CONTENT MARKETING

 “Content marketing is 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.”

Content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behavior. It is an ongoing process that is best integrated into your overall marketing strategy, and it focuses on owning media, not renting it.

Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. It is non-interruption marketing. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent. The essence of this content strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty. (http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/what-is-content-marketing/)

Types of contents

Design means much more than color schemes and stock photos. The process will look different for every marketing team, and even for every team’s various content pieces.

In general, design starts at the very beginning, as you map out a content marketing strategy. Understanding the brand’s personas and marketing goals will shape the basic style of each design—each should be useful to your personas, and true to your brand voice.

A strong content marketing strategy includes a variety of content types, so as individual pieces begin to take shape, there are some specific things to keep in mind:

Blog Posts - Distill your content marketing strategy into your blog schedule/strategy. The company blog can and should be used to cross-promote other content, which will help keep posts on a consistent schedule. If you don’t have a marketing team member who is familiar with SEO, this is one area where you might want to consult a professional.

Guest Blog Posts or interview - Just as important as writing posts on your own blog is contributing elsewhere online in fact, according to author Jeff Goins, “Guest-posting is the single most important strategy for growing your blog readership and platform.” When you write articles on other websites, you get your content in front of new audiences and expand your presence.

How-To Guides - Whether in a video, a blog post, a series of photos, or a website page, how-to guides draw readers in and give you a chance to demonstrate your subject expertise. Use them to show your audience how to complete a project, learn a new skill, or put into practice some specific tips.

Ebook content should follow some sort of narrative structure, and include a lot of good, visual design. The goal of an ebook is to educate (rather than entertain), but make sure to keep the language conversational if that is consistent with your brand and personas.

Cheat Sheets - These are short (two or three pages at most). That means there won’t be a lot of room for big images, so you’ll want to use text formatting to make them easy for a reader to quickly scan through. Link or point to other resources for more in-depth learning.

Workbooks and Templates - A great way to keep your brand in front of buyers, while also being really helpful. These resources should be designed for print and made as interactive and practical as possible.

Whitepapers and Reports - These are similar to an ebook in that they are primarily educational materials, but whitepapers and reports are generally less graphically designed and use language that is a little more professional. They can also create opportunities to partner with other organizations.

Images - 93 percent of communication is nonverbal, which means almost all of what you tell your audience happens outside the words you say. With powerful pictures, illustrations, and graphics, you have an opportunity to make a real impact on your fans—amplifying your message, explaining an idea, and gaining user attention.

Infographics - The name says it all: just give readers info and graphics. Use as little text as possible for the former, and let the latter tell the story. If you don’t have a killer graphics artist in-house, this is one for which you might want to work with a professional.

Illustrations - Just as infographics present information in a more readily understandable way, so too illustrations add an extra dimension to your content. Whether it’s an ironic comic strip, a pretty watercolor, or a hand-drawn recipe, illustrations are great for catching reader attention and adding visual punch.

Testimonials - Endorsements from satisfied customers act as major social proof for your company’s value. Whether you post testimonials on your website, across social media, or strictly on review sites, the power of these comments is undeniable.

Slide Decks are a great format for breaking down complex ideas into simple steps or bite-sized pieces. Keep the slides simple: minimal text in one font throughout, and use big images & graphics.

Video - The trick to effectively using video as part of a content strategy is keeping it as timeless as possible. Otherwise, you risk wasting resources (time and money) updating videos every year. High-quality video content can also be used to expose your brand to YouTube’s large and active audience.

Case Studies - Build case studies with real numbers and complete stories. This will help keep the content focused on the value and results, not the brand.

Memes - Each day, many brands give followers a way to engage with the brand by posting related content and tagging it with the hashtags. In so doing, the brands not only promote its brand but also strengthens connections with fans. 

Email Newsletters - The opt-in email newsletter is a fantastic avenue for getting your message out to loyal followers—the key is providing highly relevant content that they actually want to read. This means it’s time to forget recycled blog content and opt instead for unique content that meets a need for your audience: inspiration, humor, information, etc. Ask yourself how you can make your newsletter a must-read.

Podcasts - Thanks to the prevalence of smartphones, laptops, and MP3 players, people today listen to podcasts in the car, while riding the morning train, running errands, or doing the dishes. What this means for you is multiplied opportunities to expand your message. You might podcast to conduct interviews, tell stories, or provide or more personal look at your business operations.

Twitter Chat - In the world of social media, Twitter is becoming increasingly influential. As a content marketer, use the network to engage with influencers in your industry. Schedule Twitter chats to discuss topics, find out what interests your audience, ask questions, and generate dialogue about your subject matter.

