Content marketing: What is it? Why is it important?
Why Content Marketing, you ask?
For thousands of years, humans have been sharing stories with each other. Storytelling is a form of communication that is uniquely human. From everything that we read, hear, and watch, we learn and are able to explore new opportunities and discover parts of our world we never knew existed. From sitting around a campfire thousands of years ago to reading a blog post about campfires to scrolling through an Instagram story, we crave consuming content.
This craving for content brings us to content marketing. Content marketing is a form of marketing in which we create and consistently publish valuable, relevant content to a target audience in order to drive positive and profitable consumer action. Now that we know what content marketing is, how do we use it to our advantage in our business strategy?
What should businesses be doing in the 2020s in creating a content marketing strategy? In the past, the simple answer would have been creating blog posts that help answer questions your audience is asking. However, your content strategy needs to incorporate other platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Your audience is spending significantly more time on social platforms. Once you identify which platforms your audience is using, create engaging content that informs and entertains and publish consistently to stay top-of-mind.
4 tips to help with your Content Marketing Strategy
Here are a few tips to get you started with your content marketing strategy.
- Develop a content calendar for all the places where you want to publish. You don’t have to publish something every day, just publish on a regular basis.
- Quality over quantity. Your audience will be more engaged with your content if it is of value to them. If you are only able to produce content once a month, make that piece of content relevant and high value to your target audience.
- If you are having trouble figuring out what to create, you can try using Google Trends or using the predictive search tool in your browser. Type in a relevant term and see what comes up. These two options will give you suggestions on topics your audience is asking. Another way is to use Google search console or Google Analytics to see what your audience is searching for to find your website.
- Whatever your niche, when customers ask questions, it is because they have a problem that needs solving. Show them you are the expert by answering their questions. Consumers will be more likely to do business with someone they trust. And this trust can start by creating some amazing engaging content.
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