Why Content Marketing is King

Marketing is an ever-evolving industry, where new strategies are constantly emerging, however content marketing has always preceded other forms of marketing and will continue to, which has rightfully crowned content marketing as king. In a world where marketing strategies are the essence to a successful business, it often comes down to the brand with the best content marketed as this ensures consumers are engaged and connected with the brand. That is, the type of quality of the content is the dichotomy between prosperous and futile companies, where those companies with superior content marketing outshine their competitors. In this way, content marketing levels the playing field for everyone by providing smaller businesses with less resources to exceed their competitors simply by developing better, more captivating content. To further support this large, yet truthful statement, content marketing can take so many forms and this diversity means relevant content will reach consumers in ways that are most effective to them

Below are a range of content marketing forums, supported with reasons that reinforce why content marketing is king.

Electronic Direct Mail Marketing (EDM):

EDMs utilize multiple forms of communications to reinforce a campaign message and is a powerful way to reach consumers. Considering emails are such a prevalent form of communication world-wide, it is a simple way to communicate with consumers. However, with so many brands using EDMs, people are often left inundated with emails and selecting the most appealing emails to open, therefore, it is imperative to ensure EDM titles are click-worthy to guarantee they reach consumers to achieve their effectiveness. An effective strategy to optimize the effectiveness of EDMs is to use a B2B marketing model by implementing the customer’s name into the email. This personalizes the email and assists in developing a relationship with customers. Engendering cordial relationships with consumers supports customer retention which provides long-term benefits to all brands such as positive word of mouth, loyalty, etc.

Content is integral to creating a successful EDM, hence there is great value in investing time and money into EDMs. Other significant advantages of EDMs include increasing sales, boosting client loyalty, generating leads and much more. EDMs have been a go-to marketing strategy for a long time, and it is definitely a worthwhile strategy to continue investing in as emails generate $42 for every $1 spent, calculating an astonishing 42,000% ROI!

Blogs:

Displaying a well-connected, engaging blog with interesting content is crucial as these blogs are frequently updated, and the use of captivating content is key to captivate consumers. Blog content is generally what first entices audiences to the website and if blog posts at first glance seem uninviting, this will directly impact its popularity.

A successful blog post embodies content that adds value to consumers in some form. Value-added content addresses consumer problems, providing them an incentive to engage with your blog post. As a result of value-added content, blogs are kept fresh, content is more likely to be shared, better SEO and most importantly blog readers can be converted into consumers. Therefore, it is the quality of the content that directly impacts the success of the blog, to which consumers are likely to respond well to value-added content.

Social media:

The proliferation of social-media over recent years has meant that content marketing on social media has the sole ability to build brand success. With over 4.48 billion active social-media users worldwide, people often choose to follow accounts based on the content posts. Therefore, people/brands must carefully curate content to ensure it fosters a following on the page. While 90% of companies engage in content marketing, it is rare for their content to be satisfactory which has adverse effects on their brand’s name and reputation.
It is important to note that the tone used in posts differ across each social-media platform, where content should be adjusted accordingly to suit the specific forum.

3 tips brands should follow to improve their social media content are:

• Use Smart Structuring – Ensure content is well-organized and is simple to read. The use of bullet points and numbers make content succinct and precise.
• Add value to users – Users appreciate accounts where their content enhances their lives and/or knowledge in some way.
• Create infographics – consumers respond well to images in the form of infographics. Social-media users predominantly share visual content, and a well-designed infographic means users are more likely to share the post.

The best part about social-media marketing is that it is cost-effective, costing as little as $20 per month. Social-media sites often provide comprehensive analysis on posts to inform people of the effectiveness of their posts, where they have the option to engage with paid advertisements to further their reach across the platform.

SEO:

SEO is a pivotal factor that directly impacts the success of all businesses as it determines how highly websites rank when searched for. The type of content incorporated on the website and what it says is a key parameter in determining the position of the website’s ranking, and as due to the importance of having a high-ranking website, content should be effective and well-organized. Another factor that contributes to a website’s SEO ranking are meta tags and the title used. Presenting succinct, well written and direct titles/meta tags can be the distinction between a high or low ranked website and as users are likely to click on websites that are ranked higher up. As the content directly impacts the website’s ranking, content from the site’s title, layout and images should all be optimized to improve its overall SEO ranking.

Overall, content marketing can take so many different forms. This article has only scraped the surface of just a few forums, including EDMs, blogs, social-media, and SEO. All these platforms enunciate that content is key to success as it is the means used to communicate with consumers and foster any existing or potential relationships. Therefore, as the content used is pivotal in achieving success in all marketing strategies, this directly recapitulates why ‘content is king’.

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