What is content marketing?

Content Marketing is a distinctive marketing strategy that relies on digital content (written, visual, and audio) in order to market products or services in a way that is very different from the well-known traditional methods. Content marketing can manifest itself in different forms. It can also be done in a variety of ways that can be determined based on the specific marketing objectives.

To clarify further, content marketing can be considered a long-term marketing strategy. It is done by preparing different types of useful digital content, and providing or delivering it to potential customers for the purpose of providing benefit to them. When this process is done in the right ways, the marketer can ensure that he gains new customers from these content marketing campaigns.

The website of the Content Marketing Institute, which specializes in content marketing matters, defines it as follows:

“Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach that focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and regular content to attract and retain a specific audience – and ultimately drive customers to take profitable actions. “

Hubspot also, in turn, defined content marketing as follows:

“Content marketing is the process of planning, creating, distributing, sharing, and publishing content to reach your target audience. As a business, this strategy can help you improve brand awareness, increase sales, connect with target audience components, and get customers and potential customers to interact. “

Industry experts have different definitions of the phrase content marketing, but the meaning is clear and can be deduced in this phrase:

“Providing benefit before seeking benefit.”

When a certain company produces and provides educational or entertaining content to a potential customer for free, it first achieves the rule of providing benefit before benefiting. This makes it easier for the beneficiary to make a purchasing decision without hesitation due to the trust built between the two parties. It also distinguishes itself (i.e. the company) from other competitors who do nothing but sell.

Where is content marketing important?

What is content marketing – a simple guide

The importance of content marketing lies in the fact that it is a new element that has changed the rules of the marketing game. It was the ideal solution for companies that were suffering from the ineffectiveness of traditional direct marketing methods.

In the past, things in marketing were somewhat easier than they are today. Companies were able to achieve large percentages of sales, solely by relying on traditional marketing campaigns, often represented by advertising campaigns.

Recently things have changed somewhat, in almost all industries and fields, due to the increase and intensity of competition. Traditional methods of marketing have become less effective and creativity alone is no longer sufficient to attract the attention of a potential customer. Rather, it has become more protected from falling into the traps of companies and commercial projects.

All of this led to the innovation of what is called “content marketing.” Companies, especially in developed countries, have begun to adopt it as an alternative and supportive strategy to other direct marketing methods, whether traditional or modern. In many cases, especially for SaaS companies, it has become a top source of sales and conversions.

By adopting content marketing, a variety of marketing goals can be achieved, including but not limited to:

Increasing organic reach rates

Introducing potential customers about your solutions (products/services) and how to use them

Increase sales and improve conversion rates Build a strong relationship with customers and potential customers and gain their loyalty Spreading brand awareness Reducing marketing costs in the long term How can content marketing be adopted?

What is content marketing – a simple guide

Any individual or company of any size can practice content marketing. The strategies used to implement this practice may differ from one field to another and from one company to another. The strategy and methods that can be followed to practice content marketing can be determined by looking at two basic elements, which are the marketing objectives and the budget allocated to content marketing.

Things you should know before you start adopting content marketing

There are some activities that fall within the components of an ideal content marketing plan, but some companies may not find them important given the effort and costs they require compared to the goals they can achieve, which may not be considered the most important for that company.

Sometimes we find that implementing some activities is beyond the scope of the budget allocated for content marketing. In this case, some quality can be sacrificed, or perhaps the term luxury would be more appropriate, and simplicity should be satisfied to achieve some reasonable goals.

Adopting content marketing is a long-term game, and do not expect that you will start reaping results after the first month of adoption. Rather, you must set reasonable goals, taking into account how long it takes for results to begin to appear, and results may vary from one activity to another.

Adopting content marketing as the primary marketing strategy and abandoning the rest of the marketing methods is not a wise decision. Especially if this accreditation is done for the first time. I believe that content marketing, for most companies and commercial projects, serves as a means of supporting previously approved marketing efforts.

On this basis, it is advisable to adopt content marketing gradually. When the results begin to appear and its effectiveness is confirmed, the budget allocated for it can be increased and it can begin to be adopted on a larger scale, and why not as the company’s basic marketing strategy, as long as it has proven its effectiveness and ability compared to the rest of the approved marketing methods.

Steps to start adopting content marketing

To begin adopting content marketing and working on its adoption, the marketer or business owner must first:

Determine the marketing objectives that he deems most appropriate to achieve by adopting this new marketing method.

You can adopt basic main objectives such as:

Increase Sales Improve conversion rates Increase interaction with target groups Spreading brand awareness…

If you do not intend to adhere to the goals outlined above, and choose more specific goals, there is no need to overthink and be confused about setting the appropriate goals because the matter is very easy and only requires an analytical look at the marketing methods that you are adopting in the current period and trying to determine the most effective sources in achieving the main goals. For a business, which are often goals (i.e., achieving sales or obtaining new customers).

Then write down those sources, which will include, but are not limited to: Social networks Email campaigns Search ads (such as Google Ads)

Then you can define content marketing goals based on the specified sources. For example, if you achieve a large percentage of sales through social media ads, you may have to extract some goals from this source, and these goals must be achievable based on the content.

For example, your goal in this case may be to increase interaction on your social media accounts, or perhaps increase your follower base or improve your organic reach rate.

If, for example, Google Ads are your primary source of sales, you may have to invest some time and money in optimization to appear in search results naturally without relying on paid ads. This is something that may not be achieved by adopting the content alone, but it (i.e. the content) remains somewhat important in this process.

After defining the goals to be achieved, you can move on to the means and activities required to achieve those goals, and write them down in turn for reference at a later time. The required means or tools may be in the form of actual tools, such as content production programs and measurement and analysis programs.

Or it can be required activities such as writing texts and articles, designing photos and videos, etc.

Then you can begin laying the foundations of a content marketing strategy, which, like other strategies, will contain the methods that will be followed to achieve the specified goals, based on the available means and tools and the available budget.

What are the types of content marketing?

What is content marketing – a simple guide

Content marketing is divided into many different types, and I will not seek to define them all here because that may not be possible. The types of content marketing or the activities that comprise it are unlimited. Rather, you can invent a new type as long as you can achieve good results through it and as long as it is an activity that is carried out based on a type of content, which in turn we find many and varied.

These are some common examples of activities that fall under the content marketing umbrella:

Marketing via social networks Posts Flyers and email campaigns the video Educational articles Podcast Infographic Reports and case studies

There are those who consider paid advertisements of all kinds to be content marketing, and this is true to some extent. Because these advertisements often contain written, visual or audio content. On this basis, it can also be considered a type of content marketing.

There are also traditional types of content marketing. Such as magazines, information posters, and traditional commercial advertisements. To some extent, any activity with a marketing objective that is carried out based on a form of content can be considered content marketing.

By defining the appropriate goals and developing a clear strategy, any company can start adopting content marketing. After that, it depends on the quality of the content and how to implement it to achieve the various marketing goals. Let us not forget the importance of tracking and measuring the results of content marketing campaigns to ensure their effectiveness and classify the most performing ones and those that require further improvement.