Stop allowing your company to fall behind because you don’t understand how to use content to spread your message and grow. Knowing how to use content marketing in your favor will help you generate more significant, more consistent readership and audience interaction.
webcastingandvirtualevents.com gathered the following information about content marketing, what it is, and some examples you can model your own content creation after.
What is Content Marketing
Content marketing is a marketing approach highly focused on the creation and distribution of valuable, relevant, and consistent content. The content is created with the intent to attract and retain a defined audience, with the ultimate goal of driving customer action and results.
Spam vs. Content Marketing
In today’s market, the average person receives multiple emails, texts, and calls from companies trying to sell them their stuff. Companies bombard people with multiple, often random ads like this all the time, almost always lacking value and relevance.
Content marketing differentiates itself from spam in that most “spam” campaigns have no specificity or individual value to present to its intended target. Content marketing, on the other hand, is specific to the subject it addresses while answering reader questions/problems.
Content Marketing Examples
Let’s say you are a cook, an easy content marketing example would be to start a cooking show on YouTube. The channel would be dedicated to all things food related, and provide compelling content for anyone that would benefit from your expertise.
In this example, a blog with videos like ‘5 Quick Meals Perfect for a Friday After Work’, or ‘Foods to Avoid If You Are On a Low-Carb Diet’ would be perfect.
Essentially, using the channel to entertain, educate, and create value for people that have a need or appreciation for your content. Not only does this lead to attracting new potential customers, but it also serves to help you gain publicity and exposure for your brand.
Nearly anything you can use to educate or inform your audience can be applied to or used in content marketing. Take the following into consideration:
Educational Articles – Such articles take specific elements of larger subjects and answer questions or doubts about them. Oftentimes, the answers these articles provide cannot be found elsewhere easily.
Videos – Like articles, videos can be highly effective at answering specific audience questions that may be difficult to answer otherwise.
Webinars – Live or recorded tutorial material can be laser-focused to reach a specific audience, addressing basic structure while effectively answering niche questions.
E-books – E-books offer the opportunity to fully educate a reader on specific subjects and still (like articles) address specific elements of much larger subjects.
Note: The difference between simple, posted content and content marketing is the destination your audience can reach through the resources found in your content and resource-rich material.
Here are a few examples of companies that give you content marketing at its best:
- Johnson & Johnson’s home page. It reads more like a digital magazine with exceptional health and wellness content.
- Four Seasons Magazine helps connect the brand to more affluent travelers.
- Cheerios Recipes comes with a wide range of recipes (many kid-friendly) made from cereal.
- American Express Business Trends and Insights – one of the greatest examples of well-structured content marketing!
- Lowe’s Creative Ideas, inspiring for homeowners while providing tutorials and answers to how projects or upgrades can be easily accomplished.
SEO and Social Media for Content Marketing
Even the most well-written content will fall stale if it cannot be found. One way to get your content in front of those it matters most to is using search engine optimization (SEO).
There’s information for days on SEO. However, focus on the following to get you started.
Identify Keywords – These words and phrases are the terms your audience types into a search engine when they look for a specific company, product, or service. The best keywords are those that use plain language, that are relevant to your product or service, and that are specific to your expertise.
Deliver the Promise – Search success depends heavily on how well your content does what it says it will do. Search engines review content, assess its relevance, and will determine whether that content delivers on what the headline promises.
Once you have your content, here’s another way to get the word out about it. Social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Medium, Instagram, GetPocket, and others are proven and easy when wanting to promote your content. You write a post, then link to your content or syndicate your post to that platform, engaging its followers.
Content Marketing
In this article, you discovered what content marketing is, how it is different, successful examples of content marketing, and how to make your content attractive to search engines.
Using content marketing to give your audience clear and precise answers to their questions will help your content gain favor with search engines, keeping it at the forefront of search results.
Avoid making hollow promises to your audience. Knowing how to use content marketing in your favor will help you generate greater, more consistent readership and audience interaction.
Sources:
gcu.edu/blog/business-management/5-tips-successful-content-marketing
sbdc.uh.edu/sbdc/How_Content_Marketing_Can_Help_Your_Small_Business.asp
See https://webcastingandvirtualevents.com/content-marketing-guide-with-examples/ for the first version of this content.
