In layman's words, content marketing is the process of creating, and then publishing valuable content that resonates with your audience. The key idea is to create content which helps people solve personal or business-related problems, with the goal of positioning yourself as an industry leader.
Content marketing helps you educate potential leads, highlighting the most pressing issues that they may face, and then providing the best solutions. Resist the temptation to promote your products and/or services, though; content marketing is all about educating people, not about selling stuff to them. While content marketing can help you attract new clients, it will also help you keep existing customers happy.
To start, you will need to have a clear picture of your buyer persona, the fictional character which represents your target audience. Give the persona an actual name and specify its demographic details, interests, job, etc. Then, identify what problems your persona may have. If you sell matcha green tea, you can use Google to search for specific forums, or use an online tool such as https://answerthepublic.com/ to get a list of frequently asked questions which will help you create valuable content. Here are just a few of the ideas which were generated by Answer the Public:
- What are the most important matcha green tea benefits?
- When to drink matcha green tea?
- Are matcha green tea bags as good as the powder?
- Is matcha green tea good for weight loss?
- Which matcha green tea is best for weight loss?
- Can matcha green tea make you nauseous?
Armed with a tool like this, it is much easier to create relevant articles which answer people's questions. And if people like your content, they will be much more likely to buy from you. It is not a secret that businesses which post articles on their website pages regularly are able to generate more leads in comparison with companies that don't blog. It's not all about blogging, though; you can achieve similar purposes by creating e-Books, white papers, infographics, case studies, podcasts, webinars, etc.
Businesses which engage in content marketing can build brand awareness quickly. If you are a new industry player, or you want to launch a new line of services, content marketing can help you connect with your target market fast.
As you continue to add new, valuable articles to your website, it will become a hub for accurate industry-related information. And if people like your content pieces, they will promote them on social media and on their own blogs, attracting new visitors to your site. Since interesting content will keep website visitors on your pages for longer, search engines will understand that your website is valuable, rewarding it with higher rankings.
Though it is not a sales tool per se, content marketing has the potential to increase sales. If people like your content, some of them will want to sign up to your newsletter, ask for a demo of your product, and even purchase it right away. Additionally, many companies use gated high-quality content to capture leads. They produce "lead magnets", detailed reports which are given away in exchange for their website visitors' email addresses.
It is crucial to test and track the key content marketing metrics: website traffic, social media shares, conversions, etc. If you don't have a tracking system in place, it will be almost impossible to determine if your efforts are succeeding. By constantly evaluating and improving your content, you will discover a custom recipe that works very well for your brand.
