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Content Marketing: Definition, Benefits, Types and How it works
Content marketing refers to the practice of attracting, engaging, and retaining people by the creation and sharing of useful articles, videos, podcasts, and other content. This practice enhances your brand’s credibility, increases awareness of your company, and ensures that you remain in their thoughts when they are ready to purchase.
In this post, we’ll talk about what content marketing is, how it works, its benefits, different types, and more.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing means creating and sharing useful and compelling materials such as blogs, social media updates, videos, emails, and many others to the active and prospective clients. If done adequately, such content displays how knowledgeable a company is and the interest it has towards the people it serves.
As a proactive approach, content marketing can help in establishing and nurturing customer relationships. Customers are more likely to utilize your company upon making a purchase as long as you present your company as an interested and beneficial partner whenever they need assistance.
Why is Content Marketing Important?
Content marketing is a strategy that really works and gives businesses an edge over their competition. Here’s what the numbers show: businesses with blogs get 67% more leads than companies without them. 67% of business marketers say content marketing helps them get more engagement and leads. Also, 88% of people say branded videos helped convince them to buy a product or service.
Benefits of Content Marketing
- Increase online visibility: It helps to attract leads and visitors when people are looking for a solution to their problems. Sharing useful and interesting content can make your website or social media pages easier to find.
- Generate more leads: Content marketing can bring more visitors to your site. By educating customers, you can build trust, making them more likely to buy from you. This helps you develop relationships with potential customers.
- Boost loyalty: Loyal customers keep coming back. By offering helpful content, you can gain their trust and make them feel more connected to your brand, which leads to more repeat purchases.
- Improve authority: Creating content can help you become an expert in your field. It builds trust and positions your brand as a leader on certain topics.
Types of Content Marketing
Below are the types of content marketing:
- Blogs
- Videos
- Infographics
- Case Studies
- eBooks
- User-Generated Content
- Checklists
- Memes
- Testimonials/Reviews
- Whitepapers
- How-to Guides/Academies
- Influencers/Paid Ads
How Content Marketing Works
Content marketing helps your business attract new customers, explain why your product or service is great when people are researching what to buy, and ultimately make sales. To use content marketing well, you need to give the right information at each step of the buying process, from when people first hear about your product to when they make a purchase. It might sound tricky, but this method actually makes things easier.
Here’s how businesses use content marketing in each step of the process to connect with and sell to people.
Awareness Stage
At the start of the buying process, your content should focus on the main concerns of your audience. Write about their problems, challenges, and questions to grab their attention. In the purchase initiation stage, educate them or give helpful guidance. Do not try to sell during this stage. The best form of content for this type of stage includes blog post articles, videos, and e-books, as well as newsletters.
Consideration Stage
In this stage, your content should mix helpful information with inbound marketing. Teach your audience what features or qualities to look for and explain how these features meet their needs. While you explain this, focus on what your business offers. The best content for this stage includes how-to articles, case studies, how-to videos, and checklists.
Closing Stage
When a customer is about to buy, content marketing is more crucial. Now you can start talking about sales; just keep the emphasis on why your product or service is the best choice and not so much on how good it is. The main message here should be your expertise and the unique benefits of what you offer. The best content for this stage includes case studies, product videos, buyer’s guides, research reports, and content created by customers.
How to Start with Content Marketing
Content marketing can seem like a lot, but it doesn’t have to be hard. A good content marketing plan is simple and can last for a long time. Here’s how to start:
1. Know Your Audience
Before creating content, understand who you’re making it for. Think about what they care about, what problems they have, and what they like. If you have details about your audience, pick one or two groups to focus on. If you don’t, make profiles for your readers to help guide your content.
2. Choose the Right Content Formats
The best format depends on what stage you’re at in the sales process. Think about which format will show your value best. For some, a video works well; for others, a checklist is better. Make sure the content is high quality. Find someone who can help create it, and always have a professional proofreader check it before it’s shared.
3. Plan How You’ll Share Your Content
Decide where you’re going to post your content. Is it on your own website or through email or as part of an event printed somewhere? Focus on places your audience already spends their time and match up formats to those places. Email subscribers articles, tweet lists from social media outlets, follow up with your sales team using buyer’s guides as a reminder when presenting new products.
4. Create a Realistic Schedule
Once you know who you’re making content for and what formats to use, create a short-term plan (3-6 months). Don’t try to do too much at once. Your plan should include content you can actually make, based on your time and resources. Track how long it takes to make each piece so you can manage your time better.
5. Follow Content Best Practices
Good content is easy to read and doesn’t use confusing words. It should include helpful advice. Short and to-the-point content that gives people something they can use is the best type to create.
How Content Marketing Helps Your Business Grow
Show off your skills and what makes you special by creating content that grabs attention, gets people interested, and helps you make sales. With a little planning and good content marketing, you can connect with your target audience and build loyalty for your brand.
Optinmark can help you improve your online content strategy by letting you create content for social media, your website, and email campaigns that deliver results.
Use our tools to create content that fits your brand, such as landing pages and ads, to communicate what you have to offer. With your brand’s style guide, you can begin to build an identity unique to your business and let it shine for your customers.