As a business owner, you must be able to tell a good story about the goods/services that you provide. The marketing manager in you would likes to see the growth coming in organically from Google traffic instead of paying by the click. So, you understand that either your or someone on your teams needs to be a copywriter who understands your business and market and accurately portrays your story. But in practice? Writting blog posts that are SEO optimized and targetined for your ideal customer is something you neither have the time or the inclincation to do.  Thus your site creates the deadly sin of becoming stale and that company blog remains anxiously silent.

The result is that creating a  successful content strategy in your business niche is going to you require you to let go of old standards. Think from your potential customer wants to see and problems that your products/goods will solve and not so much as to what can you get out the door and onto your site!  The customer wants an answer to their question. You can give that with relevant, helpful, and original content. Providing great content that solves customers issues can give yourself the necessary leads that lead to business.

Don’t be blind to the giant marketing of Apple and Coca-Cola. Your organization is also relevant and exciting in its own way. Literally, anyone can create content that helps people and is engaging.

What is content marketing?

So, you are wondering what content marketing is in concrete terms? To answer this query, here is a definition provided by the Content Marketing Institute, a well-known organization in research, training, education, and content marketing.

“Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience – and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

Basically, for those who are a little less comfortable with the definitions in English, content marketing represents a strategic marketing approach that emphasizes the creation and distribution of relevant content, quality and offering real value to a targeted audience, intending to attract and retain them so that they ultimately become an active and profitable client or consumer for the company.

In order to bounce back on this definition, many wonder what is the difference between content marketing and inbound marketing.  The answer is yes, although these two phrases are still discreetly linked.

Content marketing represents all the tactics linked directly or indirectly to the content. In contrast, inbound marketing encompasses the marketing and sales process from the first contact with the visitor until he becomes a customer. That being said, we can easily say that inbound cannot operate without content marketing.

Conversely, content marketing can work entirely without resorting to inbound. Indeed, a brand can decide to create content to increase its’ authority or even improve its brand image without having the objective of generating visitors, leads, or even customers.

What types of content marketing are there?

Content marketing is a broad concept and generally includes all forms of content that you share with a focus on the needs of your customers. Think, for example, of blog articles, videos, mailings, social media updates … Below we discuss some important types:

Content marketing through your company blog

A company blog is a “news section” on your website where you regularly share relevant articles with potential customers: answers to their questions, solutions to their problems, etc. Each blog article covers a different topic, question, solution, or problem related to your target audience and your business. Every time you share a new article on your blog, your target audience is more likely to find you through Google.

This makes a company blog a very efficient way to attract more and especially the right customers at the right time via Google. And more website traffic naturally increases the chance of more leads and customers.

But there is more because if you regularly share relevant information, you will position yourself as an expert in your field, you will appear more credible, and you will create more confidence.

Video content marketing

Video marking is an ideal way to reach the newest generation of customers. Important, because by 2020, “Generation Z” (born between 1995 and 2005) will be one of the largest consumer groups. Were you aware that YouTube is the second largest search engine next to Google?

Many prospects prefer video content to any other type of content from a brand, and that can be seen from the figures because, in 2019, 80% of all internet traffic already consists of videos.

The big advantage of videos? They allow you to explain simple, but also complex matters. Moving images also linger longer than images or text. Video marketing is, therefore, the ideal way to become (and remain) top-of-mind with your target group.

Email content marketing

You can conveniently use email marketing to forward information with a specific purpose to a specific target group. This way, you can bind potential customers to your company more easily via email, you attract more traffic to your website, and you book more sales.

The basics of email marketing start with a good mailing list, a list of email addresses of people who are really interested in your content. Growing an email list can take time.  We never recommend  purchasing mailing lists as they have little or no effect and can damage your brand!

Emails are personal, relevant, and also readable everywhere. Your potential customers don’t have to do more than open their mailboxes to see relevant information. In addition, emails have a direct reach, are cost-efficient and easy to measure.

Social media content marketing

Social media are online networks that you can use as a company to share relevant information and updates, to dialogue with your customers, and to provide good customer service. You can reach a huge target audience with very few resources.  Networks such as FaceBook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter can bring you the right customers to your site.

