Content marketing is a means of distributing valuable content to a target audience, to encourage engagement and foster long-term relationships.
It usually comes in the form of blog posts, social media posts, videos, emails, e-books, podcasts, downloads, and more.
The point of content marketing is to establish your brand or business as an authority in your specific area of expertise. By distributing helpful and relevant content to potential customers, you’re at the forefront of their minds when the time comes that they want to purchase something you offer.
Content Marketing Vs Copywriting
The key difference between content marketing and copywriting is intention.
Content marketing produces content that is intended to engage, inspire, or help the reader or listener out in some way.
It’s not sales-driven, although the longer-term goal of content marketing is to build brand awareness and authority, and ultimately drive sales. By comparison, copywriting is sales-driven at that moment.
Copywriting, though it should be engaging, is designed to encourage the reader to take action, whether that be to make a purchase, call with an inquiry, or subscribe to a service.
Read also: Content Writing Tips for Beginners
These two can exist together, in the same piece of content, but when you’re aiming to establish yourself as an expert on a particular topic, it’s preferable to avoid coming across as pushy.
Benefits of Content Marketing
Develop Authority
Developing authority, or building a reputation as an expert in your field, will encourage customers to choose your brand over others will similar products or services.
If you’re a hairdresser and your website features a blog where you offer hair hacks and tips for common hair-related issues, it sends a clear message to potential customers that you know what you’re talking about.
When you’re seen as an authority in your field, customers will come to you.
Developing online authority also helps with SEO, so as a byproduct, you may find your website ranking in the top spots on search engines, which will also increase organic traffic.
Build Loyalty
Providing customers with useful and relevant information that adds value or improves their lives in some way is key to building loyalty.
When customers rely on you for helpful how-to blogs or video tutorials to solve their everyday problems, they’re more likely to choose your brand when they need to make a purchase.
Imagine you’re a keen gardener, and you regularly check out the blogs and articles on the ‘Malcom’s Seeds’ website (not a real website).
You find that Malcolm has a wealth of knowledge that’s helped you create a thriving garden, and you enjoy watching his tutorial videos on sowing seeds. He’s informative and passionate, and he has a sense of humour. Spring has arrived, and you’ve decided you want to grow some edibles in your garden this year. Are you going to turn to Google and order some seeds from a website you’ve never interacted with? Or are you going to see what seeds Malcolm has available in his online store? Chances are, as a loyal follower of Malcolm, you’re going to order his spinach seeds even if they’re a little more expensive than competitors. This is brand loyalty in action.
Increase Online Presence
Creating useful and informative content helps to build your visibility online, which in turn promotes brand awareness, and leads to a growing customer base.
The fact is that users go online to find fixes for their problems, or tips and hacks to make their lives easier. Before the arrival of the internet, if you wanted to know how long to cook your joint of beef so that it’s perfectly pink in the middle, you might have consulted a recipe book, asked a neighbour, or phoned your mum. Can you remember the last time you did any of those things to get an answer to your question?
More likely, you asked Alexa, or put your query into Google.
Therefore, by putting out content that people find useful, you’re increasing your chances of being found online.
And when you increase your online presence, you increase the opportunity for sales. One of the best ways to do this is with blogging. Statistics show that websites with blogs generate 67% more leads compared with those without blogs.
Read also: Why Start a Blog in 2024
Content marketing gets you directly in front of your customer, in a lasting way.
Create Conversions
Content marketing builds your fanbase or audience, and all of those users represent potential sales. If users find your content valuable, they’re going to follow you on social media or sign up for your newsletter so that they don’t miss more valuable content.
This is a target audience, and any time a user visits your website, you have the opportunity to guide them towards a conversion. This might be with a pop-up ad offering a discount, or with a well-placed call to action.
Content Marketing Tips
When creating copy for content marketing, you should consider the reader at the heart of everything you do. If the reader finds the content valuable, they’re going to share the content, or continue to come back.
However, it’s a good idea to factor SEO into it. This is because SEO doesn’t just improve a website for search engines, it also improves the experience of the user.
Read also: UX and UI in Digital Marketing
A good user experience paired with valuable content is a winning combination. Some SEO tips for content marketing include:
Keyword Research
Keyword research can help you figure out what queries in your field users are searching for, and therefore you can formulate content that answers those queries.
Optimising your content for specific keywords by including them naturally will also help your search engine rankings, enabling you to be found more easily by users.
Clear and Concise
Keep content easy to read. This means avoiding using complex language and writing in paragraph blocks so the reader can scan the content.
Optimise Images
Include images in your content to break up blocks of text, and to make your content visually appealing.
Real also: Zooming In on Image SEO
Use high-quality images to improve the user experience, and condense them so they don’t take too long to load.
Build Backlinks
Building backlinks is an SEO strategy that helps to show search engines you are a trusted authority, but they also help to build trust with the reader. Use backlinks to reference reputable sites to encourage trust and loyalty.
Conclusion
A good content marketing strategy is beneficial for both emerging and established brands, whether you’re trying to build a stronger foundation of followers or maintain your existing customer base.
Though the results may be indirect, ultimately the time and money you dedicate to it will more than pay for itself in the long run.
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