Are you not sure how content marketing works? Do you want to know how content marketing can help your business? Do you need help in getting started on your content strategy? We offer answers to these questions and more in the FAQ below.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is essentially a form of marketing where you produce useful, relevant, and valuable content for current and prospective customers. The focus is on adding value for the reader while positioning your business as helpful and knowledgeable.
What kind of content can I use for content marketing campaigns?
You can promote your business through different forms of content, including:
- articles
- blog posts
- infographics
- presentations
- videos
- podcasts
- ebooks
- reports,
- whitepapers
Why should I use content marketing?
Creating good content is good for your business’s online visibility. Google has been putting emphasis on showing searchers results for websites with content that help the visitor and demoting websites with weak content. This is why an on-site blog with unique, valuable content is an integral part of ranking well on Google and other search engines.
Content marketing gives your business credibility. As a credible, authoritative resource on topics that matter to your target audience, your business is more likely to get discovered by the right people. As your brand’s base grows, you will generate substantial website traffic, drive sales and earn your customers’ loyalty and advocacy.
Can my business also benefit from content marketing?
Yes! Whether your business is small or large, regardless in which industry and under what niche you fall, you can use content marketing to your advantage. The techniques and goals may vary, especially between business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) companies, but the impact of a good content marketing strategy always shows.
How can I use content marketing to generate leads for my business?
Apart from offering free content like blog posts, articles, and videos, you should also create gated content like white papers, case studies, and eBooks and use them as lead magnets. The readers will be required to opt into a mailing list before gaining access to this high-level content.
You can then introduce your leads to your sales funnel and begin the process of nurturing them. As your leads keep engaging with more of your content, they may move down the sales funnel and convert from leads to customers.
How much content does my business need to produce?
Content frequency differs depending on your industry and unique brand. A sports brand may benefit from creating and sharing short content daily, while a pharmaceutical brand may get more value out of creating long-form content twice a month for example.
Find out how often your most successful competitors create and share content. Emulate them and strive for a consistent schedule. Consistency will boost your reliability and ensure that your audience anticipates your content.
Do I have to keep creating new content?
Yes, you do have to keep creating new content. The good news is you can also repurpose one piece of content in many different ways. You could, for instance, take a few related blog posts and repackage them as a free eBook for your mailing list subscribers. Or you could take the main steps in one of your videos and put them in an infographic. Basically, you could turn any form of content into another form of content without worrying about duplicate content sanctions from Google.
What types of content will work for our industry?
Every industry is unique and the best way to find out what will work for you is to research what your competitors are doing. Look for the following from your competitors in order to see what resonates with readers in your industry:
- Blog content with lots of social shares and comments.
- YouTube videos with a good number of views, likes, and comments.
- Infographics with lots of social shares and backlinks.
- SlideShare presentations with plenty of views and social shares.
- Podcasts with a substantial amount of positive reviews.
Can I use content marketing if I am in a boring industry?
Let’s say your company manufactures toothpicks; it probably isn’t a good idea to blog about them every week. You should instead think about the people who would buy them and how to capture their interest. Write about the top 10 foods that stick to your teeth for example or give them some tips on oral hygiene.
Should I have someone else write content for my business?
If you do not have the time or do not like writing and you have sufficient resources, you may have someone else create content for you. It can be in-house or outsourced. As far as outsourcing blog content goes, you can have content ghost-written for you if necessary. That way you build your own authority in your industry. However, you can also opt to work with your industry‘s reputable writers and capitalize on their huge social following.
What’s the best way to promote content for my business?
Some of the most basic yet effective ways to promote your content are:
- Sharing your content with your social media followers.
- Sending your latest content to your mailing list subscribers.
- Integrating your offsite content – for example, YouTube videos- to your blog.
What’s the one content marketing mistake I should avoid?
The biggest content marketing mistake you would make would be rushing in without a coherent strategy. You must have a plan to get the results you desire from your content marketing campaigns.
In order to develop an effective content marketing strategy, you must know your target audience like the back of your hand. You must know what content satisfies their needs and answers their questions. You must know how your brand can offer the greatest value to your audience through proper research and planning. Start with the creation of a buyer persona so you can get to know your target audience and design content that is more likely to resonate with them.
Check out The 5-Secrets Guide For Creating Content on a Small Budget to get a better understanding of the issue.
Is content marketing the same as social media marketing?
No they are not the same but your business should integrate its content marketing and social media marketing strategies. This way you ensure that you’re optimizing your marketing efforts.
Content marketing encompasses all types of content written that can reside on your company’s website or outside of it, including on social media platforms. Social media marketing, on the other hand, takes place strictly on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
Is content marketing the same as inbound marketing and content strategy?
No, they are not the same but there is an overlap between the three disciplines.
Your content strategy focuses on the planning, creation, delivery, and governance of content.
Your content marketing is the process of creating the content for your business based on the content strategy. Content marketing includes inbound marketing as the conversation heads into a sales process and later onto customer service, customer retention, and the upsell process.
The process of attracting and nurturing prospects with content is known as inbound marketing. It starts with offering the reader the correct answer, in the correct channels, at the correct time and in the correct format at the correct time.
How can I measure the results of content marketing?
Your goals will determine the metrics you’ll track in order to assess your results.
You may view an increase in website traffic and social shares as an increase in brand awareness. If your aim is to generate leads, for example, you’ll look for an increase in the number of leads and improved conversion rates.
When should I expect to see results from content marketing?
You need to commit to content marketing for the long haul. You should expect to see more social shares and new leads within the first few months of implementing your content marketing campaign but your ultimate goals will take much longer. The good thing is that your content will provide value to readers for many years to come. It will serve you in building loyalty, generating leads, and driving sales far into the future.
