Why Content Marketing?
How and why content will only help your business…
Content Marketing is the process of creating relevant content for it to be distributed to a target audience. A newsletter with unbiased articles, books, or any piece of information that many people don’t have first-hand knowledge of. Content marketing differs from other marketing types because it isn’t selling a specific object. The main goal for content marketers is to point the buyer to a product that they might be interested in.
Many people recognize content marketing as a magazine or commercial. While these are only two examples, there are an endless ways to use marketing tactics. This marketing strategy can increase a business’s net worth because they are attracting new customers towards the intended audience. There are different things marketers use to influence content, products and services.
Appealing to the Reader
One way is to understand how to appeal to their audience’s emotions. An example that charities use is to show a starving kid to make the audience feel sad enough to donate money. With advertisements on TV, marketers can add slow music to the background of many pictures of starving kids. The creation of the internet has leveled up content marketing to reach a wider audience.
The first step of content marketing is understanding what type of audience is being impacted. From their gender, age, sex, to even deeper questions such as the of problems they are facing? For example at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, marketers were throwing all kinds of relatable information.
Broadcast
Find a way to broadcast your advertisement. One of the most effective ways to show content is through commercials. Another key step is knowing specific keywords that attract your audience and help content to be ranked high. Keywords that relate to the search criteria will be the effective.
Useful keywords and phrases as part of the content writing and SEO strategies will help immensely. The audience uses keywords to find different information on SEO (Search Engine Optimization). In fact, using quality and in demand keywords in your content will help search engines rank that web page higher.
The History of Content Marketing
The history of content marketing stretches back to 1895, where helpful advertisements in newspapers and magazines were showing up. Companies, such as John Deere, developed a magazine to help many people with different aspects of farming. Different brands started to come out with content-based magazines, following John Deere’s footsteps.
Around the time the radio came out, content marketing found a new way of reaching more people. There were paid partnerships between companies and people to promote different brands. There were not many changes around the 1940s–1970s because of the economy and the role advertisements played.
It wasn’t until around the 1990s where content marketing went digital. Digital marketing focuses on strategies that are similar to ebooks, videos, podcasts, blogs, and infographics. The use of technology has been the key factor for businesses when finding new customers.
Traditional Vs. Content Marketing
Traditional marketing is advertisements that are forced to be played on a commercial, radio, etc. Traditional marketing has to reach a larger audience, so the commercial would be less specific. For example, Super bowl ads are traditional advertisements . Some traditional marketing techniques are print ads, broadcasted ads, direct mail, and telemarketing.
There are many differences between traditional and content marketing. First, content marketing is more specific about solving a problem than traditional marketing. For example, traditional marketing tries sell a product or service to some what a less targeted demographic. While content marketing helps the audience understand information.
Traditional marketing focuses on “interrupting” the audience with an advertisement whereas online content is accessed through searching online.
Content marketing strategies
There are around 5 basic content marketing strategies companies use to get more business.
Blogging
Blogs are one of the easiest ways to advertise information and reliable resources for a variety of audiences. With important keywords, a blog post could be found easily through Google, Bing, or other search engines. It is also important for blogs to have reliable information so the audience knows and understands what they are getting.
Infographic
An infographic is a picture that has useful information or data to relay to the audience. Infographics are designed to convey a message using pictures and words in one of the best ways possible. However, the rapid increase of videos and blogs make infographics a secondary way of receiving information via content marketing.
Some infographics are used to show data while others focus on teaching others. One way infographics aren’t helpful is by not having all of the information.
Podcasting
Businesses also use podcasts for market-specific content. Podcasts deliver a different way of telling information for another variety of people. Some companies pay for advertisements in podcasts, but others do it for free. The audience has an opportunity to learn more about the product or service through websites and music streaming services. Podcasts can be listened to when working out, during long car rides, or just in general.
Video Marketing
Similar to podcasts, Video marketing shows media and videos displaying how a certain product works. From speeches to tutorials, there are many different ways content can be shown inside a video. YouTube delivers video content showing aspects of products for others to potentially attract customers to the product as well.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing refers to connecting with existing and potential customer base. Also, some businesses pay influencers to promote services and products. Businesses use Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms for creating and distributing content.
Companies that use Content Marketing
John Deere
Content marketing can be found anywhere where there are ads present. One company that uses content marketing well is John Deere. John Deere started content marketing with a magazine they released called The Furrow. The Furrow had many different ideas and information for farmers to look at and share around the world. John Deere wanted to focus less on their brand and more on the farming part.
TedTalks
Next, TedTalks also uses content marketing. TedTalks is a group of scholars and experts relaying information to the public using infographics, visuals, and speeches. One way that makes TedTalks powerful is the many topics that are answered on their YouTube channel.
Go Pro
Another company that has great content marketing is GoPro. GoPro is a camera business that uses its own high-quality media to promote other brands and videos to their audiences. GoPro shows a different side to content by using their user’s created movies as advertisements for the GoPro camera itself.
The camera can be attached to anything to get high-quality videos for movies and YouTube. GoPro uses YouTube also to get a lot of viewers into their business. The viewers suppressed 2 billion views on their youtube channel.
Spotify
One more business that uses content marketing well is Spotify. Spotify is a music streaming app that has a variety of music and podcasts to listen to. Spotify uses various ways to show the user’s data at a given time. One way Spotify shows the content is a feature that lets the user recap all of the music they listened to. This feature called “Wrapped” explains the number of hours listened to a certain artist.
Coca Cola
In this example, Coca-Cola is using content marketing to market their beverage. They are using the fact that it has a personalized name on the bottle. This is an example of content marketing because the audience can relate to the Coca-Cola product only because it’s personalized. A regular coal cola ad wouldn’t be content marketing because they mostly play as commercials and print ads.
AARP
AARP is known to be a Medicare plan, but they do the same thing with content marketing as John Deere does. Most of the content inside of the magazine has nothing to do with the company. AARP uses the feedback from their audience and adds different features to the magazine.
The bottom line
Content marketing is useful when someone has a question that no one around them has the answer to. There is no one single channel when it comes to content marketing. From article writing, blogging all the way to videos! They all serve the purpose of getting the message across.