Social media increases the visibility and brand awareness of your company and will, therefore, lead many visitors to your website. Thanks to the interaction, you will also learn how your target group and customers think about you, which is an enormous added value for your company.

Every social network has its own advantages and disadvantages. In this overview, you can read which social media are suitable for your company.

What is content marketing for?

Now that you have a better idea of ​​what content marketing is in terms of definition, what is it for? What are the objectives behind this marketing approach?

There are a few like:

• Increase brand awareness or strengthen its image;
• Increase subscribers to an email list;
• Increase traffic to a website;
• Improve the referencing of a website on search engines;
• Generate leads;
• Convert consumers into brand ambassadors;
• Increase the average shopping basket or the company’s sales;
• Promote recruitment;
• Position itself as a benchmark in its industry.

Indeed, there may be other objectives behind this approach; the important thing is to know yours well in order to keep it in mind when you develop your content and distribute it. If you do not understand why you are marketing content, it is high time to sit down and ask yourself this question: how will this project support the business objectives of my organization? If you realize that the content created will not meet these objectives, perhaps it is not a priority for your business.

What are the benefits of content marketing?

More findability, more traffic, and more customers

If you share the right content for the right target groups on your website and blog, you attract more and especially the right visitors to your site via search engines such as Google and via social media. More findability, visibility, and brand awareness leads to more business!

You also succeed in building a relationship of trust with your visitors via content marketing and positioning yourself as an expert? Then you will also see your conversions increase!

More credibility and confidence

When you have really mastered content marketing, your visitors will see you as an advisor and expert in your field over time. This way, they automatically come to you when they have a new question or a new problem related to your business.

That makes content marketing (and inbound marketing) customer-friendly and useful because when your target group is convinced of your expertise, you can sell to them much more comfortably.

Everything is measurable

A big advantage of online content marketing? Almost everything is measurable: views, clicks, conversions. And measure? That’s to know!

When you measure your results, you know whether you are achieving your content marketing goals and whether your efforts are paying off. This way, you can make informed decisions and keep optimizing!

Cost-efficient and sustainable

A well-designed and optimized blog with strong content? It takes a while to develop such a “content hub,” but if you succeed, you will attract relevant search traffic and customers months and years after publishing your blog posts.

This is in contrast to ads. You get fast visibility through ads, but when the budget is exhausted, your ads and your visibility disappear. Blog posts, on the other hand, remain online on your website and in the search results.

You can also automate a large part of your marketing campaigns, for example, via email automation. That makes content marketing a sustainable (Think long term!) and cost-efficient form of marketing.

So why should you do it?

The answer to this question is simple. You should do content marketing in order to have a source of traffic and leads that is much more profitable, predictable, and scalable than other traditional or so-called outbound marketing tactics.

Furthermore, if you integrate your content marketing approach into an Inbound Marketing methodology, you will be more profitable. By doing so, you make sure to integrate visitors or leads generated in a conversion funnel in order to feed them (lead nurturing) until they become customers or consumers.

Content Marketing help businesses

People’s modern buying behavior is very different from what it was a couple of decades ago, and since the turn of the millennium, marketing tactics have also changed drastically. More and more answers are being searched for everyday needs on the internet, and those who have used Google AdWords in the slightest will know that products and services are actively google thousands of times a month, so the goal is to bring the company to the front of the line. So optimized content helps bring your business to the forefront when a customer needs your product or service.

Some companies may benefit more than others, depending on the industry. But sales companies and organizations in particular, as well as B2B marketing, really need good content to keep up with the competition. 

The challenge is to insure that all the content produced by the company (websites, blogs, advertisements, newsletters, social media, etc.) contributes to a particular objective.  

The key to success is to identify the current situation and be able to define goals and communicate them to co-factors. Content marketing helps in.

• Creates brand awareness and brand identity
• Get more leads to the business.
• Get better leads
• Streamline the sales process through content marketing
• Streamline the marketing process
• Pilot a new product or service using content marketing
• Creates collaboration between sales and marketing
• Create a winning content strategy or so-called killer-strategy
• Creates consistently good content for your channels
• Creates concrete metrics for marketing
• Drives traffic to an eCommerce or website

Successful content marketing, therefore, promotes sales, increases the visibility of the company, and has a holistic impact on the customer experience, of course, in a positive way. Customers, in particular, will certainly appreciate a company that convinces with its expertise. You should take advantage of creativity. Here are some other ways content marketing helps businesses.

