What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a strategic presentation of relevant knowledge and valuable information in the form of visuals, text, and motion for your target customers. Businesses do content marketing to educate their target audience about the product / service benefits and offerings. Right content marketing strategies help to attract new customers and retain the existing ones by delivering an appropriate message.
Content marketing is a consistent strategic marketing approach that is helping organizations to promote brand awareness, trust, and loyalty among the targeted audience. Enlighten your target audience by sharing a variety of regular creative content and advance them to take action in favor of your brand.
The broad categorization of content marketing
Whether it is digital marketing or traditional marketing, content is always the king. To create creatively empowered content and to publish it in various platforms requires great skills, knowledge, and experience. Engaging content generates curiosity and interest among the preferred audience, whereas bad content just neutralizes the evolving brands. Consider creating every form of content while planning your content marketing strategy to reap the maximum benefits. Below mentioned, three forms of content marketing work as a whole for the benefit of the businesses and attract potential customers.
Content marketing is a strategic presentation of relevant knowledge and valuable information in the form of visuals, text, and motion for your target customers. Businesses do content marketing to educate their target audience about the product / service benefits and offerings. Right content marketing strategies help to attract new customers and retain the existing ones by delivering an appropriate message.
Content marketing is a consistent strategic marketing approach that is helping organizations to promote brand awareness, trust, and loyalty among the targeted audience. Enlighten your target audience by sharing a variety of regular creative content and advance them to take action in favor of your brand.
The broad categorization of content marketing
Whether it is digital marketing or traditional marketing, content is always the king. To create creatively empowered content and to publish it in various platforms requires great skills, knowledge, and experience. Engaging content generates curiosity and interest among the preferred audience, whereas bad content just neutralizes the evolving brands. Consider creating every form of content while planning your content marketing strategy to reap the maximum benefits. Below mentioned, three forms of content marketing work as a whole for the benefit of the businesses and attract potential customers.
- Textual
The textual content can also be termed as written content or content created in words. Either you are having a blog, website, product or services textual content will always be there for describing the value of the business offerings to the end customers. Crisp clear and relevant information in writing eliminates confusion among the audience and creates a sense of satisfaction. Acts as an explanatory tool that solves every query of the customer in detail and helps customers taking write decisions during the actual purchase decisions.
Types of textual content- Article
- Webpages
- Whitepaper
- Ebooks
- Case studies
- User manuals
- Newsletters
- Pricing tables
- Testimonials
- Brand stories
- FAQ
- Visual
Visual content is considered to be among the most efficient and effective ways to communicate a message with the target audience. Visual content marketing refers to the usage of images in any form to convey valuable information effectively and engagingly. Visual content can also capture customer's attention in a more creative way than the traditional textual content. Though textual content can also be the part of visual content and accompanying together they can work like charm to the targeted eyes. Nowadays visual content is the most shared content on social media and a key part of business marketing strategies.
Types of visual content- Images
- Posters
- Infographics
- Screenshots
- Magazines
- Motion / Video
The power of video content can be realized with the fact that the Youtube video streaming platform is the number one platform on the internet and according to studies by 2021 videos will represent 80% of all internet traffic and that stats will continue to grow. Businesses are trying to capture audience attention by narrating effective stories concerning the brands and are actively posting videos on social media platforms as well as on Youtube to wheedle the emotions. Videos are giving opportunities to the businesses to do better and communicate relevantly, which in turn bringing conversions, leads and higher sales for the brands.
