Marketing is both science and art; and so is content marketing. It is that form of marketing where marketing is done subtly- no loud message urging people to take the product. So, content marketing is marketing without marketing. Confused? Don’t be. After reading this article till the end, you will know all the basics of content marketing that will open your path to creating your own content-rich brand online.
Content Marketing Definition
Read the last line of the previous paragraph again. Do you see what we did there? We did not ask you directly to read our article. Yet you are still reading the article. That’s the practical definition of content marketing.
It’s a strategic marketing approach that focuses on creating, publishing and distributing relevant and consistent content online for a targeted audience. It’s objective is not to sell but to educate the audience about a product/service or both.
Content marketing is the act of writing well-researched content that is useful to the readers. As the readers get more and more attached to the contents that you write (or videos/images that you make), you subtly try to persuade them to buy your product or service. For example, a travel company can write engaging content on tours to various regions, comprehensive itinerary etc. Their main intention is to sell you tour packages. And it works! If you love the contents that the travel agency posts if your wanderlust gets triggered by their well-crafted videos, you are very much likely to use their service when the next holiday season comes.
Oftentimes content marketing is used to get more visitors to the website. In other words, content marketing can be used to increase brand awareness.
Story Telling
The basic structure of a content marketing piece- be it text or a video- is geared towards a problem and its solution. You have to present the problem and the solution in the form of a story. Look at this article as an example. This article is written in the story format. From the start of the article, it is addressing – YOU – in the second person. If the article was written in a generic manner with no usage of ‘You’ or ‘He,’ it would have been too impersonal and dry.
In this article, the problem or ‘want’ is your requirement to learn more about content marketing. The solution is what we are offering. Would you like to watch a movie that has no rising action, climax and falling action? No. The same is true for contents.
The Golden Circle
The concept of the Golden Circle was developed by Simon Sinek. He believes that people are not interested in how or what you do. They are interested in why you do the thing you do. The why part touches the potential customers more. That’s why it is placed in the innermost sanctum.
For example, have you seen the newest Whatsapp ad? A woman video calls her sister so that the sister can guide her while she cuts her hair all by herself ( No Salon open because of lockdown). The ad ends with a tagline – It’s Between You. With this ad, Whatsapp subtly hints at the ability to offer an intimate conversation that you can have with your loved ones. At the same time, it also smartly reminds us that nobody eavesdrop on our Whatsapp conversation. You see, this ad never tries to explain the whats and hows – it shows WHY you should use Whatsapp.
SEO
You can’t discount SEO while talking about content marketing. According to an SEO company in Melbourne, the purpose of content marketing is to establish an intimate connection with the readers ( or viewers). But for that, you need to reach them first. There are many people who are doing the same work as you. In order to outsmart these people and reach the people before them, you have to use SEO. Remember the example of a travel agency that we talked about earlier? The travel agency has to publish a lot of informative yet entertaining articles on trips to different places. It has to be original so that other websites link to its website while talking about the same topic. This is how the agency’s website will gain authority – necessary criteria to rank higher on a search engine. At the same time, it has to use industry-specific keywords to appear relevant to the eyes of the search engine. There are many other SEO techniques out there which we will discuss in our later posts.
Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing is the evolved form of content marketing. The primary purpose of content marketing is to build relationships with potential buyers. And with sites like Facebook or Twitter, you can actually talk and share a laugh or two with the potential buyers. Social Networking sites have opened doors to new content marketing dimensions.
Content Marketing is a journey…
Along the journey, you meet many interesting people. These are the potential buyers. Think of the destination as the point when you sell your product or service. The experience that you offer these people during the journey will tell if they are willing to turn into your loyal customers. Bon, voyage!
