Consumer behaviour has changed dramatically in recent years. The traditional marketing that talked at customers has become increasingly less effective, while Content Marketing has continued to grow.
According to DemandMetric, 91% of Business-to-business (B2B) companies use Content Marketing, while 86% of Business-to-consumer (B2C) companies use content promotion.
The fact is that Content Marketing has become the most effective way to reach your target market and to build an online presence. If your business is not harnessing the power of content, you may be lagging behind your competitors.In this blog, we will look at what exactly Content Marketing is, how it can benefit your company and what types of Content Marketing methods your business can use.
If you google the term Content Marketing, you will most likely come to this definition by the Content Marketing Institute:What is 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.”
I prefer the much simpler explanation given by Neil Patel – that content marketing is all about storytelling. It is something that we have always done for as long we can remember. Content Marketing, as a discipline, focuses on telling stories that are relevant to the customers you want to attract to your brand.
Content Marketing:
- is not interruptive
- is customer-centric, not product- or company-centric
- seeks to inform, educate and solve your customers’ problems
- helps brands to engage with and better understand their customers
- establishes your brand as an authority in its area
- seeks to gain customer trust and loyalty
- creates greater brand awareness
Why is Content Marketing important to your business?
The truth is that customers are getting bombarded with news and information on a daily basis and with more and more companies already making use of Content Marketing, your company needs to be able to compete in the new marketing arena.
In addition to helping your brand be more competitive, Content Marketing has shown to yield real value. Research has found that:
- Companies who blog get 97% more inbound links to their websites
- Content marketing generates more than three times as many leads as traditional marketing methods, but costs 63% less
- Content marketing leaders experience 7.8 times more site traffic than non-leaders
- Content marketing adopters have six times higher conversion rates than their competitors
- Six out of ten Twitter and Facebook users are more likely to recommend a brand that they follow
- 60% of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading custom content on their site
- 56% of marketers believe that personalised content promotes higher engagement rates because it helps consumers remember a brand
- Search engines reward businesses that publish quality, consistent content
Types of Content Marketing
Barry Feldman from Feldman Creative has created a handy infographic on the various types of Content Marketing. Depending on the type of information and your target audience, your company can make use of any mix of the following main methods:
• Blogs
This is an online space, usually on your company website, where you publish opinion pieces, advice, tips, checklists and more. The main benefits of blogs are the boost in search rankings they provide, as well establishing your company as a thought leader; building online communities around your brand; and helping to build leads through subscription growth
.• Infographics
A visual presentation of data, lists, ideas and stories, infographics are more often shared and allow a business to present a lot of information in an easy-to-digest, compacted format
.• Videos
Videos can be used to present how-to content, product demonstrations, animations, documentaries or brand stories. Videos have a high engagement and conversion rate and appeals to mobile users.
• Podcasts
Podcasts are audio only content and is similar to radio programmes. It can be used for expert interviews, debates and discussions and brand stories. This format also appeals to mobile users.
• E–newsletters
An e-mail sent to subscribed users that contain consolidated stories and links. E-newsletters have been found to be very successful in lead nurturing.
• Case Studies
Case studies present true stories of client successes and is a great credibility booster.
• E-books
This is an electronic booklet that uses a lot of images and easy-to-read text to convey a message. It can be used for thought leadership, how-to’s, case studies, guidelines and more and is a powerful lead magnet.
• White Papers
This format contains deeper educational content and is primarily used as a means of establishing thought leadership.
• Quizzes
Fun, interactive tests and assessments that provide a high level of engagement with customers.
• Social Media Visual Content
These are normally powerful images with captions, quotes or headlines and are highly shared by avid social media users.
Content is the fuel that powers any marketing strategy, but to get a return on your investment you need to know who you are writing for (your customers), what their needs are and consistently produce content that is relevant and valuable to them.
Sources:
https://www.demandmetric.com/content/content-marketing-infographic
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2008/01/seth-godin-cont/
https://www.sprk-d.com/blog/content-marketing-101-content-marketing-important/
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2016/08/content-marketing-stats/
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/what-is-content-marketing/
http://neilpatel.com/what-is-content-marketing/
https://www.axonn.media/content-marketing/infographics/anatomy-of-content-marketing
http://feldmancreative.com/2016/02/types-of-branded-content/
https://www.demandmetric.com/content/content-marketing-infographic
Image Resource:
