If you’re struggling to hit sales or targets using your current outreach methods and you would like more leads or sales etc, perhaps you should consider content marketing.
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What does content marketing mean?
This is a content-based strategy that will help you build a relationship with your audience. Once you learn how to use it to your advantage, you’ll soon see results.
To learn more about content marketing, keep reading!
Content marketing is the process of creating content around your business, industry, or niche to help you get your website seen by more potential customers. It goes without saying that, generating more awareness will lead to better results for your business, and the best way to do this is by maximising your content marketing.
Content marketing is a key tool in growing your audience and customer base by utilising any content you might create for your business (blogs, videos, social media posts) and distributing it across your digital channels.
Why is it important?
Creating fresh content regularly will create rapport with your audience as they begin to understand your personality through your tone online.
70% of consumers feel closer to a company as a result of content marketing, so be sure to keep a consistent tone and personality throughout your content. The importance of content marketing cannot be overstated as a surprising 90% of consumers find custom content useful.
If every 9/10 people find your content useful, think of how many more leads and sales this could generate for your business. Content marketing is incredibly important for your business as the ROI (Return On Investment) for content marketing is greater than other marketing channels.
Types of content
Within content marketing there are many types of content that you could create, so let us break them down for you.
Short-form video content
Short videos that are 60 seconds or less are ideal for showcasing your brand’s personality.
Long-form video content
Longer videos that are over 1 minute long and tend to be more educational and informative.
Blogs
Write about the latest trends or news in your industry, or delve deeper into your services.
Infographics
Give your readers something to capture their attention while educating them on the latest stats and facts.
Social Media posts
Create captions to pair with a relevant image to share with your followers or potential customers.
Target your audience through email marketing, sending offers or newsletters to let them know what you’re up to.
Where to share content?
The obvious place to start is by sharing content on your website. If you don’t have a social media account for your business yet- what are you waiting for? Here is a list of places you can post your curated content:
Blogging
The best places to post your blogs are on your website, you can also share them on blogging platforms such as WordPress or Medium. Trusted by millions, these platforms are easy to use, have a ready-made audience waiting for content, and are therefore a great place to start your content marketing.
Social Media Posts
If you’re looking to post your content on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter it’s worth knowing which ones will work for your business.
Since its launch in 2004, Facebook has cemented itself as the largest social media platform. With an audience made up of Millennials and Generation X users, Facebook is best used for boosting brand awareness and increasing your advertising.
To share your high-quality photos and videos to a large audience of mainly Millennials, Instagram is the perfect place to get your content seen by billions of users. With the option to connect your e-commerce store, Instagram sets itself apart from the rest.
As a business owner, having a LinkedIn profile will help you make connections with other businesses, so use this space to show off your successes and build a portfolio of work you’re proud of. With 774 million active users worldwide, LinkedIn can help you create more B2B relationships.
If your business is photo-dominant, Pinterest is the perfect space to share your work. Users can ‘Pin’ your images to create visual mood boards, and be taken directly to your site by clicking on an image. This is a great way to encourage users to visit your site who are looking for inspiration for everything from wedding venues to new recipes.
Lastly, Twitter is a platform that you can use to get new hashtags trending. Simply pose a question to your audience to get them tweeting. With 211 million daily active users worldwide, mainly consisting of Millennials, Twitter is the ideal platform to use as a platform for your customer service.
Long-form videos
Capturing video content to show your audience a new product or service is a great form of content marketing. But where do you share it?
- Youtube
Youtube is the second most visited website in the world (according to HootSuite), making it the perfect place to share your video content online. Use Youtube to post helpful how-to videos to educate your audience and increase your brand awareness.
- Vimeo
Like Youtube, Vimeo is a long-form video-sharing platform with the tools to view, upload and share videos. Despite having a significantly smaller user count, Vimeo allows its users to edit and embed their content elsewhere for a small monthly fee.
Short-form videos
For shorter videos, you can post your content to TikTok, Youtube Shorts, or even Instagram Reels.
- TikTok
This overnight success has transformed the way that social media platforms share content. With new trends constantly emerging, TikTok is the place to be advertising. Over 1 billion active monthly users are interacting and engaging with the short-form videos that are posted. If you have a younger audience demographic, there’s no doubt that they’ll have a TikTok account.
- Youtube Shorts
Youtube recently launched its version of a short-form video platform, where users could upload 15s videos. This proved a success with over 2 billion users every month. Sharing content has never been easier, with more platforms competing to create short-form video platforms, users now have access to a wider audience reach.
- Instagram Reels
Like TikTok and Youtube Shorts, Instagram has also released a short-form video platform called Instagram Reels. Here users can also watch or upload short videos to share with their followers or advertise globally. If you like to post fun and creative videos online, Reels is the place to do that.
How does content marketing work?
If you are going to be creating content, you will want it to be seen by as many people as possible, you will want to distribute your content across platforms that you think will be found by your target audience.
Find out who your target audience is and where you can find them online so that you can effectively market your content to them.
Whilst doing this, think about what it is you want to achieve by doing this. Would you prefer more leads and inquiries, or are you looking to improve your brand awareness and ranking on Google?
Let’s take a look at this example to show how content marketing can work for your business:
Tom has recently opened up a new clothes store and would like more people to place orders online. He has decided to write a blog titled ‘10 shirts you should wear this summer’. This blog will then link to his products page so customers can be taken directly to the shirts he is advertising.
Did you know that 60% of people are inspired to seek out a product after reading content about it? So include links to your products to make the journey easier for your readers.
Now Tom can create a post on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn telling his followers that he has posted a new blog and has included a link to the blog in the caption. As well as this, Tom has decided to create a short-form video to post on the company’s TikTok account.
This short example shows that one piece of content can be transformed into suitable content for all platforms. By doing this you can be sure you’re placing your business in front of as many users as possible.
How much does content marketing cost?
After reading that example you might think that content marketing sounds like a lot of work. And you would be right. To handle your content marketing you have to be prepared to spend some time and money on it. Researching and writing a blog could take you up to 4 hours if you’re not sure what you’re doing. And then you still have to create posts for your social media channels. If your hourly rate is £50 and you spend 6 hours a month on content marketing, that will cost you £300 a month.
If you’re still unsure whether content marketing is for you, it’s valuable to remember that content marketing costs 62% less than other marketing channels and can have better results for your business.
If you would prefer someone experienced to handle your content marketing for your business at a fixed price, contact us today for a quote. Hiring a professional will save you time and money, allowing you to focus on what you’re best at.
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