Content marketing is a method of creating and distributing your content that is valuable, relevant, and consistent, the purpose of which is to attract and capture a specific audience, ultimately leading to profitable customer action.
The keywords in marketing your content, and which make your content different from other marketing strategies, are valuable, relevant, and consistent. You’ll know if your content has value and is deemed relevant by your target audience, if they search for it and show a desire to consume it.
Why You Need To Market Your Content
You might be wondering what puts the edge to your content, and why it’s necessary to integrate content in your marketing campaign. Youll find the answer in this buying cycle:
1) Awareness – Your target audience has a need, but may not be aware that a solution to their problem exists. You, therefore, need to make them aware of your solution.
2) Research – Once your customer becomes aware, the tendency is to do research and be informed more about the product or service to find out if it fits their needs.
3) Consideration – The customer would then compare the product against other products in the market to ensure quality and still get a fair price.
4) Purchase – After getting the assurance that this is the right product, the customer decides to go ahead and makes the transaction.
If you plan your content to include the buying cycle, youll increase the chances of clients finding your content and seeing the value in it, and by the time they contact you, theyre already convinced about your product and the decision to avail of it.
You can distribute your content through different digital marketing channels and maximizing SEO efforts. Furthermore, if you integrate your content strategy to other areas of the business, you’ll have taken a holistic approach in realizing your overall marketing goals.
The goals of marketing content online
Planning for marketing your content online may have any of the following business goals:
Brand awareness or reinforcement – The goal is how you’re going to create awareness of your product or service.
Lead conversion and nurturing – This is where you encourage customers to give you permission to market your product or service, and use your content to move them through the buying cycle.
Customer conversion – This is where you present proof to your customers, such as testimonials, why your product is better and will provide them the solution to their needs in a unique way.
Customer loyalty and retention – You may want to give this goal your major attention and turn your customers into passionate subscribers who share your stories. Examples of how you can retain your customers are e-newsletters, user events, tablet magazines, and seminars.
Customer behavior is always changing, which makes it crucial that you move and adjust with the change. That doesnt mean setting aside traditional marketing, since there may be instances when it’s applicable. However, it would be to your great benefit to leverage online content marketing and reap substantial ROI for your business.