You may have heard people refer to content marketing and wonder about what it actually consists of and why it’s important. Is it truly necessary for your business to thrive? Or are you throwing time and money in the trash by creating copy that’s not designed to sell? In this blog, we’re going to explain what content marketing is, give examples of content marketing, and evaluate its value to your marketing strategy.

What is Content Marketing?

Simply put, content marketing refers to producing content that goes a step beyond ad copy. Ad copy describes what your business is, what it’s selling, and why the consumer should buy it. But content marketing goes a step beyond that to build informative content that engages potential customers on a different level.

For example, let’s say, you own a company that sells cookware. Consumers interested in cookware may also  frequently be interested in cooking and cooking content. Therefore a cookware company may write blogs or create videos centered around cooking techniques and recipes.  They may also target their audience by answering potential questions of those in the market to buy cookware.

Maybe a potential customer is wondering what the practical differences are between cast iron and steel cookware. An intelligent content marketing strategy may be to write a blog differentiating the two, and giving helpful information for their potential consumer.

What are Some Examples of Content Marketing?

Content marketing can take various forms, videos, blogs,  social media posts, all of which can be optimized to enhance a content marketing strategy. But the ideal content messaging, approach, and form of content can vary widely depending on a variety of factors. Brand image, target audience and available time and resources will all play a role in determining your brand’s strategy.

For example, a company with a casual brand image may have no problem uploading content that highlights casual conversation among coworkers and a relaxed work culture. This combined with a younger target demographic may mean that Tik Tok would be a good fit for them.They can upload short, non time-consuming-to-make content that highlights social media trends and fun work culture within the company.

 Emphasizing their casual image could serve to make the viewer feel more connected to and sentimental about the people and the business as a whole. But this may not serve every business the same. Some target audiences will be more likely to appreciate this than others, and some work is to be taken more seriously than others.

If a company’s target audience consists of a younger demographic, platforms like TikTok could be an ideal match. Here, they can effortlessly share brief, engaging content that emphasizes current social media trends and the company’s lively work culture.

If however, a brand aims to define itself with professionalism in the space, different platforms and content messaging could be necessary to achieve that.

What are The Benefits of Content Marketing?

Content that does not directly sell to consumers may seem superfluous to some. Number-oriented people may be disheartened at the lack of ability to track costs for customers the same way. It may be slightly harder to perceive exactly what content drove the conversion. However, this should not devalue the practice of content marketing. In fact, it’s the wrong way to look at content-marketing altogether. The content in a content marketing strategy often works in tandem to establish trust. How do we grow to trust people in our personal lives? We perceive their actions over time.

Content marketing is much the same. But this is not to say you shouldn’t see a return on investment. If implemented correctly, there will be undeniable benefits. Content Marketing is a unique and important practice that will surely expand your reach within the market. Here are just some of the benefits that can come from content marketing:

• Content Marketing Can Establish You as The Authority in Your Field

One of the really great things about content Marketing is that it serves as proof of competency. When a consumer stumbles upon your business online, you want to put your best foot forward and content marketing can do just that.

Putting out content that informs your audiences about your products or services establishes you as an expert in the field. This makes you a more viable candidate should they decide to purchase a product or service from you. The consumer can rest safe knowing they’re in competent hands.

• Content Marketing Familiarizes You to Your Target Audience in The Upper Funnel

The difference between Ad Copy and Content Marketing is not only whether writing is directly selling to consumers. We also experience these types of writing in different contexts.

When do you see Ad Copy? Well there are a few places but ad copy often appears in the form of a distraction to the content you were intending to consume: pop up ads, commercials, unskippable YouTube ads, distractions from the article we were reading.

Ad copy in these contexts is necessary, it extends the reach and familiarity of your brand and it does frequently translate to higher sales as well. That being said, ad copy in this context can also be annoying. In the most favorable scenarios we’re reading ad copy on websites or as a response to a service we searched for.

Content Marketing can reach this upper funnel of people not yet ready to pull out their pocketbook. Your content serves as an informative source of information about your products and services first, targeting people gathering information about a purchase they may one day want to make.

Content Marketing has the advantage of being information the consumer seeks out, therefore it avoids the “annoying” adjective that sometimes befalls it’s ad copy brethren. But it still creates that same brand recognition, consumer loyalty and authority that Ad Copy does. Believe us, you do not want a competitor to establish that loyalty and trust before the consumer falls into the lower sales funnel. 

Don’t get us wrong, knowing how to write good ad copy can get you far, and things like a good PPC campaign are a worthy investment. But even with the help of our how-to blogs, some things can be difficult to navigate on your own. PPC Campaigns for example can require a lot of strategy, an intimate knowledge of the platform and a careful consideration of keywords, budget and campaign type to see a good return on investment. Oftentimes it is best left to the professionals. Other ads, like ads within videos and articles can be similarly pricey, requiring you to empty your bank account before you see the benefits.

It isn’t always easy to see the return on investment you’d like without the help of professionals, whereas you can post content yourself if you have a few hours to spare. 

The added benefit of content marketing is that it can serve to move consumers down the sales funnel faster. Imagine you’re selling an induction cooktop. Maybe someone does not want to purchase an induction cooktop, but they’re curious about how it differs from a gas stove. You write a blog detailing some of differences, different outlets, and the different mechanisms used. The reader is interested but not persuaded.

They wonder then what the benefits are to switching and they click a link in your blog that leads to another piece you wrote about the pros of a cooktop. They read about how the cooktop is more environmentally friendly, how it cooks food faster, and has built-in safety features. They remember the time they hadn’t turned the knob all the way and the house started to smell like gas.

Suddenly they start to consider if they should swap out their gas stove for a cooktop.

• Content Marketing Improves Your SEO 

The consumer doesn’t even have to make the decision to purchase right then or even remember the company that wrote the blog. Google personalization means that in some scenarios the result page of Google is catered to  account preferences. If a consumer previously visits your site to consume blog content, or visits your YouTube channel, this may mean you appear higher in search results when they go to type in your service later.  This creates ease of accessibility and further solidifies you in the consumers mind as an authority.

Speaking of the results pages, this bleeds into our next and favorite point. If the content you create is good enough, it serves to boost your SEO. Good, informative content with good link structure goes a long way for SEO! If you’d like to learn a little bit more about what SEO (Search Engine Optimization )is, what it can do for your business or how to improve yours, you can check out the linked pages or previous blogs. In short though, the better your SEO is, the higher you will appear in Google’s (and other search engine’s) search organically. This is true whether or not you’ve searched for the company in the past. 

The Best Part of Content Marketing

The best part about content marketing is that unlike other forms of digital marketing, which are sometimes best left to the professionals, content creation is easy and accessible for people to produce themselves. While you may want to be careful about linking optimization, so as not to be penalized, if you write a good informative blog with relevant links, you should be in the clear. 

However, if you are short on time, or you would just like a designated team of professionals to create the best content marketing strategy possible, feel free to contact us here at IntoClicks. Other information about content marketing will be posted on the blog shortly. In the mean time, feel free to browse the rest of our blog for other helpful information about web design digital marketing.