Marketing strategies over the past few decades have evolved exponentially. There are changes in the thought process of the marketers as well as the consumers, along with the dynamics of how leads are acquired.
And with the invention of the Internet, business owners now have an all-new platform to engage with their target audience. Various channels such as social media, news magazines, and personal blogs are now used for lead generation.
Precisely, there’s one component of this digital marketing space, content marketing, that is gaining a lot of traction lately.
What is Content Marketing?
If you’ve ever seen a Marvel Comic book, then you must know that it was one of the first successful applications of content marketing.
Notably, content marketing hasn’t popped out of the blue but has only risen in popularity with the Internet. However, it has been around for several decades.
In simple terms, content marketing is any piece of content, including visual and textual, that helps market a product or a service.
Essentially, for content marketing to be successful it is vital that certain points be kept in mind. We will come to these points a little later in this content.
For now, it would suffice to know how content marketing helps with gaining new leads for businesses.
How can it Help gain new Leads?
Regardless of what channel you use for your marketing, it is important that you create content that attracts your potential customers. Of course, keyword optimization is one of the ways to ensure that, but it is certainly not the only one.
When you create content keeping your target audience in mind, you tend to educate them while displaying your expertise. It has been noted that engaging and informative content tends to receive more audience.
In fact, prominent search engines also prefer to rank good content pieces over others.
A piece of content that educates users will help trigger interest in your audience. And when they are interested in knowing more, they are more likely to buy your services and products.
In essence, content marketing only helps share the necessary information with the target audience.
Ways to undertake Content Marketing…
By now, you must already know why you need content marketing, and how far can it go to help your business. You must also wish to get started with the same, to gain the profits as soon as possible.
So, without any further ado, the following are some of the most effective ways to manage your content marketing plans.
Press Release
According to some experts, a press release is an official statement from a business usually to introduce a new service or a product. However, there could be other reasons for releasing a press statement too.
For example, a business may announce a change in its board members. Or a press release may be used to highlight an achievement.
Notably, creating content for press releases is a lot different from other content types. As it is mentioned here https://www.ereleases.com/what-is-a-press-release/, a press release needs to have a captivating headline, along with apt structuring to deliver the precise information only. Usually, all the junk is eliminated from the content when making a press release.
Video Content
Another popular way to market is with the help of video content. To your surprise, Youtube, which is one of the prominent video content platforms, holds a record 2 billion users worldwide.
Evidently, Youtube is not the only platform to share video content. There are several other social media platforms as well. For example, TikTok, Instagram, and so on.
A series of studies reveals that audio-visual content has a deeper impact on users as compared to textual content. In other words, creating short videos that deliver just the precise message to your audience can have a higher conversion for your business. It needs no mention, that higher conversion means more revenue and likely more scalability.
Infographics
Apart from the textual content, video content is not the only option. Perhaps, if you have ever been active on social media platforms, you must be aware of what are memes and trolls.
Well, a very similar form of content to these creative pictures is an infographic. Essentially, infographics share the needed information, but not contextually. Indeed, the creatives are a mix of text and relevant images.
Using infographics to share the information, be it through email marketing or blogging, can have a similar impact. According to a report, however, personalized email marketing with infographics can have as high as 66% conversion.
Print Media
It is noteworthy that online modes are not the only available option to market using content. As already mentioned, Marvel Comics was one of the first successful examples of content marketing, it is evident that it can be used offline as well.
For example, you can use your content marketing strategies to create posters, pamphlets, billboard hoardings, and so on.
You can also get your content featured in popular daily reads and magazines such as NYTimes, and Forbes. However, it is also noteworthy that offline modes may cost you more than online channels.
To sum it up…
By now it is pretty obvious what content marketing is, what is its scope, and how you can use it to your benefit. However, for successful returns for your efforts and investment, you must prepare wisely.
There are plenty of tools that can help you prepare a promising strategy for your content marketing. For instance, creating buyers’ persona is one way to begin. In addition to it, you can also try to create customer journey maps to better understand their behavior.
Understanding the nitty-gritty aspects of your target market will certainly help you create content that satisfies their needs.
Nevertheless, content marketing can be expected to gain a lot more traction in near future. Particularly, with businesses seeking better returns for lower investments. After all, it does not cost much to create a social media account or get your content published on a blog.
Hopefully, with all this information you’ll now be able to use this phenomenal strategy to your benefit.
