If you haven’t come across the term content marketing yet, chances are you are still living under a big old rock. Traditional marketing is becoming obsolete day after day. All the forward-thinking brands and marketers are now shifting towards the new age marketing- content marketing. 

Content marketing is basically a strategic approach to the marketing arena. More and more value is created by the brand towards its audience through consistent good quality content. The whole procedure is carried out to keep the brand or the product more relevant in the market. 

This is an indirect approach to marketing your product or services. The brands try to stand out amongst the competitors by providing useful content related to their brand to the prospective customers in order to solve their queries and issues. 

Brands focus on their objective of driving profitable customer action with relevant, valuable and consistent content. Any piece of content created for marketing purposes is done keeping in mind the customer’s reaction to it. 

Read More:- Top Digital Marketing Strategies for Small Scale Business Owners and Startups in 2022

Why is content marketing important

Content marketing has made a huge difference in the marketing scene is because of the awareness it is creating among the customers. First, there is a problem that needs to be identified. Next, the business finds a solution to it through the content. Finally, they lay out the solution to the problem. Even after the customers are aware of the problem, they will try to research and find out the various solutions to it. For instance, if a customer wants to buy a house, he will try to find different kinds of property. He will check for the properties that are present in his desired location and that fits his needs. 

After thorough research, the customer starts to compare the best possible options that he has finalized according to the quality, price, and vendor. Content marketing helps in the customer’s research and to find the best solution to their problem. Finally, when the customer is satisfied with the solution he is getting, he moves on to the next step of buying. 

Traditional marketing also can help the customer in researching, comparing and buying. However, the real usage of content marketing comes in the first stage of the marketing itself. Content marketing helps raise awareness among customers. They persuade the customer buying and making them educated about the product.

With content marketing, not only a brand can uphold their brand name with the old customers but can also create a platform for potential customers. Potential clients and customers find the brand’s content relevant and understand the company’s value from it. Through the content, customers are already partly impressed by the client and are convinced that they want to work with the brand. 

The content basically identifies the tonal personality of the brand and helps customers feel connected and builds up the trust accordingly. If content marketing techniques are executed accurately, you will get the return on your investment phenomenally. The best part is the costing is not an exuberant value and mostly requires efforts and ideas rather than finance. 

Content marketing widely includes a contribution to social media, SEO efforts, inbound links, outbound links and more.

Key to great content marketing strategy

Good content

The key to a good content marketing strategy is only a good piece of content. If your audience read only the first few lines and close the link or are forced to read the whole thing but do not comprehend it, you are dealing with bad content marketing. The brand must contain its audience with the first few lines itself. It the audience feels connected to the content, only then will they scroll down to read the entire thing. Relatability and relevancy are both the secrets to a perfect content marketing strategy.

Read More:- Top Digital Marketing Trends in 2022: What to Expect in the Next 5 Years

Be innovative and creative 

Talking about smart content strategy, the renowned actor Ryan Reynolds has proved to be a marketing genius. With his recent ad campaign, he is promoting three of his commercials in one single advertisement. He advertised his upcoming movie 6 Underground on Netflix while playing the same on a Samsung OLED TV screen. The ad is then followed by a commercial of his brand called Aviation Gin in the background. This is the most accurate example of content marketing. The creator established the value of three promotions into one and gave each one an individual value at the same time.

Understand the audience

There are many Indian social media marketing agencies and content writing agencies pertaining today. They strive every day towards creating great content, curating great content and selling the best content. Especially in the first tier metro cities in India, if you want to bag the title of best content writing agency in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi or more. You must understand the target audience first. Once you have understood the kind of content people want to read, the next step is to create good content. The kind of content that gives your brand a relevant value and connect with the public at large. 

Other than the content marketing agencies, there are many digital marketing agencies, PR agencies, and SEO services. These agencies also offer content marketing services. Today, every brand is hiring a reputed content marketing agency or social media agency to handle all their content marketing and social media marketing needs. 

Read More:- What is the Difference Between Web Design and Web Development?

Add value 

This is a no brainer when it comes to content marketing. You must add value to your content. Content marketing without valuable content is a piece of information that nobody asked you for. Customers have a very little span of attention in today’s world. If you wish to keep the balls rolling in your court, add value to the content and make it fruitful for the audience. Adding value is always combined with keeping it relevant. One must be aware of the ongoing marketing trends, existing customer orientation and more. You can do this with the appropriate amount of research. Another great stint to having good content is taking feedbacks. If you want to know what the customers want, the best way to do is ask them. This way, customers feel involved in brand marketing and develop a feeling of trust.

Content can be in any format. It may be written or it may be visual as well. There are tons of opportunities and ways in which one can market their brand meticulously in the market. To start with, there are major five content marketing examples that brands are using today. All of them have a major scope in marketing.

Infographics

Infographics are long vertical graphics that include different kinds of charts, graphs, statistics, and other information. It is a pictorial representation of the content with the relevant information. People tend to stop and stare at the visual content more than the written content. Infographics are an effective way of marketing on social media platforms and websites. There are many experts who design infographics professionally. If you know and understand the skills of Photoshop and illustrators, you can do it yourself. Infographics are always included in the content marketing strategy along with copywriting and graphics designing. Pinterest is the biggest platform for promoting infographics where brands can get maximum insights and engagements.

Webpages

Content marketing majorly functions on the webpages. The long format content like blogs and articles are curated on the webpages. The posts are created using relevant content and various SEO tools and resources. Content marketing is strategically carried out to attract more traffic towards the website which can connect the brand and the customer. You can either develop your own website content or market your brand through guest blogs and collaboration with other websites as well.

Read More:- What Does a Branding Agency Do? Everything You Need to Know

Podcasts

Podcasts are the newest trend in the market which has gained back the popularity that it had when the radio was the thing. Podcasts are basically audio interviews where people just talk about their lives, stories, inspirations and more. Brands are using podcasts to relate to the crowd who still like the concept of audiobooks and audio storytelling. Mostly, people in the creative and literature fields like authors and artists, use the platform of podcasts in order to connect with their audience and sell their art. Learn How To Start A Podcast.

Videos

In the era of Youtube, Snapchat, IGTV and Tiktok, if as a brand you are not marketing through videos, you are not doing the content marketing right. Youtubers and vloggers have gained immense popularity in the past few years. Not only do the customers spend hours and hours watching the videos but they also genuinely get influenced by the videos and act accordingly. Each brand must focus on introducing its content to the larger audience in the video format. People tend to engage more with visual audio-video content than a written one.

Books

Marketers and entrepreneurs use bookselling as a new marketing tool. They don’t sell the books for selling the books but they aim to sell the product and the brand attached to it. Mostly artists and authors use the method of launching their books through self-publishing or publishing house as a tool for driving more and more customers. Even if the book is not selling, it adds up to the content marketing strategy for the brand. There are various formats of books other than traditional literature format. Some of the popular forms are e-books, white papers, audiobooks and more.

Content marketing is a growing tool in the current advertisement and marketing trends. If a brand wants to keep its name afloat in the market, it must focus on content marketing tools and digital marketing strategy. Knowing what the customer wants out of the brand is important. Also, giving them something to develop their trust towards a brand can sustain them for a longer period of time. Once you have done thorough market research, find your target audience whom you want to attract. Create relevant content which adds to the brand value and market it accordingly. A good content marketing strategy can take your brand to newer heights.

Read More:- What Does a Video Production Company Do? Everything You Need to Know in 2022