Content Marketing: Everything You Need to Know Before Launching Your Strategy
In today’s digital age, we are constantly flooded with content, good or bad. To stand out amongst competitors, it takes more than just creating content, it requires crafting a successful strategic approach.
Whether you’re just getting started or revamping your existing content marketing strategy, this guide will equip you with the knowledge you need to feel empowered as you create and distribute valuable content to your target audience. We’ll also explore the essence of content marketing, its benefits, and beyond.
The Essence of Content Marketing
Content marketing is the strategy, creation, and distribution of written and visual content. Content marketing includes (but is not limited to):
Blog posts
Case studies
Ebooks
Infographics
Podcasts
Newsletters
Web pages
Having multiple streams of content is important for reaching the most people possible. It is not enough to simply have an Instagram account and ‘call it good’. In addition to Instagram, you can host a podcast with weekly episodes, send out a monthly newsletter to those who sign up for it via your website, and partner with other brands or influencers who align with your core values. Having multiple channels that connect is an integral part of successful content marketing strategies. This is often referred to as cross-promotion.
There are many other channels under the umbrella of marketing besides content marketing, like email marketing, social media marketing, SEO, public relations (PR), and more. You can think of content marketing as the bridge between all other marketing channels. Let’s take a look at how content marketing supports some of these other avenues of marketing
Email Marketing
Content marketing supports email marketing by providing valuable content sent out via email to potential leads and current customers. Email marketers focus on who to send emails to and when, but they aren’t so much focused on the content itself, which is where content marketers play a crucial role.
Social Media Marketing
Content and social media marketing complement each other well for several reasons. First, they work hand in hand when it comes to promotion. Let’s say you publish a blog post (content marketing) and then share it on LinkedIn (social media marketing); you now have content for both your social media and your website. In addition, you can use your social media platforms to ask for feedback, which can help guide your content marketing strategy.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization, or SEO, helps get your content ranked higher in Google search results. This can directly help or harm your content marketing strategy. If you rank for many great keywords, your company website establishes authority over its competitors. But, if your site or article is found on the fourth page of Google, you will likely not reach many people. Backlinko advises that if you see a particular keyword on the rise, it’s probably worth creating valuable content around that keyword.
Public Relations
Creating content for PR helps contribute not only to a successful content marketing strategy but also helps position a company as a thought leader in the industry. This content can be shared with reporters, news outlets, and more. Both content marketing and PR share the same goals of creating content that strengthens brand awareness, establishes authority, generates leads, and facilitates relationships with other thought leaders.
Content marketing, as you can see, is vital for a successful marketing strategy and is woven into the other channels of marketing. Plus, good content yields great long-term benefits for your business.
The Benefits of Content Marketing
Content marketing is a highly valuable tool to organizations because, when done correctly, it has a huge impact on your business’s overall success. The main benefit of content marketing is that it raises brand awareness and builds trust with customers. But, that’s not all. Here are some of the other benefits creating valuable content can offer.
Increased customer engagement
Creating shareable content, like videos, infographics, and PDFs makes it easier for potential and existing customers to like, comment, and share information on their social media. In addition, increased engagement leads to increased company visibility, meaning that you can reach more people and connect with your audience in a more authentic and personal way.
For example, you’ll notice that at the bottom of each blog post on our site, we have included social icons for Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. We’ve even included a heart icon if you want to engage with us directly on the blog. This makes it easy for our visitors to share the post with their community.
Content marketing has emerged as a powerful tool to engage customers by providing valuable, relevant, and compelling content.
A boost in organic traffic
Simply put, organic traffic describes people who find your site through search engine results. They didn’t click on a paid ad or find your site through another promotion. This ties in closely with SEO as mentioned above. So, creating compelling content around a topic your target market cares about, combined with strong, relevant keywords, will help build authority and establish your brand as a trustworthy leader in the industry. Over time, your website will eventually become a reputable source that people visit frequently and rely on.
For example, a simple Google search for “healthy meals” will reveal The Food Network at the top of the page, with a blog article titled “107 Healthy Dinners That Are Ready in 40 Minutes or Less.” Once you click on the article, you find a blog filled with posts about eating healthy, cooking tips, and more. They have intentionally crafted their content in a way that uses relevant keywords like “healthy dinners” and “dinner in 40 minutes” to generate interest. This further establishes itself as a reputable brand with strong authority, which in turn boosts organic traffic visiting its site.