Types of video content- Explainer Video
- Vlogs
- Podcasts
- Webinar
- Tutorials
How marketers define a successful content marketing strategy for their Business / Brand
Content marketing is a long term strategy that importantly focuses on building a better relationship with the target audience by providing them with relevant and high-quality content. Before creating a content marketing strategy for your business, marketers must ask few questions from them written below:
Content marketing is a long term strategy that importantly focuses on building a better relationship with the target audience by providing them with relevant and high-quality content. Before creating a content marketing strategy for your business, marketers must ask few questions from them written below:
- Who will be the target audience
For whom you are creating your content? Who will be the target audience and how they will get affected by the piece of information you are crafting? Defining customer demographics and customer personas at the first stage will give you clear guidelines and help you immensely in content writing. - What is the goal of content creation
Specific goals and objectives of the content must be defined in the early stage to communicate better with your target audience? Content can be created for enticing the emotions, customer interactions or just a piece of information. A clear goal leads to the success path and lets you stay focused on achievements. - Does it solves the target audience's problem
Meaningless content does not get much appreciation and efforts are wasted without any recognition, content should solve the problems and queries of the targeted people with reasonable and relevant solutions. - What content formats will be focused
Sometimes businesses just need visual content or textual content, they might not need video content. Focus on what format will bring you more satisfied customers and can create better engagement with the brand. Make proper use of content marketing format for your brand and save your time, money and effort. - Which channels - it will be published
Created content is not useful until the time you have not planned where your content is going to publish and what all channels you will be catering to ultimately reach your target audience. Social media and video streaming platforms have seen massive growth in few years and they will grow in the future too, consistent posting of your content in the various platforms will give your brand leverage and motivation to grow. - Consistency - how often the content will be posted
Planning is the best part and very important too, it decides the success of any content marketing strategy. Scheduled posting of creative content generates loyalty and curiosity among the target audience. Don’t make your target audience wait for the information they are seeking, fed them right and that's too on time. - How the content ROI will be measured
Content created is posted on various channels, it is very much required to analyze the content strategy, that how effectively it worked and what are changes with the benefits it brought. Does business gain more leads and conversions or more social media following? Post analysis of the implemented strategy will help you in your future decisions and guide you to follow the right path.
The marketers need to grab every benign opportunity breeding in the target zone and convert that in favor of their business. Initiatives that are taken by businesses in planning and forging content marketing strategy perpetually leads to rewarding profitable results. To perform content marketing, marketers need a worthwhile planned blueprint to segment their content into the top, middle and bottom-funnel strategy.
TOFU - Top of the funnel = Awareness
The first stage of content marketing where the audience's attention is captured by using relevant content tools. By providing essential and pertinent information businesses answer the queries of the customers and try to resolve the problems to maximum satisfaction. Trust is built and visibility is enhanced in this stage of marketing by creating creative consistent content. At this stage of content marketing, marketers try to create a positive impression of the business or brand in the minds of the target audience. The majority of the traffic landing on your web-page with the help of TOFU will be researchers, who may or may not turn into leads.
Types of content created at this stage are:
Content created at TOFU (Top of the funnel) generates and facilitates
The first stage of content marketing where the audience's attention is captured by using relevant content tools. By providing essential and pertinent information businesses answer the queries of the customers and try to resolve the problems to maximum satisfaction. Trust is built and visibility is enhanced in this stage of marketing by creating creative consistent content. At this stage of content marketing, marketers try to create a positive impression of the business or brand in the minds of the target audience. The majority of the traffic landing on your web-page with the help of TOFU will be researchers, who may or may not turn into leads.
Types of content created at this stage are:
- Blog posts
- Infographics
- Whitepapers
- Ebooks
- Research reports
- Social media updates
- Display ads
- Introductory emails
Content created at TOFU (Top of the funnel) generates and facilitates
- Trust
- Awareness
- Better perception
- Visibility growth
- High volume and low value
MOFU - Middle of the funnel = Consideration
Content marketing at the middle stage of funnel creates an opportunity to bring the new leads or prospects closer to purchase and prompt the user to take favorable action for the brands. Prospects carefully thought and evaluate the benefits and build more confidence to turn into a lead. Leads at this stage are very suspicious and try to resolve every query cooking in their minds, content marketers have to be very careful at this stage and don’t have to push much harder on sales at this stage. Nurture them more, equip them with relevant content and enjoy lead to conversion benefits in the later stage.
Types of content created at this stage are:
Content created at MOFU (Middle of the funnel) generates and facilitates
Content marketing at the middle stage of funnel creates an opportunity to bring the new leads or prospects closer to purchase and prompt the user to take favorable action for the brands. Prospects carefully thought and evaluate the benefits and build more confidence to turn into a lead. Leads at this stage are very suspicious and try to resolve every query cooking in their minds, content marketers have to be very careful at this stage and don’t have to push much harder on sales at this stage. Nurture them more, equip them with relevant content and enjoy lead to conversion benefits in the later stage.
