SEO
What Makes Content Marketing Truly Great?
“Content Is King”; it seems that this phrase keeps on popping up wherever we go in the world of marketing. While there are many factors that go into making an exceptional marketing plan, it’s not an exaggeration to say that the quality of the content created can single-handedly make or break the whole strategy.
So, what exactly is content marketing, and how can you create captivating content? Is content marketing really worth it anyway? Let’s find out!
What is Content Marketing?
Just like every other marketing strategy, content marketing is just another strategy that, ultimately, aims to increase profits. However, unlike direct sales pitching, content marketing revolves around creating captivating, relevant, and valuable content that attracts the audience, all while coming up with tactics to distribute it through means that best ensure its effectiveness. Ultimately, content marketing plays a big role in satisfying marketing goals, whether through the direct sales enhancement or indirect profit generated after improving brand quality, increasing exposure, and strengthening customer relations.
There are two main players when it comes to content marketing: content and marketing. The content player covers various forms; most of us instantly think of written content first, but that’s not the only form of content. Videos, illustrations, presentations, and any kind of media that communicates with the audience all fall under the umbrella of the content. Meanwhile, the marketing player refers to the strategies and tactics deployed to maximize the impact of the content created. It takes into consideration the platforms of distribution, the time of publishing, the positive or negative feedback, as well as analyzing the campaigns and utilizing the data generated in future strategies.
How to Be Great at Content Marketing
As crucial as content marketing is, many fail to create content that satisfies the minimum quality criteria. The reason behind this is simple, many focus on only one aspect of content marketing, either content or marketing. It makes sense then that their content marketing becomes lacking, failing to deliver the desired goals. That may discourage these marketers from investing as much time and effort in content marketing, while the real issue lies not with content marketing, but rather with how they approach it.
To make it simple, in order to excel at content marketing, there are a few steps that should be taken in the process.
- Seek Help from Experts
Every expert was, at some point, a beginner. It takes years of trial and error to finally get the big picture and be familiar with all the nooks and crannies of the trade. This means that, whether you’re a beginner or you’re looking for a way to get the best results, seeking the help of a digital marketing agency is the best course of action to take. An agency with top-notch experts will help you create the best strategies while taking care of all the steps needed to bring such a strategy to life. These experts won’t only adopt the best content marketing practices, but they’ll also give you insight as to what your marketing plan is currently lacking and how to improve it.
bundledigital.co.uk(opens in a new tab)
- Create a Solid Marketing Plan
Image Source: https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2019/05/26/06/05/digital-marketing-4229637_960_720.jpg
Some people prefer to take on the responsibility of content marketing themselves instead of outsourcing it to an agency. This can also be quite effective when you know what you need to do and how to excel at content marketing. Before taking any steps though, the most crucial part of content marketing is planning and creating strategies. Creating random posts won’t do you any good unless they’re based on a methodological approach that lays the foundation for achieving the desired marketing goals.
- Think About Your Viewers
As tempting as it can be to keep posting about your business and how awesome it is, your viewers aren’t really interested in that. They want to know how your business can benefit them, why they absolutely need to especially invest in your products or services and not anyone else’s, and why they should become loyal to you. This sense of loyalty will never be instilled in them unless you make them the center of your content universe, and only then will your content marketing start to reap its benefits.
- Create Content that Fits Your Brand
Centering your content around your viewers doesn’t, by any means, indicate that you should neglect your brand. On the contrary, your biggest and most sacred goal of content marketing has always been to make it so that anyone who stumbles across your content is left with an unforgettable impression of your brand. Whatever you create, the content should, at all expenses, conform to your brand value, tone, and goals.
- Make Use of Storytelling
Ever since the dawn of time, humans have depended on storytelling to get their message across. If anything, listening to a story is entertaining and exciting, so you can at least rest assured that telling a story won’t bore your audience. However, it’s still true that storytelling is an art, so just deciding to tell a story won’t cut it if you neglect talent. When deployed correctly though, the storytelling will breathe life into your content marketing and captivate the viewers’ attention in the way you desire.
- Simplify, Deliver Value, and Engage
Sometimes, you’ll have an overly complicated topic that you want to share with your audience. Perhaps you even feel like bragging about the level of expertise your brand has reached. Regardless of the temptation origin, here’s a golden rule you should always remember: Simplify. Your content should address the viewers on the conception that they don’t know any technical information about your brand while succeeding in delivering the simplest explanation. It should be both valuable and interesting enough to engage with the content you deliver.
- Always Ask for Feedback
The fastest and most effective way to know how well your content marketing is performing is to listen to the feedback of your audience. However, your viewers will rarely take the initiative to contact you for feedback, unless they have something negative to complain about. Instead of waiting for the bomb to drop, it’s better to make it an integral part of your strategy to ask for feedback and optimize your future strategies based on the feedback you get.
- Delivering Content Is Just as Important as Creating It
This is where the marketing half of content marketing comes to play. Many content marketers fall into this mistake while creating their strategies, they focus on creating content without deploying the best practices of delivery said content. In order to create a compelling content
