The internet has significantly changed our way of life, especially regarding products and services and why and how we consume. Having the internet at our fingertips allows all people to do their own research and find the products they are looking for. Marketers find that their audience is more informed even before they reach out to a company for a product or service. This makes content marketing even more important. With content marketing we can understand who our target audience is, what content formats will most effectively reach that audience and what channels should be used.
Content marketing is a marketing strategy that is used to attract and retain an audience by making and sharing content including articles, videos, podcasts, and other media. It is the information made available by a website or electronic medium. Content is the message your marketing strategy delivers. This can be done in many ways including blogs, website, email, social media and landing pages. The goal of content marketing is to grow your keyword/key phrase footprint, improve your search engine optimization and lead conversions.
The first step of content marketing is defining your brand. This is extremely important. This defines the perception of your brand or product. It may seem obvious, but you would be surprised at how many people don’t take the time to create a brand. Create a style guide that includes things like fonts, color palettes, tone and voice, image standards, and other small details that will help steer your ship when creating your content. Following these guidelines will ensure that your content is consistent and relevant to your brand, and that anyone who views it can recognize it as yours. Also included in defining your brand is determining your goals. Before conducting any marketing campaign, it’s important to figure out what you are wanting to achieve. Do you want to get subscribers or followers on social platforms? Do you want to get more traffic to your website? Or is your goal to sell your product or services?
The next step is determining your target audience and coming up with a buyer persona. This helps you to figure out your ideal customer. Who are you trying to reach with your content? Who are the unique demographics on each of the content creation platforms you’ll be using? What types of content are appropriate for those demographics and marketing channels? For example, you would not want to market dog food to a person who has a turtle. Coming up with a buyer persona can help to focus your marketing strategy. Finding out which social media platforms are used by your audience will help you. If you were trying to market to a 50-year-old man, you probably wouldn’t want to use Pinterest. It’s important to figure out how your target audience prefers to receive their content and where they are looking for products and services. Knowing your audience’s age, gender, location, and occupations are also very useful. The more information you have, the more targeting your campaign will be. Getting to know their likes and dislikes and what they are interested in will also help focus your campaign.
After identifying which content you should make, the next step is obviously making the content. Knowing what your target audience wants will make this step easier and will probably save you money since this step in the process can be expensive. Bringing in influencers to collaborate can help you to focus on your target audience and overall goals. After you have great content, promoting that content on social media platforms is your next important step. Share the link to a new blog post, post new and interesting content, make a video and share it on social media are all ideas of how to promote. Posting snippets or highlights of the longer form content you made will hopefully interest your audience and encourage your viewers to look at what you have created. It’s important to remember that copyright laws must be obeyed. Make use of commercially available free stock photos instead of grabbing components from an internet search. Properly cite any links you use.
There is a lot of content out there. You’ve probably seen really good examples of both good and bad branded content. Ask yourself, what makes good content, and what do I want to avoid. We have already talked about keeping your audience in mind. It’s also important to make your branded content interesting and applicable. Storytelling is an important part of good content. Highlight the people behind your business or product. Explain how your company has changed people’s lives, or even post pictures of your pets. Find stories that make your business unique and share them with your audience. Above all, be authentic. People know when you are trying to sell something. Don’t try to frame it as something else. Just be honest and up front. People appreciate that.
The next step is to analyze your data. This involves looking at what content did well, where did you get the most followers, views, comments and likes. Google analytics can help to gather this information, along with other tools available to on-line marketers. Knowing this data can help with future marketing campaigns. It can also help to determine the success and failures of your efforts. It’s important to take the time to analyze your campaign to plan for the future and learn.
Content marketing has proven itself to be an effective way to raise brand awareness. Using a content marketing strategy can help you promote your brand smarter and more effectively. Every time you publish a piece of branded content is an opportunity to reach a wider audience who would become familiar with your brand. Take the time to develop and put out good quality branded content, and then analyze your data so that you know what works well. The effort you put into content marketing will pay off for your brand and your business. For a brand to become a household name is the peak of brand awareness, and content marketing is a key strategy in helping you achieve that.