Types of content created at this stage are:
- Emails
- Micro-blogs
- Comparison tables
- Surveys / Quizzes
- Offers and discounts
- Webinars
- Newsletters
- Presentations
- Podcasts
- Loyalty campaigns
Content created at MOFU (Middle of the funnel) generates and facilitates
- Interest and evaluation
- Less volume and moderate value
- Reputation growth
BOFU - Bottom of the funnel = Conversion
The last stage of the content marketing funnel is mostly focused on closing the deal and prospect conversion. Content created at this stage achieves its objective of target audience engagement and satisfaction. Now only the valuable leads are nurtured and the quantity of the target audience is shrunk more towards quality. Content created at this stage is product specific or business-specific and general awareness articles are almost restricted. Content is created more specifically to make prospects clear about deliverables, benefits and offerings. Product manuals, product demos, customer stories are arranged at this stage to build maximum loyalty and trust in the customer's mind. At this stage, prospects are ready or excited to buy your product or want to try the service. Relationships are built and long term customer retention strategies start working from there.
Types of content created at this stage are:
Content created at BOFU (Bottom of the funnel) generates and facilitates
Content marketing is considered a consistent approach and always planned as a long term business strategy. To meet the goals of the organization it is very important to create the marketing content structure and regularly review and update the content marketing strategy. Successful use of content marketing channels and strategies can definitely bring organic traffic towards your business website and ultimately boost conversions, plan your content effectively and hit the right spots.
The last stage of the content marketing funnel is mostly focused on closing the deal and prospect conversion. Content created at this stage achieves its objective of target audience engagement and satisfaction. Now only the valuable leads are nurtured and the quantity of the target audience is shrunk more towards quality. Content created at this stage is product specific or business-specific and general awareness articles are almost restricted. Content is created more specifically to make prospects clear about deliverables, benefits and offerings. Product manuals, product demos, customer stories are arranged at this stage to build maximum loyalty and trust in the customer's mind. At this stage, prospects are ready or excited to buy your product or want to try the service. Relationships are built and long term customer retention strategies start working from there.
Types of content created at this stage are:
- Product demonstrations
- Testimonials
- Case studies
- Events
- Specifications and manuals
Content created at BOFU (Bottom of the funnel) generates and facilitates
- Actual decisions
- Conversion
- Lowest volume and highest value
- Client-base growth
Content marketing is considered a consistent approach and always planned as a long term business strategy. To meet the goals of the organization it is very important to create the marketing content structure and regularly review and update the content marketing strategy. Successful use of content marketing channels and strategies can definitely bring organic traffic towards your business website and ultimately boost conversions, plan your content effectively and hit the right spots.
7 Benefits of content marketing for your business growth
- Search engine visibility
Content marketing strategy helps your website rank better and higher in search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo, when specific keyword searches are performed by the target audience. Infusion of better and targeted keywords with highly valuable information delivers better visibility in the search engines. Usage of different content formats (like Text, images, videos), length of information provided and the choice of article/topic also helps in the visibility of the brand on the first page of search engines.
