From small businesses to startups to large corporations, everyone is beginning to realize how powerful content marketing can be. But not everyone understands what it is, how it works, or (most importantly) how to do it successfully.
Today we look at what content marketing is all about, how to build a content marketing strategy, and why it’s worth investing in. Because it is so.
From the mistakes to avoid to creating quality content, here’s our definitive guide to content marketing.
Unlike traditional marketing, content marketing is not about promoting products or even your brand. Content marketing is about creating and sharing content that your customers and audience will find useful.
Content marketing comes in all sorts of formats. It includes videos, blog articles, infographics, case studies, and podcasts. This also includes closed content such as eBooks, white papers, email courses and webinars.
It is any type of content created specifically to add value to your audience.
And while it’s not about selling your products or services, it’s a way to build your brand and increase sales.
The more your customers enjoy your content, the more loyal they become to your brand. This loyalty, in turn, increases your website traffic and ultimately leads to more sales.
Why Invest in Content Marketing?
Hiring content marketers is a smart investment.
Why?
Because it’s another way to connect with your customers, drive traffic to your website, and provide valuable information to your audience.
All businesses can benefit from a strong content strategy. Here are just some of the top reasons why you should invest in content marketing:
• Higher rank in Google search results
• Increase sales and increase your ROI
• Control the conversation about your brand, products and services
• Build brand awareness
• Expand your social media following
• Increase the visibility of your product pages
• Not nearly as disruptive as traditional advertising
But let’s be clear: there’s no point investing in content marketing campaigns unless you see a return on your investment. Therefore, it’s important to make sure you’re creating and sharing the right types of content.
After all, the end goal is to increase sales!
And one way to increase those sales is through a blog.
Blogging helps your website rank higher in Google search results. It can increase the visibility of your homepage, the blog pages themselves, and your product pages.
How to Develop a Content Marketing Strategy?
A content strategy is a plan in which you use content (audio, visual, and/or written) to achieve your business goals. A successful content strategy attracts your audience at every stage of the funnel and keeps them after the purchase.
Let’s say your business goals include increasing brand awareness. To achieve this, you could implement a content strategy that focuses on SEO to increase your website’s visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs) and drive traffic to your products or services.
New business owners might assume that having a content strategy is nice from the start, but not necessary. However, producing quality content can be invaluable for building trust with new audiences and driving long-term success.
Essentially, a good content strategy is the foundation of your Attract and Delight stages in a buyer’s journey that follows the inbound marketing framework. Not only can you attract potential customers to your brand, but you can also increase sales and customer satisfaction with a content strategy.
Establish Your KPIs
The best way to achieve goals is to make them specific and measurable. That means establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) for your content marketing strategy.
The KPIs help you know when you’ve reached your goals by providing milestones to tick off. They include what you want to achieve in terms of revenue, sales, traffic, SEO, traffic, and various aspects of digital marketing like email marketing and social media metrics.
- Achieve a specific sales target within the month, quarter or year.
- Get more signups for your lead magnet as a sign that you’re getting more quality leads
- Get a certain number of new email subscribers
- See an increase in site traffic and engagement with your onsite content
- Improve the search ranking of some of your most important pages to increase traffic
- Receive a specific number of mentions, shares, and comments for your Pillar content
- Get invited to specific key industry events