Traditional marketing is becoming less and less effective by the minute, mostly because it is ‘marketer-centric’ and focuses on the product to be sold, more than any other factor. As the years passed, this methodology began to falter and fail in its delivery and had great impact on businesses’ profit.
Forward-thinking marketers then flipped the script, and came up with the inbound methodology which is ‘consumer-centric’ and focuses on the needs of the consumers to be met. A major part of this methodology is Content Marketing.
Content marketing is all about the creation and distribution of high-quality content to attract and engage audiences online. Every brand or organisation has value to offer and your content is the presentation of that value. Every level of business can benefit from content marketing as it is relevant at every growth level of organizations. Great content, if well executed helps attract strangers and turn them to visitors, helps convert your visitors to leads, helps close your leads into customers, and ultimately helps delight your customers into being promoters. Additionally, there are three key reasons and benefits for enterprises that use content marketing: Increased sales, Cost saving, Better customers who have more loyalty.
Before delving into the types of content you can employ to effectively reach your audience, it is important to clearly state out the outcome you are aiming to reach with your content.
There are four outcomes to strongly consider:
● To entertain – this will have a strong emotional appeal to an audience, making it very shareable.
● To educate – this will allow for a wide reach especially for those who might not be in the know about products or services just yet. Again, this is often very shareable.
● To persuade – This is slightly more emotionally charged; content that gradually changes the mind of the consumer (Persuasive content will often be used in a product sense).
● To convert – Content that is more often than not rational rather than emotional as you will need a decision-making brain when considering what a conversion piece has to offer you.
That settled, it is then safe to say that the word ‘content’ is so general but must be presented to your audience in specific ways. Some popular types of content are: -
● Infographics – This is a visual representation of data or information. It allows the stats or material you are talking about to be a lot more appealing to the reader.
● Videos – This allows for a succinct explanation of whatever the videographer is trying to explain. This can be humour or learning based, and is great for everyone to enjoy.
● Memes – They are hugely popular amongst younger internet users. They are often videos and images with humorous text that typically go viral.
● User Generated Content – Any form of content; written, videoed, blog posts or discussions created by you and all thoroughly available to you.
● Q&A – Question and answer sessions can be as formal and informal.
● Research & Data – Does what is says on the tin; a whole load of statistics that might aid your readers, or yourself for that matter, in the future.
Now, how do you distribute your great content?
Creating great content is one thing; the targeted audience getting the needed information is another. Content Distribution is the act of promoting content to online audiences in multiple media formats through various channels. These channels can be categorized into three groups: Owned, Earned, and Paid. Owned Content Distribution: This includes distributing content to web properties that belong to you, like your blog, email newsletter, social media, or microsite.
Earned Content Distribution: This is when third-parties distribute your content or content about you through press coverage, guest article contributions, retweets or shares, or product reviews.
Paid Content Distribution: This is when you explicitly pay for content distribution. Payment could take many forms, but often works on a cost-per-click (CPC) model where the owner of the content pays a certain amount every time someone clicks through to view the content.
