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More and more companies in a wide range of industries are recognizing the importance of content marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy. For many companies, content marketing is an essential part of effective SEO efforts. Let’s discuss exactly what content marketing is and why it can be so effective.
For the uninitiated, the term “content marketing” may seem vague and confusing. What does “content” mean? Isn’t everything that composes your company’s overall web presence “content”?
Well, maybe in a broad sense, yes. However, when we talk about “content” in content marketing, we mean something more specific. Content in content marketing refers to informationally oriented (rather than directly sales-oriented) material that reaches your audience primarily through search, builds awareness of your brand, and establishes a rapport with your audience by being relevant and interesting.
It might be helpful to think of it this way: content is consumed. With the occasional viral exception, people don’t choose to see ads. They watch, read, or listen to content because they want to, and tolerate ads because they have no choice, often as a condition of getting to the content they actually want to consume. Content marketing is an attempt to answer the advertiser’s age-old conundrum: How do I create marketing materials that my audience will be happy to see and even choose to see?
To get a better understanding of what content marketing is and how it’s done, let’s break it down into its elements.
Blog posts are probably the most common medium used for content marketing. However, videos, podcasts, and social media posts can all be part of a content marketing strategy as well.
Whatever type of marketing tactics your company uses, you need to have a solid understanding of who your target audience is. In content marketing, you need to understand the target audience in order to create content that they’ll find relevant and engaging. Typically, content marketing aims at audiences who are in the earlier stages of the “buyer’s journey” – people who have only recently become aware of a “problem” which they need to solve with some product or service and are in the initial stages of the research that leads to a purchase.
The salient characteristic of content marketing is that it provides value to the audience independent of whether they choose to purchase your product or service. It should contain relevant and informative facts or commentary about topics related to your industry that audience members researching a potential future purchase would be likely to find useful.
Effective content marketing should stimulate further interest in your company’s product or service through the information it provides, create awareness of your brand, and leave audiences with a positive impression of your brand. Content marketing may or may not lead directly to a sale, but it can often be the beginning of a relationship with a potential customer that leads to a sale, or move a potential customer who is considering multiple alternatives closer to making a decision for you.
At Gragg Advertising, we know how to craft engaging, relevant content that puts your brand in a positive light, and we also understand how to incorporate content marketing into your overall SEO strategy to maximize its effectiveness. We may be able to help you find ways to get more “content” value out of things that your organization is already doing as part of your existing marketing and communications efforts. Contact us today to find out more.
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