In this introduction to content marketing, we define what it is, highlight the common types of content and explain why content marketing should be an integral part of your marketing strategy, whatever the size of your business.
Definition of content marketing
Content marketing is the process of creating authoritative, trustworthy and high-value digital content for a specific target audience with the purpose of turning them into a subscriber, lead or buyer.
Rather than directly selling products or services, content marketing builds brand awareness and trust over time, making those who engage with it more likely to buy from your business. It benefits both the brand creating it and the consumer engaging with it.
Benefits of Content Marketing by Full Height Copy
What are the different types of content for content marketing?
The types of content that can be considered for content marketing campaigns are endless. Your choice will depend on what resonates best with your audience and which stage of the buyer's journey your campaign is targeting. What works for one vertical may not work for another. For this reason, conducting thorough competitor and audience research and gaining data insights is essential when developing a content strategy and planning content.
And remember, a brand's content assets go beyond the content hosted on its website. It also includes content distributed via social channels, podcasts hosted on platforms such as PodBean and Spotify, presentations, courses, and newsletters distributed by email.
The infographic below showcases some of the most effective forms of content to consider using at each stage of the customer journey.
Content Types for Each Stage of the Customer Journey by Full Height Copy
A closer look at common content types
It is important to understand the purpose of each type of content at specific stages in the sales journey. Here, we run through the main contenders.
Blog posts
Most of your website content is likely to take the form of blog posts. Visitors to your site will look for posts that demonstrate your expertise on the topic that interests them, answer their questions, and provide valuable information to help them make informed consumer decisions.
Your business can use blog posts to:
Guide website visitors through the sales funnel with content that targets top-of-the-funnel, middle-of-the-funnel, bottom-of-the-funnel, and post-purchase topics.
Drive conversion goals, such as signing up for a newsletter, downloading a report or booking a free trial.
Popular forms of blog post by Full Height Copy
Video
Video marketing is a prevalent and effective form of content marketing, as the statistics below demonstrate.
Video marketing statistics by Full Height Copy
Typical forms of video content include:
How-to video (often repurposed blog content)
Explainer video (often repurposed blog content)
Client testimonial or case study
Influencer product/service review
Product use case or demo
Webinar.
Infographics
Infographics combine visuals and short-form text to communicate facts and figures in a highly sharable, easy-to-digest, memorable format.
You can use infographics to:
Simplify complex information.
Highlight important data and statistics.
Make comparisons.
Draw a timeline of events.
Case studies
Case studies showcase how a brand's product or service solves a customer's problem and provides a positive buyer experience. A well-written case study can be a powerful tool for earning trust at the consideration stage of the sales funnel.
Email newsletters
When a website visitor subscribes to a company's email newsletter, it signals that they wish to engage with that brand.
Use emails to:
Share lead-nurturing content
Promote offers
Keep existing customers engaged
Share newly published website content
Businesses generally send their subscribers weekly, fortnightly or monthly newsletters depending on their available resources.
Freebie downloads (lead magnets)
Offer your target audience a high-value lead magnet, such as a template, digital tool or white paper, in exchange for their email address and watch your email list grow. Ensure you adhere to GDPR guidelines and only use your subscribers' email addresses responsibly. I.e. send occasional meaningful content that they want to receive.
Social media content
Social media channels are great places to grow brand awareness and trust.
Use social media content to:
Drive traffic to your website or blog
Promote your latest podcasts or YouTube videos
Share infographics
Conduct research (polls and surveys)
Share company news and promotions.
Guest posts
Guest posting is the practice of publishing content on another website that is relevant to your business. It can be a great way for new brands to gain exposure and trust and increase their website traffic and domain authority.
Why is content marketing important?
Content marketing provides a cost-effective and sustainable way of achieving multiple marketing goals. But there is a caveat. The internet is awash with content – much of it poor quality. To be successful in a saturated market, your content must:
Be exemplary.
Be original.
Be concise.
Solve a problem or answer a question.
Motivate the reader to engage with further content or take the next step in the sales funnel.
Here are six benefits of implementing content marketing in your business.
1. Provides valuable target audience insights
When developing and refining their content strategy, businesses often develop a much deeper understanding of their ideal customers and what they like and need.
2. Grows trust with your audience
According to a study by Conductor, 65% of consumers feel a brand is trustworthy/positive immediately after they read a piece of educational content from that brand.
Content marketing is about helping, not selling. By consistently publishing useful, targeted content, a brand demonstrates that it understands its audience's interests, questions, problems and concerns. It positions the brand as both authoritative and empathetic – qualities that lead a consumer to want to buy from a company.
3. Brings higher quality leads
High-quality leads are people who are engaging with your brand and have a high chance of converting to a customer. Leads become high-quality in two ways:
When they are familiar with your brand, your expertise, your products or services, and they are ready to buy.
They recognise that they have a problem, have researched the available solutions and are ready to purchase the best option.
Content marketing meets your ideal customers where they are in the customer journey, nurturing them gently and helpfully along the funnel. When combined with a robust SEO strategy, your content will draw your ideal prospects to your website at every stage of the buyer's journey.
4. Boosts SEO
Content is at the heart of any successful SEO strategy. But not just any content.
In September 2023, Google continued to emphasise its commitment to improving the search experience for users with its latest helpful content update. If you're unfamiliar with Google's helpful content system, it rewards content written for humans and penalises content that appears to be written for search engines first.
In short, Google wants your content to:
Be created for a specific audience.
Feature expertise.
Be trustworthy and credible.
Meet the searcher's wants or needs.
5. Makes your website a valuable resource
When visitors discover that your website holds a library of helpful and engaging content, they will look around it for more extended and most likely return. They will also develop trust in your brand, making you more likely to be their brand of choice when they are ready to buy.
6. Nurtures loyalty
Trust deepens when a potential customer engages regularly with a brand's content over months or years and finds it informative. That trust develops into brand loyalty and advocacy.
How does content marketing compare to paid ads?
Plenty of studies and statistics highlight that consumers prefer content over ads.
According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), content marketing generates over three times as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 62% less. CMI research has also identified that 70% of people would rather read an article about a company than see an ad.
Summary
Content marketing is a versatile and cost-effective marketing approach that can achieve many business goals. Popular content types include blog posts, videos, infographics, case studies, email newsletters, freebie downloads, social media content and guest posts.
The internet is awash with poor-quality content, so your content must be targeted, original and exemplary to succeed.
Adopting a content marketing strategy will help you develop a deep understanding of your target audience, grow audience trust, attract higher-quality leads, boost SEO, make your website a valuable resource and nurture brand loyalty.
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Ready to build a content marketing strategy?
We can work with you to identify:
The best types of content assets to create
The most effective means of promoting your content
Optimal publishing frequency
The most meaningful metrics for measuring success.
Get in touch for a FREE 30-minute consultation.
