For most brands, companies and nonprofits with an online presence, content marketing is a fundamental part of their marketing strategy and a day-to-day hurdle. Content marketing adds value to the user and can help us achieve all kinds of business objectives, so its role is very important.
Its normal to find it hard. Creating compelling content that brings value to people is not an easy thing but we have to keep our eye on the ball. By putting content out constantly, it will bring people in the door and some will stay, some will become regular clients and some will give you ideas for more content down the line.
About Content Marketing:
What is content marketing?
According to the definition of Joe Pulizzi, content marketing or content marketing is a technique based on the creation and distribution of relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire and capture the attention of a well-defined target audience, with the aim of encouraging them to be future clients.
This strategy is based, therefore, on adding value to the user for free. It does not focus on making immediate purchases, but seeks to attract the user and develop a long-term relationship. It is like an investment that seeks to achieve better results for the brand in the future, instead of instant gratification.
Benefits of Content Marketing
Your audience will stay on your site longer
Good content is a valuable asset. It has the ability to create very positive experiences for your potential customers and it pushes them to come back for more. It's your ticket to capturing and retaining your audience's attention and reinforcing a positive image.
You'll have way more traction on social media channels
It's one thing to grow your social media followers and likes across channels, but it's quite another to create good, shareable content. If you have many followers but haven't seen traction on social media, it's time start content marketing and let it work to your advantage. Good content, quality content can help your business gain traction on social media.
Trust, your audience will start trusting you
Creating content helps your business build a relationship with your audience and as we mentioned before, it helps you show yourself as you want to be seen (professional, trustworthy, knowledgeable, etc.) . You can answer relevant and frequent questions and interact with customers.
In the end, when you create value without taking anything in return, your audience is way more likely to trust your advice and recommendations. See Gary V. Jab Jab Right Hook
Content Marketing generates better leads
Content marketing generates leads and sales. That's the whole point of marketing isnt it? When your audience views your content, they're more likely to purchase from you in the future. Additionally, calls-to-action (CTA) placed directly in your content can generate new leads for your sales team.
On that note, if you need an Agency to manage your SEO strategy (among other things we're specialized in), don't hesitate to schedule your free 30 min consultation 😊 here.
Content improves conversions
Every piece of good and high quality content that you produce and publish influences conversions. It helps your audience connect with you and gives them information they needed to become your clients.
It's also been shown to help conversions by a whooping 35% if for each piece of content, you use a distinct or unique image. So try it, either start doing it or go back and add it to all the blog posts and let us know how it works out.
Your business will become more visible thanks to SEO.
Content Marketing is an important part of SEO or Search Engine Optimization. The more consistent, high-quality content you create and publish, the better it'll be for your organic traffic.
Cultivate loyal fans
Content Marketing doesn't stop after publishing (well, in reality it never stops unless you want to retire), but taking brand awareness a bit further, all the people who rave about your content, share it, comment it are brand advocates before ever purchasing your product. Take care of them, answer them, and take ideas from them for new content.
True fans are the core of many businesses, they are the ones that will defend your brand, the ones that will participate in your social media trivia and they are or want to be your customer.
Content Marketing saves you money on your marketing strategy
Upfront cost on time and money to produce good quality content may appear high but it's ROI is huge and trickles down to every other type of marketing you'll do in the future.
Some companies will hire an awesome Agency like BausLabs to create the strategy and the content itself for them, others will give every employee a one article per month requirement, and other will hire a content creator to work and follow a well thought out SEO strategy. That's how profitable it is to do content marketing.
Types of Content Marketing
There are many types of content for content marketing that you may choose to add in your strategy. Here are some of the most common:
Social Media Content Marketing
With over 3.6 billion global users, it’s easy to understand why so many businesses invest in social media marketing. Every piece of content, whether its created on your blog, on your YouTube channel or for a magazine. Share everything you can on each social media channel.
Infographic Content Marketing
Infographics display content, information, and data in a beautiful and graphic format. With a mix of simple wording, short statements, and clear images, infographics are a great way to effectively communicate your content.
Blog Content Marketing
Blogs are a very powerful type of content, it allows the search engines to send people directly to your page and it allows for a lot of creativity in terms of their purpose and topic. With a blog, you can share anything that might be of interest to your customer.
Podcast and Audio Content Marketing
A 2021 survey found that 55% of 14-to-35-year-olds, a jump from last year statistics on how many people listened to audio content in the US. This is why so many businesses and media outlets have began creating and sharing their own podcasts.
