I would like to help you to understand content marketing. Online marketing can seem quite complicated. This can hold back even the most focused of entrepreneurs from ever implementing an online marketing plan.
Content marketing is a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services, according to Google’s definition.
Content marketing probably is one of the most important internet marketing strategies because, without it, many other strategies wouldn’t exist (or wouldn’t be effective). If you think about it, nearly everything you view online is content (e.g. videos, articles, blog posts, infographics, etc.) of some kind.
Potential customers want to know about your product or service. Content educates customers and it is the void content fills.
Thanks to content you can become a thought leader in your industry. Being a thought leader results in excellent brand exposure and can open up many doors in your specific space.
Major content marketing tactics:
1. Blogging
Having an industry blog and company newsletter can be very helpful in content marketing to connect with current and potential customers.
The ultimate aim of the blog is to entice visitors into purchasing (or at least trying).
2. “Linkbait” creation (and promotion)
‘Linkbait’ content designed to attract attention and encourage those viewing it to create hyperlinks to the site, with the aim of improving the site’s position on the list of results returned by a search engine.
It can be pretty much any form of content (e.g. video, infographic, blog post, long-form guide, SlideShare, etc.). The major aim is always to attract backlinks. Attracting inbound links will:
- Drive referral traffic to your website (from the linking site).
- Help raise rankings which will lead to more traffic to your website via organic search.
3. Content marketing guest posting
Guest blogging is when a writer develops content for a blog that is not their own. It’s a chance to take your expertise and share it with others, as well as an opportunity to increase traffic to both parties’ blogs.
Guest blogging is also a great way to locate yourself as an authority figure within your market and build relationships with other bloggers and experts within your field.
Reasons why you should guest post:
- Encouraging well written and authoritative blog posts and articles, a website stands to establish itself as an authority on the subject;
- It can drive referral traffic to your site;
- You can link from the guest post to a relevant piece of content on your site;
- Guest posting can help you build relationships in your niche or industry;
- Is a great way of building your own brand name.
4. Video creation (and content marketing)
Using video to promote and market your business online is super powerful. Promoting your business through videos is a great way to showcase your business, products and the knowledge of your employees.
Reasons why you should use video to promote your business:
- A wider reach;
- Bring customer testimonials to life;
- Inject personality into your marketing;
- More memorable than written content;
- An SEO boost;
- Increased customer satisfaction and fewer returns;
- Create an effortless, personal connection with users.
5. Hosting webinars
A webinar is a live web-based video conference that uses the internet to connect the individual hosting the webinar to an audience–the viewers and listeners of the webinar from all over the world. Hosts can show themselves speaking, switch to their computer screens for slideshows or demonstrations, and even invite guests from other locations to co-host the webinar with them. They can be great forms of content, especially if you are selling a digital product.
6. Content syndication
Content syndication is the action of pushing your blog post, article, video or any piece of web-based content out to other third-parties who will then republish it on their own sites.
Content syndication is particularly useful if you’re a smaller publisher or an up-and-coming writer who wants a larger audience from a more authoritative site.
By having your blog content published on a popular blog you will be exposed to a much wider audience that isn’t your own but may then visit you on your own blog.
7. Podcasting
Podcasting is a free service that allows Internet users to pull audio files (typically MP3s) from a podcasting Web site to listen to on their computers or personal digital audio players. The term comes from a combination of the words iPod (a personal digital audio player made by Apple) and broadcasting. Even though the term is derived from the iPod, you don’t need an iPod to listen to a podcast. You can use virtually any portable media player or your computer. Podcasting can be very effective at marketing your business online and building relevant industry relationships.
