Content Marketing - What is it?

Can I start by saying this is not a Content Marketing MSc course coming up, nor am I a Professor in the finer details of this subject - what I am however, is someone who has used and advised on the benefits of Content Marketing over many years over. And I really believe there are a lot of business owners and niche industry experts out there who have encyclopedic knowledge on their products, offerings and solutions - but who have not got marketing degrees, departments or experts in their current toolkit, so this quick overview is for them...

So, we have all heard about it, we believe that it may help our company, but what actually is it and is it something you should be thinking about?

Well, let's start off with the basics - Content Marketing simply explained, is when you create and distribute tailored, useful content to attract and engage a clearly defined target audience. There will be marketeers out there with better and longer definitions, but this sums up for me the essence of it. It’s definitely what I would classify as a strategic approach and it has specific goals, set by you especially for your business. More than often, these goals generally fall into three distinct categories:

1. Raising brand awareness

2. Educating your audience and building trust

3. Generating leads

Also worth remembering the standard steps of a 'buying cycle' as well, which are: Awareness, Research, Consideration and Buy. When you think about this, you can see that standard marketing can quite often help with the last two stages (Consideration and Buy) but Content Marketing drives the first two (Awareness and Research) and this is quite often the areas that many businesses (especially new or smaller companies) struggle with.

How does it actually work?

Content marketing basically means establishing credibility which ‘pulls’ prospects and customers towards your business. Your aim here is to create trust in your content and therefore ultimately in your company. You do have to be careful with what you share as it had to be 'real' information which is relevant and informative to your brand and business. The more valuable this information is, the more likely it will be that you will start to engage prospects and customers who will buy-in to 'you' and 'your business'. Just remember to analyse the results so you can see what works, what doesn't and tailor future campaigns accordingly.

I heard a great quote last year on this from Michele Linn, which may explain where some people are going wrong - she stated that:

"Content Marketing is educational. It's not about the products the company sells..."

The person doing the content will hopefully become a 'Trusted Advisor' (and for those of you who follow my articles will know that is something I believe every business should aspire to be to their clients) by giving them useful and educational information. It also means you have to understand your audience - and that is most definitely a positive step for any business!

What are the key benefits?

The aim of adopting such an approach is obviously specific and unique to every business, but it will be to generally to do one or more of the following:

1. Raise brand awareness and build trust - helps with prospecting and informing potential customers of who you are and starting to build that trust.

2. Reduce costs - In my experience, it would be unusual not to get better results from Content Marketing over 'blanket' marketing due to the focused and targeted nature of it.

3. Align your sales and marketing efforts - Focus is the key word here, target those who are likely to be interested rather than a scatter-gun approach which is expensive and rarely successful.

4. Generate more traffic and leads - New Business, the Holy Grail of Sales! You have to get new customers to survive and grow and this is a great way to get known, get seen and get trusted.

5. Measure and boost your return on investment - You have to know how much you are spending and what you are getting for your money and Content Marketing offers a better way of measuring this that many standard Marketing methodologies and generally a better ROI (Return on Investment).

6. Create 'stickiness' with your existing customers - yes, I have used this word again as I really love it 😁! By performing Content Marketing to educate and provide useful and relevant information to your customer you are becoming that trusted advisor - not just a supplier

How to create relevant content?

If you have decided to go ahead with this then remember that content is key! You have to make sure you are 'relevant' and you have to plan - make sure you know why you are doing this, what your goals are and how you will review. Again, I could write a couple of thousand pages on how to get this part right, but as a generic starting point I would recommend:

1. Research.. research and research again

2. Be credible..

3. Know who you are targeting and be focused..

4. Use designs and visuals to make it stand out..

5. Think through the topics - it doesn't take much to lose prospects if the content is poor, so take time to get this engagement right

As mentioned at the beginning, this is just a few thoughts to help someone who has maybe not done Content Marketing before, but if you do need more detailed help or guidance then please do not hesitate to contact me on julianpatel@clivedenhouseconsulting.co.uk.

Also worth remembering that any marketing needs to be fully intertwined with a proper Sales and Marketing plan and in line with your Business Strategy - too many make the mistake of spending money and time on something that doesn't help them grow their business in a way that is helpful and that they are set up to deal with!

Anyway, as always stay safe and well ..

Julian.

Julian Patel

Cliveden House Consulting Ltd

www.clivedenhouseconsulting.co.uk