News jacking - Take advantage of public interest in a hot news story by finding a way to connect it with your brand—and write about it. (http://www.marketo.com/content-marketing/; http://socialmouths.com/2013/03/20/15-types-of-content-marketing/)

Advantages of Content Marketing / Benefits

• makes you money
• generates sales more efficiently
• pulls in unexpected customers
• establishes yourself as a thought leader
• is cheaper compared to alternative forms of marketing
• increases sales
• builds valuable relationships with your audience
• helps make a personal connection
• positions you as a helpful resource
• can enhance your brand image
• shows people your human side
• helps beat your competition
• boosts customer engagement
• attracts people with real interest in your brand
• improves employee attitudes and confidence levels, boosting them morale and keeping them engaged
• helps nonprofits raise money
• attracts job seekers and recruits the right employees
• works with any industry
• improves your customer experience
• helps grow a long-term audience
• establishes selection criteria and a framework for decision-making
• creates informed buyers
• gets people’s attention
• can increase email response rates
• encourages virality
• gives you the opportunity to experiment
• gives you more control over your message
• increases newsletter signups
• influences purchasing decisions
• is recyclable and is reusable
• educates your employees
• spurs creativity
• gives you the opportunity to find out what’s important to your customers
• improves your social media presence
• improves your PR strategy
• let’s you tell important stories about your brand
• generates positive buzz
• helps you manage your online reputation
• helps counter negative reviews
• helps you respond to customer concerns proactively
• encourages customer interaction
• gives your company a voice (http://nectafy.com/59-benefits-of-content-marketing/)

Disadvantages of Content Marketing / Problems

• is difficult to decide which channel will best help get your message out
• information can quickly be published and is not always easy to delete or remove information once it has been released
• if outsourced, there is the risk of the third party not understanding the product and message
• it is hard to measure the actual return on investment (ROI) that comes from social channels
• inconsistency cross-channels can create confusion among customers
• bad channel selection will not bring the expected results
• lack of content diversity can become annoying for customers
• Bad headlines will not encourage engagement audience
• Wrong content can affect brand’s image and reputation

Content marketing strategy

An effective content marketing strategy is built on two pillars that you (hopefully) have already:

• A set of robust, strategic personas, and
• An understanding of your typical buyer’s journey.

Each content asset should appeal to one (or two) personas at each stage of their buying journey, gently nudging them to the next stage.

For more help and inspiration in filling out your content marketing strategy, check out the Content Marketing Tactical Plan. This workbook is more than just info—it’s a hands-on journey complete with persona exercises, content arc charts, calendar templates, and more.

Content Marketing and Social Media

Social media is one of the primary vehicles for a content marketing campaign—especially the more entry-level, entertaining pieces. There are three tiers of social media promotion for your content:

Owned: Sharing your content on the brand’s own social media channels is a quick, customizable, and free opportunity to connect with your target audience.

Paid: Most social networks allow for some kind of paid advertising. Matching a network’s demographics with your brand’s personas will help you determine where to invest.

Earned: The most valuable, but hardest to create, social media promotion happens when your audience shares your content with their networks.

Each social network tends to gather a different type of user. Match your personas to network demographics to find out where you target audience is social online, and start sharing your content. Let's cover the differences between social networks:

Facebook is still the biggest social network, and while it is the fastest-growing, that growth is slowing and shifting. At the beginning of last year, Facebook usage was growing fastest among older adults. As of January 2015, Facebook users are most likely to be college-educated, lower-income women.

Twitter - Emerging markets account for 78% of the traffic on Twitter, with India as one of the fastest-growing. Statistically speaking, Twitter users tend to be recent college graduates living in urban areas.

LinkedIn is commonly known as the professional social network, and it’s obvious that its users are serious. Sixty-four percent of social referrals to corporate websites come from LinkedIn, compared to 17% from Facebook and 14% from Twitter. A glance at the demographics demonstrates that LinkedIn has the greatest percentage of college-educated, higher-income users of all the major social channels.

Pinterest - Consumers love Pinterest. Forty-seven percent of online shoppers have made a purchase because of a Pinterest recommendation, and Pinterest generates 4x more revenue (per click) than Twitter. Pinterest users tend to be more affluent women living in rural areas. (http://www.marketo.com/content-marketing/)

Content Marketing and SEO

In the same way that you take a couple extra steps to help your content succeed on social, take a couple more to help your content succeed with search engines. Weaving some SEO best practices into your content will help make a good impression with Google and move your website up the rankings list.

Use keywords (naturally): Identify your main keyword for the content, a few synonyms, and a few related keywords. Then make sure you’re actually using them in your content, headers, and page content. Don’t over-do it, though. Search engines have been cracking down on content that is “stuffed” with one or two keywords. Write for the reader, but do make sure those important words are present.

Earn natural links: Links from spammy sources can actually hurt your site with search engines. Build relationships with industry professionals who will share your content, and link to their primary resources in return. Links from high-quality websites will give yours a boost.

Media: Include images and video (with descriptive titles and alt text) on blog posts and landing pages. They improve the user experience, which decreases bounce rates and improves your standing with Google.

The strength of a good content marketing strategy is in providing the information and answers that your target audience is looking for, but your hard work is all for nought if they can’t find it! Make sure you’re creating content for the user, but that search engines will also favor. (http://www.marketo.com/content-marketing/)