Now there are simple ways to create an audio piece of content or podcast and publish it on its own, on Spotify, or within your blogposts or emails. We at BausLabs are experimenting by doing Substack marketing or newsletter marketing, using their podcast feature and promoting our customers newsletter in a whole new way.
Video Content Marketing
By far, the most intimidating content type for most businesses but the easiest to produce, specially in the specialized professional services industry like a law firm. 69% of consumers say they prefer to learn about products and services through video.
I know it might seem expensive, but in most cases it can be very affordable! Get in touch with us, we'll come up with an affordable, goal oriented strategy for you.
Content Marketing and Paid Ads
Paid ads, paid promotion or PPC can help you reach a broad audience and allow you to position yourself in all of the places you want to be seen. Even though its true that it increases the amount of money you have to spend, if the numbers are done right and you can get a positive ROI for your Ads, then your golden because you can escale them very easily.
Good content marketing practices
Know your audience
The success of a content marketing strategy lies in it being able to offer valuable content to the brand's target audience. Logically, what is valuable to one type of user may be completely irrelevant to others. So before planning the content strategy, we have to clearly define who our ideal client is (what in marketing is known as "buyer persona").
Be consistent
One of the keys to content marketing is frequency and consistency. It is necessary to refresh the blog or brand page with new content on a regular basis, and maintain this periodicity over time to enjoy medium and long-term results. A resource that can be very useful is to develop a content calendar that establishes the dates of creation and publication, do it for the next 6 months and stick with it, you'll thank us later.
Check before posting
I cannot stress this enough, I could write a hundred blog posts on this topic but I'm going to restrain myself and ask you to please, just do it. Finish your post, and check it or have somebody else check it before publishing it.
Think about your dissemination strategy
The best content in the world won't do us any good if we don't get users to reach it. This is where you have to think about synergies between content and other brand or business channels, such as social media and SEO or paid advertising.
Seize the moment
The popularity of content on the internet can be very short-lived, so you have to take advantage of trends and jump on the bandwagon at the right time. For example, we can plan our content based on seasonal events, such as Christmas or Valentine's Day.
Recycle and reuse your content
Content marketing is a long-term investment and requires time and resources, but the good news is that some content does not lose value over the years!! Think of ways to republish or recycle them, for example in a new format or a compilation of content related to a specific topic.
Measure the results of your content marketing
This practice can (and should!) Be applied to any marketing strategy we carry out. Periodically, it is necessary to review the results of what we're doing, see what the strengths and weaknesses are, and use this information to continue improving and optimizing.
Content marketing common mistakes to avoid
Staying stagnant
I always say that the motto of digital marketers should be "Renew or die!" If a format or type of content gives good results, we can always repeat it, but we have to bear in mind that consumer tastes and habits evolve. That is why it is essential to incorporate new formats, techniques and ideas to our content marketing to continue evolving.
Being too promotional
This error is very common among brands that want to get quick results from their content strategy, but it is not effective at all. The idea of content should always be to add value, never sell. If it is excessively promotional, users will identify it as advertising and it will not achieve the effect we are looking for.
Not including calls to action
If we can't sell directly, how can we link the content to our marketing? The answer is in the calls to action, that is, buttons or links that tell the user what we want him to do next: visit our website, leave us your data, request a free trial, etc.
Neglecting quality
The "quality is worth more than quantity" thing also applies to content marketing. Yes, you need to post regularly, but never at the cost of posting horrible articles, bad sounding videos, or heavy images. Keep in mind that the content represents your brand and your image depends on it.
Not optimizing content for social media
The presentation is essential when users decide to share content or not. The main thing is to have a good image and headline and optimize the description to suit the requirements of different social networks (more or less brief, with or without hashtag).
Get the right partner for Content Marketing
On this blog post we tried to go over the basics of a Content Marketing campaign, the structure, the do's and the don'ts. But if your planning to use Content marketing in a consistent and high level way, consider having a partner that can guide you and work with your team in achieving the goals.
Creating and managing a Content Marketing Schedule should include conversion tracking, constant optimization, correct attribution and a dedicated people that will walks with you all the way.
At BausLabs we proud ourselves in becoming part of your team, by understanding your business, your team, structure and objectives, we can provide the best services that will get you where you want to go from Barcelona, Tel Aviv and Zurich to the world.
Get in touch! We'll audit your website and advice you for free on a zoom call. And if for any reason we're not a match at the end, we'll happily refer you to someone that can help and make the introductions :)
Have a great day,
Cheers!