Yes we all have heard of content marketing, but do you know what it is in its right sense?

Content Marketing is a strategic marketing approach which focuses on creating, distributing and publishing content online for a targeted group of audience in the form of blogs, articles, etc. With the world consuming digital content like anything, businesses need to grab eyeballs in the blink of an eye.

It’s gotta be entertaining, educating and informative if you want those eyes on you.

Now that you have an idea, let’s understand why we should give attention to content marketing.

Why is content marketing important?

Content marketing is essential for several reasons. The foremost reason is it helps build trust towards the brand and increases brand credibility. Content marketing services help in the growth and development of the business through different ways. A few ways are listed below for you (yes you dummy):

Informs the audience:

Content Marketing helps your audience understand about your business and the industry and how you are different from others. For example if you have a customer looking for digital marketing services for the first time who doesn’t have much knowledge about digital marketing, your blog may help them get the information that they would need to know.

Increases online visibility:

Writing content while implementing the correct writing strategy on the pain points that are faced by the majority of the people can help you attract more customers on your website, especially if you are providing solutions to their problems. This helps to increase online visibility through digital content marketing.

Links from other websites:

A good content gets the audience into your site and it also allows you to earn links from other websites. This helps you to improve your website’s SEO ranking in an organic manner. This let’s Google know that you are a reliable source which further helps your website as a whole to rank higher when a specific query is searched. Unfortunately, only the major brands are ranked higher for specific keywords such as Facebook for Social Network, etc.

Content helps earn Conversions:

Content attracts the audience to your website and every time an action is taken by the visitor to become a customer, it is considered to be a conversion. One of the best ways to attract customers is by making use of CTA (Call To Action) buttons. It is one of the best ways to tell the customer what to do after reading your content.

Importance of Content Marketing:

A lot of businesses grow with the help of content marketing as it allows people to visit your website to learn more about what they may or may not know and also become customers for your site. The importance of content marketing can be seen as follows:

Foundation of any marketing campaign:

A good content strategy is crucial to launch an effective marketing campaign. The need for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is to rank the content pages higher in search results. Content is what pulls traffic to your website.

Audience seeks content for information:

A well written piece of content is one that addresses fundamental questions of your potential customers. A content that not only informs but also provides facts helps in simplifying the decision for the audience.

A good content leads to potential conversion:

Every time a visitor takes a desirable action, they have the potential to become a consumer on your site, this is viewed as conversions. This in return helps businesses grow. Creating good content is the first step to improving conversions rate optimization.

Engaging content through social media:

Achieving social media traction involves the repurposing of content. Sharing important links encourages readers to share content on online social media platforms.

It allows you to engage your audience through posts, comments, engagement, helping build customer relationships. Direct customer interaction helps you create an authentic customer base by refining your marketing strategy.

The brand skill is reflected in your content:

Showcase your expertise, through your content. Due to its wide range of channels, it proves to be effective. It’s suggested to have a mix of the ways you create content so that you attract audiences who prefer consuming content in various ways, such as blogs or videos or podcasts, etc.

Types of Content Marketing: 

Content marketing in digital marketing can either be in a written form, a visual form or can be a mixture of both.

Let’s look at some popular types of content marketing:

Blog:

Blogs are businesses best friends when it comes to spreading awareness about their services or products or to update industry trends. Blogs with relevant content and keywords help in increasing your search engine rankings. It also allows you to create link-building opportunities with other websites as guest-bloggers.

Blogging acts as a beneficial marketing strategy as it is easily produced, affordable and easy to create, as compared to any other type of content marketing such as video blogs, or mini podcasts. Get blogging guys!

Podcast Marketing:

Podcasts are fun digital audio or video files available for streaming that cover a wide range of topics, such as, news, education, entertainments, etc. It allows businesses to reach out to a more defined and targeted audience with the power of audio-first content. Businesses can either create their own podcasts or become a guest speaker on other podcasts similar to their niche keeping it light-hearted.

The power of podcast marketing is often overlooked as many businesses aren’t familiar with how to use audio-only content, but is a growing platform for businesses to reach potential customers.

Infographics:

These are visually appealing content that compiles statistics or conveys complex concepts and facts in a clear and concise manner. It’s mainly used for B2B content marketing but also can be used for B2C marketing at times (for example: explaining the product features).

In an era where the audience skims through content, making it easier and fun to read helps your audience consume your brand content in less time.

These are just a few ways through which content marketing can be done. Some other ways are Ebooks, social media, videos (for example – YouTube channel).

Video Content:

It is a way of creating content where you can share valuable content pieces, but you are putting a face (yours or someone you trust) in front of your customers. Adding a personality while providing valuable information holds much importance to people who would rather watch than read.

It also shows step-to-step tutorials of how to use your products. You can make use of videos that show easy quick-fixes for products that can be easily repaired at home, etc.

Case Studies:

Case studies are effective to gain a customer’s attention, as they love to know how helpful your product or service was for other people. Case studies are prime pieces of content that are easily produced. It also helps answer questions that other people may have with your product.

For example, a content marketing agency can provide case studies to showcase statistical growth over the years that have happened only through content.

Email Marketing:

Even though it sometimes gets ignored by us (😬)  email marketing involves sending promotional messages to a target audience through email. It’s a form of direct marketing between businesses and their customers to build relationships, promote services or products and generate sales or leads. It’s often used by marketers to stay in touch with their audience. Nearly 3 out of 4 marketers make use of email marketing to distribute content.

We hope this blog helped you have a better understanding of Content Marketing in Digital Marketing and the kind of importance it holds in the Digital Marketing landscape. We also hope that you have been able to have a fair idea of how you can make your content interesting by mismatching different types of content.