What is a content marketing strategy?
Content marketing is the strategy of creating and disseminating content that is relevant and valuable to consumers in order to build relationships and influence consumer behavior. It differs from traditional sales in some key ways. While traditional sales techniques interrupt consumers to deliver a message they generally have little or no interest in receiving, content marketing attracts an audience by developing an understanding of what potential customers are looking for and then providing it.
Rather than making a sales pitch, content marketing strives to educate consumers and empower them to make wise and informed choices. By providing this valuable service to potential customers, you increase awareness or your business and build your brand. You also have the opportunity to highlight the value of your own products or services in a thoughtful, informative, and intelligent way.
At the same time, because you are doing much more than making your company visible and touting the value of your own business, you are building trust in and positive sentiment toward your company. By providing information and resources that your target audience values, you can establish your business as a leader and authority in its field.
Content marketing can take a variety of forms, including
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Blog posts
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E-books
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White papers
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Social media posts
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Email newsletters
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PowerPoint presentations
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Podcasts
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Videos
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Webinars
What type of content you create to represent your business will depend upon the type of business you are promoting and what will best appeal to your target audience.
In order to implement a successful content marketing strategy, it is important to consistently deliver high-quality content. This is crucial to SEO, which increases your visibility and drives traffic to your site. It is also essential to building the relationships with customers that will lead to trust and loyalty to your business. Creating quality content takes time and skill. For an effective content marketing strategy, your marketing team needs a strong writer who understands your business and who can consistently and efficiently produce quality content.
Why do I need a content marketing strategy now?
Consumers are increasingly tuning out traditional forms of advertising. They skip through commercials on their DVRs and are quick to close annoying pop-up ads on their computers or mobile devices. Their time is valuable, and they are becoming less tolerant of unwanted interruptions. To get their attention, businesses need to earn it.
More and more business owners are waking up to this reality. According to Forbes, approximately 60% of business incorporate some sort of inbound marketing strategy, meaning that they focus effort on attracting potential customers with the value they provide in their materials rather than interrupting them with marketing messages. Because the production of quality content has become so crucial to modern marketing efforts, Forbes predicts that “Director of Content” will be the most recruited and hired job title of 2014. Likewise, Mashable predicts that “content” will increasingly be its own department, encompassing titles such as Content Marketing Manager, Director of Content, or Chief Content Officer. Social Media Today reports that 78% of CMOs currently believe that custom content is the key to their marketing future.
You need a content marketing strategy today because it is the strategy that works in today’s world. Consumers are increasingly savvy about weeding out messages they do not wish to receive and finding those that hold value to them. The majority of marketing professionals know this and are already adjusting their strategies accordingly. The longer you wait to do the same, the greater the disadvantage at which you place your business. Content marketing improves search engine rankings, directing more traffic to your site, and engages potential customers with your company. You simply cannot get that kind of interaction with your target audience through traditional marketing techniques.
Blue Frog Marketing provides professional content marketing services tailored to the needs of your company. Talk to us about your brand and what you want to communicate to potential customers, and we will create a content marketing strategy that fits the way you do business.