Increasing reliability online

Content marketing increases online credibility by building expertise and authority. The reliability of the company creates longer-term and more loyal customer relationships.

Creating value without selling

When you help customers understand and solve their problems, it lowers the threshold to become a customer later. Commitment to solution-centric content adds value.

The company is able to teach its customers about its own services and products through targeted communication and how they can solve customers ’various pain points. By controlling communication, a company is able to tell the right things to customers and thus speed up the customer’s progress in the purchasing pipeline.

The increase in reliability also makes it possible to find new customers with growing references.

Content Production and Search Engine Optimization

Good content production has taken Search Engine Optimization into account so that the content produced ranks as high as possible in search engines. Good content that cannot be found online will not produce for the company. Search engine optimized content production increases organic traffic to a company’s website in the long run. For example, problem-solving blog posts may bring in most of the online traffic in the long run after they are published.

Create content that is compelling to help your customers stay longer on the website, leading to better search engine rankings.

An extensive content library on the website allows you to go through various topics, which gives the company visibility in new keywords and increases customer comfort on the website.

By utilizing new keywords, the company expands its own target group.

Every blog, article, and posting on a company’s website has one more page that google can crawl into its search engine. Well, search engine optimized content ranks higher there.

The price of content production

The price of content production is based on the price of the work, i.e., the time spent on content production, its design, and its publication. By outsourcing a content production strategy, a company achieves a clearer picture of how to operate and what kind of content to produce. Content production supports other marketing efforts by creating content that meets customer expectations and thus increases conversions.

Content production enables sales automation as customers approach the company directly. Creating content takes time and investment, but its benefits to a business are many times greater than the time spent on it.

Measuring the results of content production

Web content can be analyzed by examining the data that the contents generate through network analytics.

The right goals for content revenue and results must first be set: what do you want from the content before measuring the success of the goals?

The goals can be, among others:

• Sales
• leads
• Brand growth
• Promoting services and products

Web analytics, its metrics, and tools can be used to measure the content itself. It is then possible to measure how customers receive the content.

Aspects of content production

The areas and types of content have expanded a lot over the years. Today, a content production strategy is able to utilize different content with different effects.

• Articles
• Releases
• Landing page or homepage content
• Blogs
• Videos and pictures
• Online Ads
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Product pages

Content marketing: where to start?

Target group: Determine your target group, make a descriptive profile of your buyer (a buyer persona) so that you know where your target group is and what information it is looking for.

Needs check: Think further about what interests your target group, what information your target group needs. Use this as a handle when creating the correct content.

Scan the possibilities: You can package information in many ways, such as an article, a blog post on an industry blog, a video, a white paper, a customer testimonial. There are so many options for packaging good content. The starting point is, of course, that the content is not necessarily about your product or service. It must match what your buyer is looking for. And your message must be consistent, only then will you be credible.

Spread your message: Your target group also has preferences about how they want to receive information. Make sure you get your information, whether this is an article or a video to your target group in the desired way. And only now, do you really have to worry about social media. The internet is, of course, a great channel to spread your information. But don’t forget that there are also very good offline ways to combine your actions with

Keep following, measuring and listening: The power of sharing information online and participating in the discussion is able to measure and evaluate. Measure because you can analyze visitor behavior, evaluate based on the figures, and because you can see responses from readers. By listening and reading what others say, you can also get input and feedback for your own thoughts.

Conclusion

Content is still king. Research shows that content marketing is the most effective form of marketing. It is important for organizations to formulate a strategy that matches the business objectives. Content creation is never the goal but the means. But content marketing remains a challenge for many organizations simply because they are not in an industry that appeals to the imagination. With the greatest effort, a business blog is irregularly written, which is read by fewer people than work in your department. It feels like a waste of time. And then you hear casually that content will only yield something if you publish consistently and consistently over a longer period of time. But if you have no idea how to create interesting content, that is a tough task.

Even if, according to others, you are in a boring industry or they find your product boring, do not hesitate. You realize you have something to show the world. Moreover, it pays extra for you to create and publish content. You have a big advantage over other companies: your competitors are also boring. Enough opportunities to distinguish yourself. On to unique content!