The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing Strategy

We receive meaningless and irrelevant information from companies all the time; most of it landing in our spam folders.

The truth is, traditional advertising methods are becoming less effective by the day. Rather than interrupting customers to get noticed, content marketing attracts customers to the business. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are creating relevant content to your target audience. In doing so, you are building trust and customer conversions.

Benefits of Content Marketing

By creating content that is relevant and valuable for the reader, you will develop a clearly defined audience. With the acquisition of this target group, you will be able to drive profitable consumer action through directed marketing and advertising strategy (which we will speak about soon). But first, let’s go over the benefits of content marketing:

• Cost savings: Awareness is built through the development of relevant and informative content rather than the implementation of costly traditional advertising mediums. Creating content is not a costly process, since distributing your content online can be completely free.
• Acquire better customers: Distributing relevant content can help businesses connect with customers who are best suited to the brand’s offerings. High-quality education will build trust and loyalty over time, as it will reflect your company’s ability to satisfy the needs of the consumer.
• SEO Optimization: The use of relevant keywords in your content will allow it to rank higher in search engine results. SEO demands content and posting consistent, relevant content to your website will inevitably optimize your search engine rankings.

Traditional Marketing and Content Marketing

It is important that you continue your traditional advertising strategy as well. In considering the buying process, we know it is made up of 4 steps; awareness, research, consideration and buying. Content marketing is great when it comes to the first 2 steps:

1. Awareness: A customer may have an unsatisfied need and are searching the web for a solution to fulfil it. Your content will provide them with the information they are seeking.
2. Research: Your content may inform these customers of a solution that they otherwise would not have considered. By educating them about your offering, they may consider your service as a potential purchase.

Traditional advertising can have an impact on the first two steps; however, it excels in the final 2 stages of the buying process:

1. Consideration: The customer will begin comparing different products from competitors. It is up to advertising to build value in the mind of the consumer.
2. Buy: The customer buys the product and receives post-purchase services.

Steps to Construct a Content Marketing Strategy

1. Know your purpose: Start with a vision and then work toward a plan on how content will help you achieve that vision. Why are you creating the content and how will it provide value for your business?
2. Define your audience: By clearly defining your target audience, you can develop content that is designed to appeal to them. Research what sites they frequent and what platforms they mostly utilise to get a better understanding of where you should distribute your content.
3. Brainstorm ideas and create content: Provide content that resonates with your customers. Rather than promoting your brand, the purpose is to write content that benefits the reader. If you are struggling to develop ideas to create content about, research the topics that get the most engagement on other websites (especially likes and shares). While most content will stay relevant for lengthy periods, you should not disregard viral or timely topics. You can present your content in a variety of ways including:
   1. Blogs
   2. Podcasts
   3. Templates
   4. Videos
   5. Books
4. Publish content and monitor performance: With the aim of exposing your content to as much as your target audience as possible, it is imperative that you distribute it through as many suitable mediums as possible. Also, with a content calendar in place, you will ensure frequent and consistent content is posted to your website.

The Importance of Social Media with Content Marketing

Social media is pivotal in amplifying your brand’s reach. As you are attempting to distribute your content to the largest audience possible, you must consider posting your content through additional mediums. Research the primary platforms that your target market is most active on and begin delivering content through these mediums where you know a potential customer may be exposed to it. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest are the main platforms that should be considered. However, your content may require repurposing to appeal to the audience of the platform in which it is shared.

Content marketing provides various benefits that traditional advertising strategies cannot obtain. It supports digital marketing channels through improving SEO and link generation, whilst attracting and retaining a clearly defined audience. The development of suitable and well-constructed content can drive profitable customer action and therefore should not be ignored.