Positive long-term results
A common roadblock many companies and brands experience with content marketing is expecting their content to go viral instantaneously. And while that may be a nice goal, it isn’t the most realistic. While millions of people on the internet may not view or like your content, it shouldn’t change your focus on producing quality content over the quantity of content. Your content marketing strategy needs to be far more focused on potential long-term results. When you produce content that people care about and audit it frequently to ensure it is still relevant to your brand, you can confidently cross-promote it to reach a wider audience.
Higher conversion rates
Content marketing is king when it comes to converting people from casual website visitors to curious leads to confident customers. Creating content for every stage of the buyer's journey will be an important part of your strategy. Amanda Sellers from Hubspot shares that customers today are more informed and have more purchasing power than ever before. It’s important to deeply understand your buyer personas and the journey they take to end up with your product or service. This enables content marketers to create content that helps your buyer get from the first step to making a purchase all while positioning your company as a thought leader in your industry.
Now that we know what content marketing is and its benefits, let’s dive into the content marketing funnel and why it is so important to your content marketing strategy.
The Content Marketing Funnel
The content marketing funnel is a strategic approach to delivering specific content to potential customers depending on their consumer behavior. Different stages within the funnel encompass different people depending on their level of interest in your product or service. There are three stages in the content marketing funnel: Top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, and bottom of the funnel.
Top-of-the-funnel (TOFU)
Top-of-the-funnel content is known as the awareness stage. The goal of content here is to raise awareness of your company and brand. You might create content around keywords related to your industry, answer questions, and provide how-to’s. You won’t be calling people to purchase at this stage.
Middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU)
Middle-of-the-funnel content is often referred to as the consideration stage. During this stage, people are looking more into your business perhaps through reading case studies, reviewing your social media posts, and getting better acquainted with your company.
Bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU)
Bottom-of-the-funnel content is focused on conveying the value of your company and motivating people to make a purchase. Potential customers might be reading reviews or inquiring about pricing. This stage is where buyers are most likely ready to make a purchase.
How to Create a Winning Content Marketing Strategy
Now that you know what content marketing is, the benefits, and the stages of the funnel, it’s time to create or revise your current content marketing strategy. Here are some tips to help you develop a winning content marketing strategy.
Define your goals
Before you can build a winning content marketing strategy, you have to be clear about your goals. What do you want to achieve with your content? Are you trying to increase brand awareness? Driving traffic to your website? Boost sales? The most important step you can take early on is to get clear about what you want to achieve and how you plan to reach these goals.
Know your audience
First and foremost, knowing and empathizing with your audience will help guide your entire strategy. Empathy allows you to relate to your audience emotionally and learn what drives their decision-making. This enables you to develop more engaging content and helps you attract leads, build trust, and convert leads into customers. In addition, doing your research to identify exactly who your audience is will help inform your decisions moving forward.
Develop buyer personas
Personas, or buyer personas are detailed descriptions of different types of people within your audience. This is a great step to take to develop a better understanding of your audience. Dividing your audience into personas will help you create content for various people at different stages in the buyer's journey. When creating personas, try to think of this person’s occupation, their pain points, what motivates them, and where they live. The more you understand about the lifestyle, interests, and needs of your customers, the better you can create intentional content marketing campaigns.
Build loyalty and trust
Building trust is essential for nurturing long-term relationships with leads and customers. To build trust it is important to be consistent with your content. Develop a cadence that works for you. Whether you publish one blog post a week, or one podcast episode every other week, maintaining consistency gives your audience something they can count on and look forward to. Another way to build trust is to share reviews, testimonials, and customer stories. Don’t just talk about how great you are, share what other people are saying.
Create content with clear and consistent messaging
Your brand messaging is crucial because it supports all the other goals you have in place for your content marketing strategy—establish trust, provide value, increase engagement, and boost brand awareness. Plus, having clear and consistent messaging differentiates you from your competitors. By establishing a unified voice, your customers can easily recognize what your brand has to offer, and what your values are, feeling a sense of loyalty and trust.
Track your progress
Your content marketing campaigns are an important part of your overall marketing strategy because they help you set goals and promote your product or service. Plus, when you are intentional with the campaigns you build, you can reach a diverse audience, adjust to an evolving market, and maximize your impact. The best way to ensure you are successful is to gather and analyze key metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. The insights you gather from the data will help you determine the right path forward and optimize future marketing campaigns.
Schedule a free 20-minute consultation to learn how Comma’s confident marketers can support your winning content marketing strategy.