Why You Should Use Content Marketing For Your Business

There is an endless number of ways to advertise your business, whether it be through commercials, SEO, email marketing, cold-calling, or even giveaways, the options are substantial. It is up to you to determine which methods to dedicate your valuable time to in hopes of the betterment of your business. One method that cannot be ignored is content marketing. Here’s why:

1. What is Content Marketing?

Before discussing how to implement content marketing in your business it’s important to understand what it is. Content marketing is a form of indirect marketing wherein you are not explicitly promoting a product, service, or brand, but rather provoking awareness and interest that could potentially transform a reader into a subscriber, lead, or buyer. To grasp this concept, think of a person or a brand trying to present themselves as a thought leader in their industry. This could be in the form of value, trust, authority, or other similar traits that will improve the perception of the person or brand. 

This description is still pretty vague so it will be helpful to learn more about what type of content these marketers actually produce. Generally, content marketers take a creative scope in the form of video, blogs, and social media. This content can be promoted and pushed by the brand itself, or in an increasingly relevant strategy, influencers. Content marketing is useful for various reasons; it helps businesses strengthen their relationships with a target audience. It can also massively increase and cultivate engagement, hopefully resulting in greater brand recognition and perceived value.

When thinking about great content marketers, a few, in particular, come to mind. One good example is GoPro as they produce immaculate visual content that often does not showcase their world-famous cameras. GoPro shares content recorded with their products, but not the products themself. They have garnered a large social following from sharing this type of content. GoPro’s beautiful and aesthetically pleasing Instagram feed is a testament to this, have a look for yourself:

While GoPro doesn’t explicitly display their cameras in these images, they do preview footage taken on the cameras. GoPro does a great job showcasing an intense but fun-looking lifestyle that they know caters to their audience. Other brands that display great content marketing strategies that you should check out include but are certainly not limited to Red Bull, Denny’s, Nike, and Lyft.

2. How to Implement Content Marketing in Your Business?

So, you have decided that content marketing is for you. After all, it is one of the most productive ways to gain insight into who your audience is, what they enjoy, and most notably for you, what they need. The root of content marketing is obviously content, this can include:

• Blog posts
• Advertisements
• Website copy
• Retargeting campaigns
• Running A/B tests (two different messages to see which one works best)
• Customized landing pages

This list is far from exhaustive and it should be noted that new content marketing techniques are frequently created in our fast-paced digital society. 

With that being said, let’s get into some ways to implement content marketing that will help your business:

Increasing Traffic: Creating high-quality blog posts and easy-to-read infographics is a great way to increase traffic to your website or social media platform. They are easy to share and can provide valuable information to readers. 

Increasing Social Engagement: Increasing social engagement is not an easy task, especially for smaller pages. Getting the first few likes, comments, shares, or views is the hardest part, but once you start to build an identity that should result in a larger following, you are off to the races. The best way to increase engagement is, you guessed it, to create engaging content. This can come in the form of high-quality images or videos, comical content, sneak peeks into new releases, etc. A good rule of thumb is to think of what type of content you would like to see a page such as yours post. But remember, always respond back to interactions; this will add humanizing qualities to your brand and people will be more likely to return.

Boosting Sales: Boosting sales can be an indirect success of all of your content marketing techniques as a whole. One great way to boost sales is to make an email newsletter that you can send out to anybody who has shown interest in your business. If you have yet to start collecting customer emails we recommend you get started as soon as possible. Despite being considered not as effective these days, email marketing is alive and well. The newsletters can showcase new products, sales, upcoming events, news and more. For more information on creating the perfect email newsletter, check out our guide on How to Run a Successful Email Marketing Campaign.

Consumer Education: Depending on the product or service, consumer education varies in importance. However, it is always useful. Consumer education can be achieved in a few ways, notably, tutorial videos, blog posts, testimonials, and infographics. Consumers want to understand and grasp what they will be purchasing before doing so, and by using these informative techniques, consumers will feel more confident in purchasing your products. 

Reputation Management: In today’s culture reputation management is more important than ever. The internet has the ability to make or break a business, quickly at that. One great review does not have the potential to do much, whereas one terrible review can destroy the reputation of your business. Be diligent and up-to-date with policies and ensure all employees are on the same page when it comes to your brand’s image. Good ways to portray your brand in a positive light are to issue press releases, case studies, and informative articles and graphics. You want to minimize vulnerabilities while enhancing your credibility.

Generate Leads: Generating leads differentiates based on industry. Thankfully for you, we’ve done countless research on the best way to generate leads for your industry. For example, check out this article on How to Generate Online Leads for Mortgage Brokers.

Generating leads can be easy, try doing giveaways or contests where a customer must sign up for your newsletter or follow your page to enter. We have a guide on Running a Successful Online Contest here. Other methods include webinars, ads, and other traditional media techniques. Multiple avenues should be explored when determining the most effective method for your industry. But remember, once these leads are acquired, they are nothing until you capitalize on them. Ensure your business has a method of converting leads in place so you aren’t left wasting your time.

Content marketing strategies are not limited to what’s listed here, but they’re certainly a good starting point. Whether you decide that one or all of these content marketing strategies are right for you, they should be acted on pronto. Trial and error, figuring out what works for you is oftentimes necessary. If you’re stuck on what to do, it is not unusual to look at other successful businesses within your industry, whether locally, nationally, or even internationally for inspiration. We’re not saying to copy others, but taking inspiration from multiple sources and putting your own unique spin on it is oftentimes extremely effective.

3. Content Ideation

It is difficult to know exactly what type of content to create, but once you get into a rhythm and an identity is created, it becomes much easier. You want to produce captivating content that will establish credibility for your brand. This means identifying topics related to your industry that will resonate well with your target audience. Remember to keep some sort of theme in your ideation and content creation methods as no matter how much you like talking about your pet or favourite Netflix series, it’s usually irrelevant for business purposes. 

For idea inspiration, here’s a few common topics get you going:

• Are there any game-changing industry shifts?
• Is there a solution to a problem you can fix?
• Are there any upcoming seasons, events or holidays you can discuss?
• What’s currently happening or trending in not only your industry but the world?
• What type of content are your competitors putting out?
• Are there any lists you could create? For example, Top 10 Electric Vehicles. People love lists and rankings.
• Poll your audience, what do they want to see on your page?

These topics should be a good starting point for you to explore when undergoing the content ideation stage of content marketing. Once you get posting, start taking note of what type of content people engage with until you evidently find your content groove that will bring traffic, and hopefully start converting customers to your company.

Conclusion

The content marketing world does not stop here. These are some basic tips to help you grasp the concept and get started on applying these methods to your own business. If you want to learn more about topics such as optimizing your content, content distribution, content calendars, measuring content, and more, keep an eye on our upcoming blogs or take a dive into our past posts which cover similar topics. Oh, and best of luck coming up with great ideas and hopefully your customers will love your new look marketing strategy.

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