Why Content Marketing is Important

The Benefits of Content Marketing

Content marketing has become increasingly popular with the development and popularity of technology. Making sure your brand is represented well, relationships are being built with potential and current customers, and sales are being made are all important factors to consider when creating content. In this article, we’ll go over what content marketing is, what content assets are, the benefits of a structured content plan, and the importance of content itself.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a type of marketing that involves creating and sharing online material such as videos, images, social media posts, or blogs. It doesn’t have to exactly promote a brand, but it does stimulate interest in its products or services. It adds value to a brand, and attracts an audience.

Some reasons why content marketing is important are:

• It educated your leads and prospect customers about the products/services you offer.
• It can help boost conversions.
• It builds relationships between yourself and your customer that can result in increased customer loyalty.
• It shows your audience how your product/service can be used for their needs.
• It creates a sense of brand community.

Types of Content Marketing

There are multiple kinds of content marketing that you may want to incorporate into your marketing strategy. Here are a few common forms of content marketing.

1. Social Media Marketing

Social media platforms have a combined almost 4.8 billion users, so it’s easy to understand how social media marketing is a great method for advertising. There are a number of platforms in which you can create and share content with a larger audience with minimal effort. From Facebook to LinkedIn, you have the possibility of sharing your photos, videos, and stories to people who may interact with your brand.

2. Infographic Content Marketing

Infographics are a visual way to display difficult information. With shorter wording, short statements, and clear imagery, infographics are a great way to compress lengthy information into an easy-to-understand graphic. They work great for information that may be too difficult for just a photo or video, and are easy for all audiences to digest.

3. Blog Content Marketing

Blogs are a powerful tool to be able to display information in a creative way. With a blog, you can promote other internal and external content through links and buttons. This way, you can promote your own content as well as educate your audience on a certain topic.

4. Podcast Content Marketing

With platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify growing in popularity, so are podcasts. About half the US population listens to podcasts at least once a month. Due to this popularity, lots of production companies are choosing to advertise through podcasts. They allow for a ton of creativity, and can be super educational as well.

5. Video Content Marketing

Videos are a great visual tool to be able to share information. It’s a great way to boost conversions, improve ROI (return on investment), and build relationships with your audience. Videos can be incorporated into almost all social media platforms, including YouTube, the largest video platform on the internet.

6. Paid Ad Content Marketing

Paid ads are the best way to reach a wide audience. They can help you reach a broad audience and position yourself in places you aren’t currently being seen in. Paid ads are especially beneficial when paired with social media marketing. Many social media sites offer the ability to purchase paid ads that will place your ads in the eyes of people who may interact with your brand.

What is A Content Asset?

Content assets are any piece of content that a business uses to reach a greater marketing goal. They have the most value when they’re created and used strategically, keeping in mind the content’s audience, purpose, and goals. There are two kinds of content asset – ungated and gated. Ungated assets are freely available in order to generate brand awareness. Gated assets are usually behind lead generation forms. This would be, for example, a blog post that requires a customer’s email address to read the full article. This allows a business to stay in contact with the customer and build a relationship over time.

Some examples of content assets include:

• Blog posts
• eBooks
• White papers
• Research reports
• Tipsheets or cheatsheets
• Checklists
• Tools and templates
• Case studies
• Podcasts
• Graphics and infographics
• Videos
• Slide decks
• Webinars

Content assets are what help but your content marketing strategy into action. They’re a great tool to acquire information such as email addresses, phone numbers, or any other kind of information you can use to populate a list of potential customers. With this information, you can then target people directly with your marketing plan.

The Benefits of a Structured Content Plan

Structured content is content that is planned, designed, developed, and is ready to be published across any platform. A structured content plan would involve a detailed plan of what your company’s content will be, where it will be published, and when. Collectively, all of your content will be put in one place, making every blog and social media post easy to find.

Here are the top benefits of developing a structured content plan for any marketing strategy:

1. It makes it easier to reuse content. The biggest benefit of a structured content plan is to reduce any duplication. Instead of creating and recreating content, you only have to produce the content once. Then, anyone can go in and reuse the original content. This cuts down on time and cost, and it is a lot easier on smaller businesses.
2. It’s easier to maintain. By having a system to organize content, it makes it easier to maintain and keep content current. Accuracy of posts is improved as well.
3. It helps in the translation process. Translating sections of content is way easier than translating entire documents. Updating translations for individual content elements saves time and money.
4. It makes searching simple. Being able to search all of your content at once makes finding anything easier. By tagging content, it gives it the context it needs for people to find what they need.
5. The Importance of Content – also touch on the importance of making sure the content itself is structured to convert, and the page templates are designed to maximize conversions, and time on site – driving to other related content

Good quality content is vital for any effective online marketing campaign. With high quality content, you establish your brand as a trustworthy brand to customers and experts alike. The content you put out tells people what your brand is, and encourages them to invest in your products or services.

In today’s society, with adults spending hours online, content consumption is at an all-time high. Providing great, engaging, and informative online content is an effective way to generate sales for any online business. While social media is a huge part of content creation, most online purchases are made through search engine results or recommendations. The key to winning people over is to create great quality content that tells people who you are as a brand and what you can provide them.

The first step to creating great content is to consider who your target audience is. Who are they? What do they need? What do they want? How does your product or service fill those needs and wants? Make this the basis of your content. Next, build a relationship with your customer. Remember, a good content strategy is designed to communicate who you are as a business and build that relationship with your audience. By showing that your brand has the customer’s interest in mind, you prove yourself as trustworthy and educated. Finally, make your content available in multiple places online. Research which platforms and types of advertising are beneficial for your content and which will reach your target audience. Once you’ve done this, you’re ready to start making content that will bring in those sales.

When creating content, it’s important to consider the following:

• Is your content structured to convert? Making content is great, but the ultimate goal of content creation is to generate leads or sales. Consider this when making content. You want to make sure your products are on display, your information leads to a product/service, and that all your links leading to your business’ website work and are clear.
• Is your website designed to drive sales? With content creation, people will spend time looking at your website. Whenever someone visits your website, you want to make sure that any buttons are easy to find and fully functioning. All call-to-action that you include in your creation should be clear and created with the intent to generate sales.

By making great quality content you will be able to represent your brand, build a connection with your customers, and maximize conversions. Keep in mind the consumer’s needs, and how your content looks in the grand scheme of your brand in general.

Create Some Content!

While there are tons of strategies to it, content creation should ultimately be fun! It’s a great, creative way to spread your business’ message. With new methods to share content, the sky is the limit when it comes to coming up with new ways to communicate your brand to an audience. Come up with a structured content plan, and start thinking of creative ways to let people know about your brand. From social media to infographics, there’s always opportunity to let people know how your business stands out from the rest. Now, get to creating content!