What is
Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a phrase often mentioned when
discussing digital marketing. It’s often used in so many different contexts; it
can be tough to understand what it really means. Let’s clear that up right now.
Content
marketing is the use of any type of media as a tool for garnering exposure and
sales for your company or organization.
The media is anything that has been created like blog
posts, articles, videos, images or books. What you’re reading right now is a
form of content or media. It can be in long form or very short. The overall
purpose of content is to make a statement in a way that is compelling and
attractive to your preferred audience. When you’re using content for marketing
purposes, you want to include some kind of call to action that encourages
people to do something. You can be asking them to click a link, make a call, sign
a petition or simply share the information.
The most important thing to remember when you are using
content marketing is to focus on providing value. You’re not creating a
commercial. While commercials are a form of content, they’re one sided. Their
purpose is solely to sell. When you use content as a marketing tool, your
purpose is to educate, inform and engage people with the goal of turning them
into customers.
It’s not about direct sales to increase your bottom line;
it’s about using information to show customers and potential customers that your
company can provide value they need to enhance their lives in some way. It’s an
indirect sales method that can turn customers into consistent clients.
By sharing content, you are encouraging a form of two way
communication. Not only do you want people to become customers, you want them
to become an active community of clients that use your company
consistently.
The reason you’ve been hearing about content marketing so
much is that businesses are starting to recognize that communicating with customers
is much more beneficial than communicating at customers. Advertising involves
communicating at customers. You put together messages and images you think
people will like and you send them their way.
There is no room for dialogue or any type of engagement
with your audience. That kind of communication is no longer as effective as it
once was. People tend to tune out advertisements so you have to do more of it
to make an impact.
People don’t tune out information. In fact, in this age of
information, people are consuming it in large amounts. The 24 hour news cycle
is a prime example of that. You have news networks that are on the air 24 hours
a day sharing information. These networks wouldn’t be thriving if people didn’t
want to know information at any given moment of the day. If you are able to
contribute to their desire for knowledge and information, you won’t be tuned
out.
This is why content marketing should be used by all
businesses, especially ones that live in the digital space. You have the
opportunity to connect with your audience in a way that is meaningful. You have
the opportunity to help quench their thirst for knowledge while providing a
product or service to back it up.
This book will help you do that. It will introduce you to
the different types of content and show how to use it to get leads and sales.
The great thing with content marketing is that anyone can do it. Once you lock
in on the type of content you feel most comfortable creating you can do it.
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