For some time now traditional marketing is becoming less and less effective in the internet era, and now there is a better way more suitable to ever changing new age - content marketing.
"Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. " (Source: Content marketing institute)
The key word here is „valuable“. It`s the key that changes this definition from one that could describe almost any form of advertising or marketing. Valuable, relevant and consistent content that people want to consume and actively seek out rather than avoiding it like traditional advertising. The goal is to provide as much value from your content marketing to as much of your target audience as possible.
Content marketing is the future of marketing
If we go back and read the content marketing definition one more time, but this time removing the relevant and valuable what you are left with is any other standard informational/promotional messages
from companies trying to sell you „stuff“. Companies send us abundance of information all the time – it’s just that most of the time it’s not very relevant or valuable and in most cases it is just considered spam. That is the main reason content marketing is so intriguing in today’s fast paced environment and thousands of marketing messages per person per day.
Leading brands use content marketing
Leading the new trends the vast majority of marketers from prominent organizations in the world are using content marketing.( i.e. Microsoft, TED, GoPro etc.) And the trend has caught on and now even one-person shops around the globe are developing their own content. And why? Simple, because it works.
Utilizing content marketing
There are as many types of content marketing as there are types of content, far too many to cover in one article. So rather then focus on the types lets focus on some of the means or platforms at your disposal to make content marketing. Basically any medium you use to communicate your message can be used for content marketing: - videos - books - podcasts - blogs - presentations - apps and - web pages just to name a few with topics ranging from anything related to your products ( i.e. a marketing company that has a blog with articles about content marketing- just like this one).
Great content is the key for content marketing
Regardless of what type of marketing tactics you use, content marketing should be part of your process, not something separate. Quality content is part of all forms of marketing:
Social media marketing: Content marketing strategy comes before your social media strategy.
SEO: Search engines reward businesses that publish quality, consistent content.
PR: Successful PR strategies address issues readers care about, not their business.
PPC: For PPC to work, you need great content behind it.
Inbound marketing: Content is key to driving inbound traffic and leads.
Content strategy: Content strategy is part of most content marketing strategies.
Benefits of content marketing
There are 3 reasons and benefits that make content marketing the best option for any enterprise and those are:
1. Increased sales
2. Cost savings
3. Better customers who have more loyalty
You can add up some of your reasons to this list and start creating :)