Introduction
You may have heard about “content marketing” and are eager to find the meaning of that and why it is good among other marketing strategies. This post will describe everything related to content marketing.
What is content marketing?
Content Marketing Institute states, ‘Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – to drive profitable customer action.’
Sounds good, right? But you may be thinking, what is the role of content? So, let’s begin. As it is called, “Content is King,” content is what you can share with your followers. It is what people are searching for and who provides valuable information to the users.
Content not only gives you information but it solves your issues, and anyone who is looking for maybe they are a customer, reader, or businessman. But, there is a catch, not all contents are relevant.
Strategies for content marketing
Now that you have digested this term, you may wonder why one should use content marketing. Frankly saying you already know this answer or realized it sometimes.
Remember when you were a child and read a comic book? Those comic books are the best example of content marketing. Confusing right? Now, let me tell you why.
Comics have pictures and words enclosed in bubbles representing the character’s voice. It provides an idea about what they are talking about or the current situation in the comics. So, it helps us to understand it more clearly with a fictional vision.
Even 5 yr. Old children can understand it. It provides relevant content with valuable information, an example of content marketing that has been around for longer than the internet.
Now, we look at why everyone uses content marketing for their business.
1. Brands use it
According to one research, this marketing strategy is used by leading brands present in the world, and they have used this strategy for a long time.
The research also found that those who use content marketing have generated more revenue and have higher sales growth comprising to its competitor. These companies are prominent organizations in the world.
2. Marketing is impossible without great content
Regardless of your marketing tactics, whether online or offline, you can’t succeed in a business without great content.
This applies to your strategies like SEO, Social media marketing, PPC, Advertisement, Inbound Marketing, Leads, Television broadcasting, etc.
3. It is suitable for your customers
The main motto of any marketing is to acquire more customers. There are three key benefits of using content for marketing these are:
- Increase in sales
- Cost savings
- Loyal customers
4. Content is the present and future of marketing
As you already know, content has been used for marketing strategy for a long time. It is the present and future of marketing. Without having great content, your marketing tactics will be called spam, and do you want to spam your customers? Seriously NO.
Remember? while checking your spam folder in your email, you find lots of emails that provide no value and are just garbage. Those emails result from valueless content, and people report it as spam, so it is delivered to your spam folder.
You may risk your business if you can’t provide valuable and relevant information.
What are examples of content marketing?
There are many examples of content marketing, but here I describe five examples to start your mind and get more ideas about it.
1. Videos
People like videos. A video is worth thousands of books. You can see the knowledge of two pages of a book in a ten seconds lengthy video. It describes contents through an efficient and entertaining approach.
People love to share their ideas and thoughts through the Youtube channel, and there are many channels you can find on Youtube.
There are billions of active users on Youtube because people find it more relevant and full of value.
The video has changed our lifestyle and marketing tactics and replaced old marketing ideas. People can search for anything they want, and the content will be in front of them.
2. Websites/Webpages
Want to search for anything? You jump to Google, put in some keywords you want to explore, and boom! You have lots of web pages you see on your screen. Then you click on any website and get your information. That’s easy.
It all comes true because websites that have web pages on them and those web pages contain content.
Whatever you search, you will finally look for content, and billions of web pages on the internet make your daily work easy.
People build websites and invest a lot of effort in SEO to rank their content on the search engine to provide valuable content to users.
3. Infographics
Infographics are vertically aligned graphics containing words, pictures, charts, graphs, statistics, or other information.
They are popular on social media and provide valuable content in a single frame. You can give information in a combination of infographics or make a collage.
One of the most popular sites where you can find infographics is Pinterest. It is a social media platform where people share infographics about any content.
They are easy to understand and have some visuals which make them attractive. These help us to promote our business which helps in driving more traffic and customers.
4. Podcasts
Podcasts are great for sharing your thoughts and engaging with your audience. People love to hear podcasts that update the consumers about your business. People can download or listen to it online through different platforms.
It is great to promote any courses, books, launch events, or new products through podcasts. You can share links to register for your website or upcoming event, which helps in driving more sales.
5. Books
People who love to read books know how valuable it is. Books provide the best content, and it makes us knowledgeable.
Marketers not only sell books, but it is a marketing tool for them. Some books guide establishing a business and attracting loyal customers to your products.
Many entrepreneurs read books to make something new that can help in the changing world. Books are the oldest and best example of this marketing technique.
It can be offline/hard-copy or online as Pdf files or Kindle, but the value it can provide is essential.
Conclusion
Content marketing is a marketing tactic that users like to find in your marketing approach. It helps to build awareness and trust in your business; without the right content, it is impossible to establish a business or service online or offline.
Content is crucial and the utmost priority you should deliver to your users. Content marketing may have changed due to the usage of the internet, but you should remember that it is a past approach to marketing that will survive in the future.
