Content Marketing: Everything You Need To Know

by Michele Leon

Are you a business wondering how to give a boost to your digital marketing strategy? If yes, then content marketing is your ally to achieve this goal. Content marketing is not only capable of increasing your marketing outreach but also enables you to attract and engage with prospective consumers.

The best part is that you can execute an effective content marketing strategy at a very low-cost investment. So, let us dive right in and explore what content marketing is and how it can serve your business.

What is Content Marketing?

If you are looking for an effective medium to engage your target audience and increase the number of customers, content marketing allows you to do just that and more. With content marketing, you will be able to target clients by creating relevant content offering value.

According to statistics, 60% of marketers have reported that content marketing generates leads for their business.

Whether you are a product or service-based company, content marketing enables you to create value around your brand. As you offer authentic and informative content to your consumers, you start building a positive brand image. This allows you to secure potent leads and generate more ROI.

5 Strategies for Content Marketing Campaign

So, how do you create an effective content marketing strategy? Simply follow the below-mentioned five steps.

1.     Know Your Audience

The first step in creating an effective content marketing campaign is to know who your customers are. For this, you need to research the wants, needs, and pain points of your customers. You must build an ideal customer’s persona based on demographics such as age, gender, profession, interest, location, etc.

This will further allow you to identify the right marketplaces for your content marketing. For instance, you are a product or service provider that caters to millennials. In that case, you must target online platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

Similarly, if you are a business offering B2B products or services, platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook may work best for you. This will help you deploy a cost-effective digital marketing strategy as you avoid wasting money on the marketplace with a lower number of the target audience.

2.     Know Your Objectives

To create the right content, you must know the core objectives you wish to achieve. This includes the following:

• Boosting your sales
• Boosting lead generation
• Increasing organic traffic to your website
• Creating brand awareness
• Educating the clients
• Offering free value
• Increasing consumer engagement
• Promoting products and services, including discount and promotional offers

Once you know your primary key performance indicators (KPIs), you will be able to create content that serves the purpose.

3.     Visualize Your Customer’s Journey

Think about how you will attract the customers and drive them into your sales funnel. Content marketing empowers your brand to leverage inbound marketing and allows the customers to approach your business.

This is better than cold calling because when a customer contacts you, this is an indicator that they are mostly aware of your brand and will most likely buy from you.

4.     Set-up a Budget

Irrespective of the scope of your content marketing campaign, you must also consider setting up a budget aside. The amount you set aside for content marketing depends on your company’s needs. However, it is best to dedicate 25% to 30% of your digital marketing budget to content marketing.

Your content marketing cost can cover the cost of producing content in the form of blogs, vlogs, e-books, articles, tutorials, slideshows, infographics, etc.

5.     Search Engine Optimization with Keyword Research

In order to attract the right target audience, you need to produce content that ranks high on search engine result pages (SERP). This way, whenever a customer types in a query related to the product and services you offer on a search engine, your content will appear amongst the top search results.

The higher your content ranks, the more traffic organic traffic your website will receive. According to a study, keyword optimization can boost your site’s relevance and authority in search engine results.

You can use both long-tail and short-tail key phrases to target the audience. Long-tail keywords allow you to address specific topics based on customers’ needs. Suppose you are a car insurance company offering services in New York.

In that case, you can short-tail keywords such as car insurance, car insurance for new drivers, etc. In order to target customers in New York, you can use long-tail keyphrases such as “car insurance company in New York,” “buy car insurance in New York,” etc.

8 Content Marketing Formats

Here are eight of the most influential and cost-efficient formats to deploy a content marketing campaign.

1.     Articles and Blogs

You can create keyword-rich blogs and articles with the most relevant and accurate information to offer value to your customers.

2.     Infographics

This refers to delivering content in a visual format, including images, graphics, vectors as well functional and beautiful typography.

3.     Videos

You can create vlogs and video tutorials about your products, services, and operations. Use these videos on your official website as well as social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, etc.

According to statistics, 68% of customers prefer learning about new products and services through videos.

4.     E-books

You can offer free value to your customers by creating e-books for various purposes. You can use e-books to gather customers’ information. For instance, you can offer a free e-book when a customer subscribes to your mailing list or newsletter.

5.     Customers’ Reviews and Testimonials

According to a study, 93% of customers decide to buy products or services based on reviews left by previous consumers. Therefore, you can add a reviews/testimonial section to your website and social media pages to attract and convince potential clients. The testimonials can be in both text and video formats.

6.     Social Media Posts

Create keyword-rich social media posts to attract the target audience and add call-to-action links to drive traffic to your website.

7.     Email Marketing

Target your email marketing by integrating relevant content based on consumers’ demographics. Customers are more likely to complete your desired call-to-action if you send a personalized email rather than a generic email.

8.     Landing Pages

Typically, a landing page is a single web page you can use to advertise your product and service. This landing page acts as a hook to entice potential clients into completing a CTA or driving them to your official website. You can increase the visibility of your landing page by using optimized content.

6 Benefits of Content Marketing

If you are wondering how content marketing can help your business, here are some of the benefits that may pique your interest.

1.     Attracting Organic Traffic to your website

You can publish content on your website, landing pages, and social media platforms by addressing the pain points of your target audience. Make sure that the content answers the questions of your potential customers.

You can integrate content marketing into your email marketing campaign. This allows you to add relevant content to your emails to target consumers based on demographics. The appropriate content will convince your target audience to click on the link and visit your website to explore what your business has to offer.

2.     Offering Value to your Target Audience

You can create content that value by offering free information. This will help your business exceed customers’ expectations and build an image of an authority on a specific subject or industry. As a result, customers in the market will perceive you as a credible business to further explore what else you have t offer.

3.     Educating Customers about Your Brand, Products, and Services

Use content marketing to your advantage and educate the market and prospective customers about your products and services. You can even use this strategy to promote any upcoming product and feel the pulse of the market in terms of how the customers perceive it.

4.     Driving Boost in Sales

Sales are the core objective and primary catalyst for business growth. You can use content marketing at all stages of your sales funnel. For instance, you can explain the benefits of your product or offer discounts to drive your customer to complete the call-to-action (CTA) for buying.

This strategy eliminates the need for you to be too salesy. You simply offer answers to questions customers may have in mind and expect them to click on the “buy now” link.

5.     Potent Lead Generation

The quality of leads your digital marketing campaign generates directly affects your revenue. Therefore, you have to ensure that each lead you generate is a potential customer. A digital marketing strategy is successful when a major proportion of customers landing on your website end up buying from your business.

Content relevant to your customers can help you attract serious buyers only. The more potent leads you generate, the higher your sales figures will be.

6.     Lowering your CAC

The sales and marketing amount you spend to acquire each customer is known as your customer acquisition cost (CAC). A well-researched content marketing campaign can lower your CAC as each content piece can attract a large number of potential clients.

You can further make your marketing strategy by producing evergreen content. This means the information you offer in your content is valid and valuable for a long time. Such benefits make your content an asset and increase its effectiveness and value over time.

Your content can also boost brand value as it can contribute to helping your customers without needing a sales or customer service team.

Conclusion

Whether you are an entrepreneur, a blogger, a product manufacturer, or a service provider, content marketing can be the most effective component of your digital marketing strategy. You can even hire an agency (hint, hint) specializing in content marketing strategy to boost your brand awareness and increase your revenue.

For more on this topic click here to read the 4 Basics of Effective Content Marketing .