CONTENT MARKETING
White Papers – Podcasts – Video – Vertical Marketing – Blogging – Email Marketing
Content marketing involves the regular creation and distribution of content for the purpose of establishing a brand as an expert in its industry. If you have ever followed a blog or signed up for an email newsletter, you know that content must be engaging to capture your attention. Well, the same goes for content published on behalf of your brand.
Content marketing is a crucial component of effective digital marketing. With 93% of organizations saying they started to pay more attention to content marketing in 2014, your business can’t afford to miss out. Imagine That can help your business publish quality content on a regular basis. Let’s talk about how to implement content marketing as part of your online marketing strategy.
Get Started with Content Marketing
White Papers – Podcasts – Video – Vertical Marketing – Blogging – Email Marketing
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is the practice of making your valuable, relevant content available to consumers, in as many formats and across as much media as possible. Content can mean anything from podcasts to infographics, white papers and eBooks. Offering quality content that customers actually want to consume means being able to connect with them in ways that go beyond traditional digital marketing channels like search engines and social media.
How does Content Marketing work?
There is no cut and dried answer as to how content marketing works. Your business is different than your competitors, so your content strategy should be too. When it comes to content marketing, the strategy must be built around the content, not the content around the strategy. Ask yourself: if your business could talk, what would it say? Why should people, including your customers, choose to listen?
For example, let’s say your company sells fire extinguishers, alarms, and services for fire protection and prevention. You might have produced a great white paper on the importance of maintaining fire-defensible zones around homes in wilderness areas (a real concern where we are in Frisco, CO). This sounds like great content, very relevant and useful. So, you will want to make this content available to the public in as many ways as possible, repurposing it for each media.
The white paper might inspire you to create an infographic showing the step-by-step process for maintaining a safe zone around the home. Or, you could create a series of relevant podcasts or marketing videos. The white paper might even inspire a social media campaign. You could post regular content inviting followers to tell stories about how they make their homes safer against fire.
With no end to content marketing in sight, your whitepaper could be turned into a slideshow presentation. The presentation could be submitted to a number of online slideshow sharing sites, being shown to more and more people. And it goes on and on. From one white paper, you have been able to create several sets of content, targeting a variety of users in a variety of formats. You’ve just gone way beyond traditional online marketing.
Why is Content Marketing important?
There are a few reasons content marketing is important for your business. First, it helps to establish your brand as an authority in the public’s eyes. Businesses that are able to consistently demonstrate expertise in their industries start to gain the public’s trust. This trust is essential to the growth of your business. Trust leads to more conversions, sales and signups – whatever your metric is. If you are seen as a leader in your industry, the public will turn to you when it has questions.
Unlike some other forms of online marketing, the goal of content marketing is not always to sell or market something. The goal is to provide valuable content meant for consumers. That’s why people are so open to it. They willingly engage with content marketing because its primary purpose is to share, inform and educate. The benefits to your brand are your reward for adding value to your industry.
Content and Digital Marketing
Content marketing is a powerful way to gain public trust and establish your business as a leader in your industry. In online marketing, trust is the most important factor leading to conversions. When people trust you, they are willing to do business with you. When you give the public content that adds value to their lives with no strings attached, trust in your brand grows. Imagine That can help you develop a content marketing strategy that will extend your brand reach way beyond search engines and social media. Contact us today and let’s talk about it!