‘Content marketing’ – what is it? Well a quick type into Google reveals the following definition:
Content marketing is any marketing that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire and retain customers.
But what exactly does this mean? Content marketing is the idea of supplying ‘valuable’ information to your audience. This is what separates it from every other aspect of marketing. However, how your audience interprets your content determines whether it’s valuable to them or not.
Communication
Communicating your desired point is crucial to ensuring that your target audience gains as much value from every post as possible. If you are able to create a style of writing that fits with your customer demographic and helps promote you as a brand that produces key content, people will become attracted to this style; they may find it amusing, informative, educational or just an enjoyable way of passing time. The chances are that from this they will interact with your brand, visit your website and even mention your business to a friend or family member and its this type of exposure that enables a brand or business to grow.
Format
You used to be able to write an article and not worry too much about its aesthetic components. But as technology has evolved it has become easier to change fonts, text colour and formating so its important to take advantage of these tools and ensure what you’re creating stands out.
Create a house style (a format that uses certain colours and fonts throughout all pieces that you/your company release) that represents your brand and use this in all the documents you produce. By doing this you are embedding your brand into your audience’s psyche. The length of your articles, posts or statuses have an intricacy to them as well. A study was conducted into the ‘ideal lengths for every item in your marketing’ and the following results were drawn from this research:
The copy
When you first start out writing your content don’t be afraid to try different techniques to see which ones you find more comfortable using, whether that be a more formal approach to writing or a less formal approach. Find what you feel comfortable with and then run with that and then replicate it.
The aim of content marketing is to express to your audience and potential customers that you, as a business, understand the market and what you are selling. So write articles about your industry, recent news, technology updates, how to guides, best practice, tips and advice - anything that your target audience may take an interest in. You want to not only try and promote your product to potential customers, but also sell your knowledge and expertise, gain people's trust, get them to believe in the brand and not be an absent consumer!
Content marketing and social media
Content marketing possesses 29.6% of the market in terms of promoting your brand. However social media and social CRM (Customer relationship management) also takes up 8.9% of the market. This may not seem like much, but think about how many times a day you check Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, even Tumblr and Pinterest. If you then put that into context with the fact that in January 2014 74% of adults (not counting people under the age of 18) own and use a social media account in the US alone. The potential to reach a lot of people is there for you to achieve, you just have to crack the code of marketing yourself.
Analyse
The best thing to do to help you is to take a look at Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/) and link it through to your website. This simple process can give you a whole ocean of dissectible information to help you grow your brand and utilise your marketing budget to its full most potential. The goal is to increase your online reputation and influence over consumer choices, make a potential customer choose your product or service over other businesses.
What are you waiting for?
So, get writing the content, whether it be about the process of producing a product, about your business or even a new staff member - every little helps. And ensure you tailor your content to reach your key target audiences, try different methods over a period of time until you find one that works, and remember to track your data.
If you would like assistance in content marketing, then call us on 01242 236600 or email info@bluehorizonsmarketing.co.uk
