What is content marketing? And why it is the most valuable business marketing opportunity in the past century?
FACT:- The rise in content marketing is the biggest most valuable opportunity for businesses globally in the past century!
Definition of content marketing:
noun
“Content Marketing is a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not promote a brand but is created to stimulate interest in a brands, company’s or individuals products or services.”
Content marketing as a concept is nothing new, but content marketing in respect of the internet is exploding exponentially.
Traditional advertising in print is on the wain, content marketing is taking over.
By 2021 it is estimated content marketing will be worth well over $400 billion globally, and growing.
Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating new content or re-purposing old content and making it relevant and interesting with the express aim of targeting a clearly defined audience.
Once the audience has been targeted the content is developed to drive traffic and convert to sales or other actions required by the marketer.
Define your audiences wants & needs!
In understanding what content you should create you first need to understand your audience.
Who is your target demographic?
What age group are you creating for?
What job do your audience do?
Make a list of all the things that make up your audience i.e: gender, age, ethnicity, job, religion, background, education,hobbies etc… The more detailed you can get the better your targeting will be.
Once you have defined your audience you can then start to build your content marketing funnel.
Once you understand your audience you can build your content funnel
Your audience will travel through the five stages of your content marketing funnel to eventually purchase or complete the action you require of them.
Firstly your customer has a pain point, whether good or bad, it is the thing that you need to target so that when they start their research, you are directly in their sights with your content.
7 Examples of content marketing to target your audience with:
Blog posts
Info-graphics
Videos/YouTube
E-books
Social posts
Email
Visual graphics/Pinterest
At this stage we are not going to go into detail on each type of content however your primary aim is to rank for the key words within the search query.
Once your audience has started their research they will become aware of your content.
Education and nurturing your audience on how to solve their problem will go a long way into gaining their trust, this can be done by your blog posts, videosetc.
When they will subscribe to your email lists, utilise this great way to educate them your producrs, services etc.
As your audience gets further into your content marketing funnel, you will find, thanks to the awareness you have created that you have placed your service, product or brand in their mind.
You can then start with further consideration content i.e: email, product comparison charts, case studies, launch sequences, product demos, eBooks and landing pages.
Finally once you have the audience in your consideration, you can hope that they will follow through with you calls to action.
Now your calls to action can even be further content such as sales pages, webinars, sales emails, customer testimonials or just good old buy it now options.
You need to ensure that your content works for many different channels. What works on a blog does not necessarily translate to Facebook, so re-purpose content for each channel.
The #1 goal of your content is to “ADD VALUE”!
Content marketing is not a one size fits all, once your done creating content, don’t rest on your laurels, create more.
The more content you create, the bigger your audience will get and the more your business will grow!
When you’ve done your best, do more!
And when you’ve done that, do even more!
#bewhoyouwanttobe