Try to keep the average length of your blog articles between 2000 to 2500 words or more, it doesn't mean that small articles are not effective but it is analyzed that more content delivers better engagement with the target audience and leads to better rankings. The reader stays and spends more time on your page receiving more information, thus decreasing the bounce rate on your site. Collaboratively all these above factors play a vital role in search engine visibility and better rankings. Do consider the mentioned points while defining your content marketing strategy to enjoy better visibility and better business growth:
- Relevant keywords
- Article length
- Unique content
- Viral topics
Create content for the knowledge seekers who want to know more about your business and offering. Satisfied readers have an extreme tendency to turn into loyal customers and future visitors. - Better awareness
Quality content related to your brand offerings helps your targeted customers to gather more and purposeful information about your brand. Better knowledge lead customers to a better perception and create interest to explore more. Important messages are delivered accurately with the help of brand-specific content and help the establishment of the business in the minds of the customers. Top of mind awareness plays an important role in the success of the brand, targeted customers recognize and recall brand easily while doing the actual purchase or certain actions. - Increased traffic to your website
Valuable content and relevant information increase the traffic towards your website. Consistent content amazingly optimizes your website and ranking on search engines and benefit your website with more traffic. Usage of images and videos with intuitive textual content delivers better engagement and significant traffic towards your site. Multi-format creative content is extremely valuable, usage of infographics, charts, flyers, vlogs, explainer videos, tutorials, etc. deliver great engagement and frequently shared liked on social media platforms. It is advised to write alt text and proper tagging to your images and videos before posting on your website. Proper tagging helps web browsers to recognize and identify your content easily, thus search engines are more likely to rank you higher in their search results. Higher the rank on the search engines higher will be the traffic on your site. - Lead generation and conversion
More traffic landing on your website surely comes with great benefits. Every business to achieve its objectives needs customers and quality content present on your blog helps with that. Potential audience landing on your page in the search for valuable information or explicit answers to the queries if get benefited from your blog content, then there will be a fair chance that knowledge seeker ultimately turns into the lead or future conversion. Always include a call-to-action buttons in your blog content, for example, click the button, contact us, subscribe, newsletter subscription, like share, CTAs help brands by prompting your satisfied audience to take action in favor of your business. For example, if you have created a video on Youtube channel you may ask for subscribing to your channel or click on the bell icon for future posts visibility. Brands should be careful and don't force or push visitors to perform actions, subtle reminders and attached offerings are the way to go. Try giving Free ebooks or newsletters in exchange for email ids and soon lead flow will generate for your business and acquired leads will be the future conversions. - Growing email lists
With the help of content marketing businesses can grow genuine email lists for present and future promotions. Growing email lists will help your business to engage the targeted audience in more advanced and specific ways. People share their email ids only if they are really interested in your offerings and seek more knowledge about your business. After getting email or contact information about prospective customers’ businesses need quick actions and strategies to make the leads matured. Effective and engaging high-value content with appropriate information must be created keeping in mind the queries and requirements of generated leads. - Building loyalty and trust
Engaging content created to provide information to the customers helps in long term trust-building and convinces the readers or prospects to be loyal to the business. When marketers create content in an effective storytelling way, the content resonates deeply in the reader's mind and creates deeply emotive narratives. Generating emotions and positive feelings for the brand can impress readers and in return, brands can enjoy long term benefits like trust, relations, and loyalty. One satisfied customer brings many more to your business. Satisfaction and better engagement lead to word of mouth and free advertising. Every brand seeks loyal customers who trust their brand and business but earning loyalty and customer trust can be a daunting task, here content plays a very important role to achieve the business goals. Creative, informative and consistent content sharing with your readers will automatically establish trust and build loyalty. - Brand reputation and recognition
Brand reputations and recognition means customers trust your brand and think they are getting the most valuable benefits while purchasing your products or services. Brands with a great reputation earn more profits and enjoy more loyal customers. A positive reflection of your business and good experience can be established by publishing engaging and useful content on various platforms throughout the traditional and digital channels. Content builds confidence among the readers and pushes them to make favorable decisions for the brand either subscribing, purchasing or sharing with their friends. Brand reputation and recognition are the long term goals of the company and creative content created in multi- formats like textual, visuals and motion entice customer's trust for the brand. Expert reviews, explainer videos, testimonials, guides, guest posts, etc. helps businesses to earn a great reputation and recognition.
Trust and loyalty for the brand should be seen as long term strategy and businesses should focus on creating more and more relevant content for their readers. Information provided now to your prospects or suspects will generate leads in the future. Start a professional blog or just share tips and tricks, always try to create the content that benefits the customer. Engaging content brings past readers back on your website in search of more content and sooner or later your readers become followers of your writing and creativity. Embedding call to actions, freebies, downloadables, discount coupons or free subscriptions within your content will bring fresh leads, emails and more prospects to your website. Be consistent in your writing and make sure you have solved a certain problem by given a perfect solution to the question or a problem of the readers.
@Jirafix, Our dedicated team of professional content writers has helped many businesses to grow and rank better. Contact us for all your content marketing needs.
@Jirafix, Our dedicated team of professional content writers has helped many businesses to grow and rank better. Contact us for all your content marketing needs.