Whether new to the world of content marketing or a business owner in need of a content marketer, people are bound to have some questions. How it works, how to get started, or how to build a successful strategy – all of these are important to know.
Content marketing isn’t as complicated as it sounds, and it can be a very effective tool for improving SEO and generating leads. Here are 5 of the most common questions about content marketing answered.
1. What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a digital marketing strategy centered around creating helpful, valuable, and relevant content to drive audience traffic and engagement. It requires consistent effort, and each piece of content needs to have a precisely defined intent and audience/need. The aim of content marketing is to provide useful information to an audience that will help them overcome any challenges they are facing.
There are many different types of content marketing, ranging from blog articles to video explainers, on various platforms.
2. What Are the Benefits of Content Marketing?
The ultimate aim of a content marketing strategy is to build the business into an authority on its niche. This establishes a connection with potential customers and helps build trust, and eventually, loyalty. However, there are other important side-benefits too:
Content marketing, when done well, gives SEO a massive boost and helps generate website traffic. Expertly-written content will have potential customers staying on the website for longer and help them progress through the sales funnel. It can also be an excellent way to generate new warm leads.
3. Where to Get Started With Content Marketing?
Diving in and writing (or getting someone else to write) a blog or social media post isn’t going to be an effective marketing strategy. Content marketing is only successful when it’s backed by audience research and specific goals/intent for the content. That intent may be to establish trust with potential clients, generate leads, or improve website SEO. Or all of the above.
Whatever the goal, it’s important that the content is helpful to whoever it targets, leading to better engagement. Continuing the conversation, either via subscription-based sign-up or social media interaction generates warm leads that are actually interested in the product.
Deciding what type of content to create and which platforms to use is one of the first steps to creating a content marketing strategy. That should be informed by two things: the business’s target audience and the type of content best suited to the industry. For example, creating a webinar about which power tools to buy doesn’t make sense. But creating a blog centered around helpful DIY tips might do the trick.
4. What Are the Best Ways to Build an Audience?
With content marketing, consistency is key. No one is going to see magical results within a week or even within a month. It’s a gradual process that has to be targeted and specific in its intent, otherwise, it will fail to engage with its intended audience.
Some of the most important questions that have to be answered before content creation even begins is:
– Who is the target audience?
– What are the questions they want to be answered or challenges they want to overcome?
– What platforms do they use?
– How many platforms will the business target? (Remember, more is less. Rather focus on creating strong content for one platform such as a business blog, than trying to do multiple things less efficiently.)
As with any type of marketing, defining the target audience is essential here because creating content that will connect with everyone is impossible.
5. How Can Not Talk About a Product Lead to a Sale?
Many marketing experts agree that pushing a product is counterproductive and usually leads to disinterest or even aggression from the potential customer. Content marketing can be considered a “soft sell” because it doesn’t directly lead to a sale. However, if done correctly with the help of inbound marketing and other efforts, content marketing effectively generates indirect sales.
This is because people aren’t necessarily interested in buying something, they want a solution to a problem or need. By establishing a connection via the content, the business can convince them that this is where they can solve the problem.
Summary
Content marketing isn’t as complicated of a concept as many people think – much like this blog post, it’s about answering the right questions. However, that doesn’t mean it’s a simple task by any means. A successful content marketing strategy still requires ample research, effort, and expertise.
