Content marketing is a marketing buzzword that’s been around for years, but it’s also a lot more than that. Everything from expanding reach to engaging and delighting your audience happens under the umbrella of content marketing. So whether you’re just starting or looking to level-up your content marketing game, here’s where to start.
Why is everyone talking about content marketing?
To put it simply, content marketing is every aspect of communicating with your audience EXCEPT for selling to them. It’s about creating and sharing valuable, relevant, and consistent content that aims to educate, entertain, or inform your target market. Instead of pushing products or services, you provide information that helps people solve problems and makes it easier for them to make decisions.
Let’s say you own a company that creates and sells kitchen equipment. One way to drive revenue would be to create content all about how and why to buy what you sell, but that’s not content marketing. A true content-marketing approach means creating videos sharing new recipes, using your social channels to explain the best ways to clean or store your kitchen gadgets, or offering up kitchen organization tips on your blog. When your audience is consistently seeing valuable, useful content, it creates a mental connection that makes it more likely they’ll purchase from you when the time comes to replace their cutlery, upgrade their stove, or redesign their pantry.
Where to start
Looking for the basics? This section is for you.
Know your audience - we’ll talk about this more in a later blog post, but before you start creating marketing content, you need to make sure you know what your audience is looking for.
Choose your platforms - figure out where your audience is spending their time and meet them there. Your website is an obvious place to start, but make sure you’re considering social, email, events, and anywhere else your current and potential customers might be looking for what you’re offering.
Create value - this is the foundational element of content marketing. Everything you put out into the world should be informative, helpful, or even entertaining. Whether you’re creating articles and infographics or videos, podcasts, social content, and more, you have to make sure you’re adding value or you won’t see engagement.
How to level up
Not a beginner? Here’s how to take your content marketing to the next level.
SEO is your best friend - make sure you understand the ins and outs of search engine optimization (SEO) and are fully implementing it to optimize your content and improve visibility.
Consistency is key - whatever schedule you choose for creating contact points with your audience, try to keep it consistent. Consider developing a content calendar to plan the logistics.
Engage and interact - don’t just shove your marketing out of the nest and leave it to fend for itself. Make sure you’re engaging with your audience by responding to comments, encouraging discussion, and asking for feedback. The more you engage, the more you’ll connect.
Content marketing is dynamic and evolving, just like the rest of marketing, but it’s worth staying on top of if you want to build relationships with your audience and offer value. Whether you’re handing over knowledge, entertainment, or insight, your content marketing will be building the connections you need for growth. Just don’t forget that it’s not about sales here. Save that for your sales team’s direct conversations.
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