All You Need to Know: Content Marketing - the new favorite
Conventional advertising methods, such as TV commercials, print ads, or out-of-home, are often costly and time-consuming to produce. As a result, advertisers tend to create marketing materials that focus on their products or brands, rather than on their customers’ needs or preferences. However, with the advent of the internet and social media, online advertising has emerged as a more affordable and efficient way to generate awareness and reach a wider audience. The downside is that the online advertising landscape is saturated with competing messages, making it harder for advertisers to stand out and connect with their potential customers.
Target marketing is a partial solution to this problem, as it allows advertisers to tailor their messages to the specific interests and characteristics of their audience, using online data and analytics. However, this is not enough to win over today’s savvy and demanding customers, who expect more than just product features or benefits. They want to be informed, entertained, and inspired by the content they consume. This is where content marketing comes in.
What is Content Marketing and its benefits?
Content marketing is a marketing strategy that involves creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract and retain a target audience. Content marketing can take various forms, such as articles, videos, podcasts, infographics, ebooks, webinars, and more. The key is to provide content that educates, entertains, or inspires the audience, rather than directly promoting the product or brand. Content marketing enables businesses to achieve several objectives, such as:
Answering their audience’s questions and providing solutions to their problems.
Building credibility and establishing themselves as authorities in their industry.
Improving their SEO and organic traffic by ranking for relevant keywords.
Retaining customers with engaging and personalized content.
Generating word-of-mouth and viral effects by creating shareable and memorable content.
Examples of Content Marketing
Content marketing is not limited to creating original content, but also involves curating and repurposing existing content to suit different platforms and audiences. Here are some examples of how different businesses use content marketing to engage their customers and prospects:
News media industry: The news media industry uses content marketing to attract and retain subscribers by offering them timely, relevant, and insightful news content. They also use their own commentaries or perspectives to tease their readers and entice them to sign up for more exclusive or in-depth content. This is more effective than just running a generic ad with a promotional offer.
IKEA: IKEA uses content marketing to showcase their brand personality and products in a fun and relatable way. They leverage the latest trends or events in the community or entertainment industry and turn them into humorous and creative social media posts. They also use social media platforms to interact with their customers and provide them with tips, ideas, or inspiration for their home improvement projects.
Things to be mindful of
When creating content marketing, there are some best practices to follow to ensure that your content is clear, relevant, and engaging. Here are some tips to keep in mind:
Have a catchy and concise opening: Your opening should capture your audience’s attention and interest, and convey the main idea or purpose of your content. Keep it simple and avoid unnecessary details or jargon.
Avoid sensitive or controversial topics: Your content should not offend or alienate your audience, or damage your brand reputation. Be respectful and mindful of the cultural, social, or political context of your content, and avoid topics that could trigger negative reactions or backlash.
Optimize your content for SEO and visuals: Your content should be easy to find and appealing to look at. Use relevant keywords, headings, and subheadings to improve your SEO ranking and readability. Use images, videos, or other media to enhance your content and make it more attractive and memorable.
Include a clear and relevant call-to-action: Your content should not only inform or entertain your audience, but also motivate them to take action. Include a clear and relevant call-to-action that tells your audience what you want them to do next, such as subscribe, buy, share, or contact you.
MR EARL’s advice to marketing leaders
To strengthen your team's competencies in content marketing, consider the following steps:
Incorporate a diverse range of topics in your regular team meetings or daily huddles. Include agenda items that are not directly related to your business but are relevant to current events in your town. Encourage your team to share what they observe in the news, entertainment industry, or social media sphere that is currently generating discussion. These discussions can encompass both positive and negative sentiments. The goal is to learn from these trends, identify opportunities for your marketing plans, and avoid anything that could potentially harm your brand reputation.
Enhance your team's copywriting skills. Encourage everyone to engage in more reading and writing, not just the designated copywriters. Start with shorter forms of writing, such as social media posts, to practice concise and impactful communication. This exercise will also help your team members think quickly and respond effectively.
Implement a means-end chain approach. Begin by clarifying your business objectives, and then consider the content and tools needed to achieve those objectives. Ensure that there is a logical and meaningful connection between these elements. Many content marketing campaigns fail when the relationship between the business objectives and the content seems forced or unrelated.
Having said that, always be a versatile and strategic marketing leader. Your content marketing strategy should not be one-dimensional or static, but rather adaptable and dynamic. Take some time to think about when and where you should use different techniques and platforms to deliver your content, and how to measure and improve your results. Remember, there is no one-size-fits-all solution in this discipline.
Example of content marketing with linkage between LinkIn post and a YouTube video. The purpose is to drive engagements, i.e. like and subscribe, to the YouTube channel
