FIRST: WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING?

Content marketing is unavoidable on digital platforms. Even if you haven’t heard the phrase “content marketing” specifically, I’m willing to bet you’re already familiar with the concept. It is digital interactivity with a growing online audience. Whether your goal is to sell your product online, gain more web traffic, or to increase your presence on social media, content marketing is vital in achieving these goals.

What is the Key to Good Content Marketing?
The key to good content marketing is to get your audience hooked on your brand. Content marketing means acting like a publisher and providing useful, relevant, and/or entertaining information to an audience in order to connect with them and boost brand loyalty. You’ll want to connect with your audience, grab their attention, and be seen as an authortity in your field. You’ll want to tell the story of your brand, but always keep it as an open dialogue and cause your audience to want to interact with you. Good content marketing is also shareable content marketing. For example: social media posts that cause your audience to want to share your content with their own network of friends.

Most Common Forms of Content Marketing:

• Entertaining and informative articles/blogs

• Video Ads

• Social media posts that can be entertaining, engaging, or informative

• Paid social campaigns (Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest)

What is Brand Storytelling?
Content marketing is more than just sharing information — it’s also about telling the story of your brand. Sometimes it can be as simple as a beautifully photographed image of a product in an everyday setting, along with a clever caption that asks the audience to react. In other cases, content marketing can be much more personal and heartfelt. Here’s an example; I once helped to cultivate the social media image for Hope Cancer Center in East Texas. The engagement, (the audience's reaction to the post in the form of likes, shares or comments) was extremely high when I posted photos of the cancer survivors which they treated, along with a snippet of that patient’s own words about how the company’s doctor’s and nurses helped them. The list for potential content is immense, and it really all depends on the content strategy.

Content Marketing Is Not the Same as Advertising— it Helps You Win Trust
The goal of content marketing is not like the often ‘hard sell’ of typical advertising. Content marketing is friendlier. It provides relevant and useful information, and, if done correctly, speaks the customer’s language. The reader then sees your brand as a credible expert in the field. They connect with you, and continue to come back to your website, or social media page for more.

Content Marketing is a Dialogue with your Customers, Not a One-Sided Conversation.
The sample of my work below demonstrates that when you ask the customer to be active and engaged, you get results.

What’s the Payoff of Good Content Marketing?
The result of content marketing done well is that your brand is shared and liked on social media platforms, and your website trafficcan truly skyrocket. And last but certainly not least, you gain the reputation of being a credible and trustworthy brand that knows how to connect with its customers. You become more than just a brand. You’re like a buddy. (A buddy that they buy stuff from, of course.)

Boosted Posts and Paid Ads on Social Media Platforms
The plain and simple truth is, that unless your brand already has a huge folllowing, it’s highly recommended that you invest in getting your brand’s name out there. That is where boosted posts, and/or paid ad campaigns come in to play.

How You Can See Results and Plan with a Content Calendar
There are several methods which I can help you to see results of your content marketing efforts. The most common one is a Facebook analytics document. There are also several Content Management Systems available, my preferred method is to use Hootsuite in order to schedule posts ahead of time. Some of my clients like to see results month-by-month, others can see results quarterly.

Why Adding a Blog to Your Website is Beneficial
Really, there are several reasons you may want to add a blog to your company’s website. One of the main factors is increasing your brand’s likelihood of being found through organic means like a Google search. The more SEO keywords that are added to your company’s website, the more likely you are to be discovered. Another reason I highly reccommend that your company adds a blog to your website, is so you can constantly share news or useful information. A company that has a regular blog can be seen as a credible source of information in your specific industry.

5 REASONS WHY you need Content Marketing

1: THE INTERNET IS TODAY'S STANDARD PLATFORM

The Internet and Social Media Are Today’s Standard Platforms
Americans spend more time on their phone now than they ever have before — 90 minutes a day on average, according to a study by mobileinsurance.com. Nearly everyone has a Facebook account (and their grandmas do too). So naturally, the internet and social media are the perfect platforms to use to connect with your target audience, as the “digital age” is rapidly evolving into the “social media age”.

How often have you relied on Google to help you decide before switching doctors or mechanics? How many times have you researched a product online before buying it? Most of us ‘like’ at least a handful of brands on social media and regularly share and like articles, videos and other digital media. We all participate in content marketing. Modern culture is practically swimming in it!
 

2: YOU CAN Target your Audience with More Precision, and Efficiency

Social media and content marketing allow you to practice more precise and efficient marketing efforts by pinpointing exactly who you are talking to, and what you want to say. Let’s look at how:

Target Their Likes, Interests and Demographics
One example is Facebook’s Ad Manager. You can use it to estimate the size of a target audience, and narrow it down. For example, you can determine that there are 62,000 people who live in Maine and are interested in nutrition. And for a price, you can pay to ‘boost’ the visibility of your content, and can reach those intended potential customers. Similar options are also available through Pinterest and Instagram, enabling you to reach your target market based on separate demographic factors, or related likes, interests, etc.

These examples from my portfolio demonstrate how a Facebook campaign can target three different demographic groups.

Speak Their Language with SEO Keywords and Phrases
Written content such as articles allow you to incorporate SEO-driven content. This lets you custom tailor your marketing efforts based on what your customers are searching for.

More Content Marketing Tools Can Help You Determine What’s Popular
With powerful tools like GoogleTrends and BuzzSumo you can pinpoint what subjects, articles, and SEO keywords are trending, where they’re trending, and when. This can help you get a leg up, and learn about what is popular with your intended audiences.

Are GoogleAds Worth The Investment?
This really depends on the product and how much you are willing to invest. Based on my experience, you can see results from GoogleAds and pay per click. However, it is a very expensive form of advertising. You won’t see results unless you are willing to invest at least 1-2k per month on GoogleAds.

Are YouTube Ads Worth Investing In?
Basically, the same answer applies. It CAN be, however know that these type of ad campaigns are really designed to be useful for the larger companies out there who have a larger advertising budget. The realm of GoogleAds and YouTube Ads is a very competitive platform, it can even be described as “cut-throat” in a way. These methods of advertising are really set up for the heavy hitters with large advertising budgets.