the competition.

Purchase: A testimonial or case study video praising your product or service can be the final nail in the coffin (in a good way). It gives that potential customer the confidence to purchase your product/service.

And there you have it, the combination of different content types have helped your business reach someone who had no idea who you were and gradually converted them into a loyal customer.

That is the power of content marketing.

TYPES OF CONTENT YOU CAN CREATE:

Below are some examples of content you could include in your content marketing strategy:

Video: Video is one of the most effective types of content you can create. Nearly all major social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok prioritise video content because it generates high engagement. Find out more about how video can help your business.

Overall, video gives you the power to use eye-catching and engaging visuals to communicate with your target audience.

Images: Strong, powerful visuals are perfect at grabbing people’s attention. Images that show your product/service in action, your team at work or anything going on behind the scenes are great ideas. In the customer journey, images can be used to push people through each stage.

Animations: Animations make dry subjects interesting, explain complex pieces of information and make stories interactive. Animation gives you the ability to make graphs, numbers and any piece of data more interesting and easier for your audience to understand.

Infographics: These graphics are a great way to educate your audience and show your expertise in a particular industry. If you need a visual means to explain your product or service in more detail, then a fancy branded infographic will do the trick.

Infographics offer so much value to your audience. They’ll likely save them to use in the future too. Overall, it helps that audience member create a connection with your business.

Blogs: Blogs are perfect for educating your audience and helping you appear in search results. Answering questions that your audience may have at each stage of the customer journey is extremely valuable. Simply discussing topics that are relevant to your business help enforce the image that you’re an industry expert.

TIPS FOR DEVELOPING A GREAT CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY:

Identify your platforms: Before you start creating any content, you must understand where you’re planning to share it. Will it be on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, etc? Or will it only be used on your website?

Finding the platform in which your audience are most active will help you better understand the types of content you’re going to create and how the content will be used.

Need help deciding which social media platforms you should use for your business? Check out our guide!

Set your goals: Establishing exactly what you want to achieve from your content strategy is the only way you’ll understand whether your content marketing efforts were effective. It’s also important to understand how you will measure those goals. Make sure you know what KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) you will use to measure the content’s effectiveness.

Understand your audience: This is essential. Knowing your audience will determine what types of content you should create. What does your audience wants to see? What types of content do they like? What questions do they have at each stage of the customer journey? Where are they (online and offline)? All of this information matters because it will help guide your content strategy.

Create a content calendar: Knowing in advance what content you’ll share and when you will share it is key. Be consistent when sharing content on platforms and always plan ahead. Understand the best times/days to post and create a schedule you can stick to.

GET CREATING!

Content truly is king. Any successful marketing strategy will include the regular sharing of content which is tailor-made for their target audience.

Now you understand the power of content marketing, are you ready to develop your strategy? Our advice is to follow our tips above and most of all…have fun creating some great content!

And finally, if you need some help developing your content marketing strategy or creating the content, get in touch!