Content Marketing - Why You Can't Live Without It

By now, you've probably heard of content marketing, but have you invested in a content strategy? Perhaps you're worried about its long-term benefits or reluctant to plug funds into what might turn out to be a fad. If this is you, let us reassure you that content marketing is an effective, cost-conscious way to target customers. And it should be at the core of your social media strategy.  That's right, you heard it.

What is content marketing?

The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as the business and marketing process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

Content Mavericks suggests that when content marketing is done right, "it gives new visitors 'Aha, I need to learn more from this guy/gal' moments so you can build an audience that follows and buys from you.

Here's some simple but powerful examples of different types of content marketing

Videos

People who view your videos are more likely to remember you, so have a think about what you can offer your customers. Can you explain to your customer how to do something more efficiently? Could you host a webinar to walk through a new product? Do you have clients who are enthusiastic to share how they've benefited from their collaboration with you?

Infographics

Perfect for including in your social media strategy, infographics are long, vertical graphics with statistics, graphs, charts and bite-size information.

Webpages

The landing page you direct your customers to can make or break any campaign, be it social media, PPC or email. Make sure your content has a strong readability factor to draw customers to your services.

User-generated content

According to Bazaar Voice, 64% of millennials and 53% of baby boomers are looking for more ways to share their opinions about brands. Other studies show consumers trust user-generated content over other forms of media. There's never been a better time to start using user-generated content to engage with your customers.After you've created a valuable piece of content, what do you do with it? Lets say you post it on your agency's Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages. Expect benefits in raising awareness of your brand, but will people buy your product? It's unlikely.Changes to Facebook and Googles algorithms means that sharing your organic content is unlikely to hit the sales targets you need. Social media advertising should form an essential part of your content marketing strategy.

Why does content marketing work?

Going back to that Content Marketing Institute definition, the purpose of content marketing is to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience' and, ultimately, 'to drive profitable customer action'. Consumers aren't responding to traditional marketing the way they used to, and businesses are finding less and less success in print and television advertisements.Read the definition of content marketing again. Its keywords like entertaining or useful that changes the definition from describing pretty much any form of marketing or advertising. Instead of directly marketing your products and services, you are delivering information that is relevant to your buyers. And content marketing isn't a one-time thing. It's an ongoing process of generating and broadcasting original and relevant content across your social channels. By consistently delivering information that your customers find valuable, you'll find that they'll reward you in time with their loyalty.

A good content marketing strategy will also:

• Boost your agency's SEO. Search engines reward businesses that publish original, good quality, and consistent content.
• Improve inbound marketing. Good quality content is key to driving increased inbound traffic and leads.
• Increase the success of PPC (Pay per click). To get optimal results on PPC, you need great content behind it.

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And the numbers don't lie

• 75% of marketers are increasing investment in content marketing
• 94% of content marketers use LinkedIn to platform content, 87% use Twitter and 84% use Facebook
• 74.2% of companies report that content marketing improves the quality and quantity of leads
• 54% of companies find video content converts somewhat better than other types of content
• 60% of successful marketers have a documented content strategy

So there you have it. A well thought out and structured plan for content marketing as part of your social media strategy is a worthwhile investment. And it's one you'll benefit from over and over again.

Here at HeyOrca, we're all about helping you out