Content is the king, everyone says by now. Content is the king of the web. And it is true. No product sells itself, although some clever ones try to make us believe it. Products sell because they are accompanied by a message. And the message arrives because a relationship is established between the company and the customer. When this dynamic acts on the web, we talk about content marketing, the marketing done by the contents, the message, and the relationship.
Powerful marketing tool, content is both discipline and tool. This guide will be defined and compared to all the other logic that allows it to function fully. Even if you have never known content marketing strategies, no fear: you have always benefited from them as a user. We could say that everything is content in marketing. But not everything is content with the quality. Let’s see how to do it.
What is content marketing
Creation and diffusion are the keywords you will always have to keep in mind as you enter the world of content marketing. To understand what content marketing is, it is necessary to define what content this digital marketing tool is based on.
Content marketing creates targeted content, be it written, images, videos, or podcasts, explicitly designed for a specific audience. In the strategic intentions of the professional, the public is not limited to using them. Still, it will come to interact, perhaps with a purchase choice (especially if there has been a wise use of persuasive copywriting ).
| The figure of the content creator is today one of the most interesting in the digital landscape: much more than an influencer, he is able to take over a brand, a blog, a web project and bring it to the top of visibility through a targeted and effective strategy. A strategy that takes into account an overall vision. I’ve written a guide on what skills it requires, what tools to start learning about, and what career prospects there are in the current industry. |
Content strategy
The impact is significant: among the advantages guaranteed by a correct content strategy, there is an increase in traffic on the website covered by the strategy and greater customer loyalty. The ultimate goal is always to convert users into paying customers.
But you have to be careful not to misunderstand: a content marketing strategy is based on content, but these are not meant for direct selling. Instead, they are created to be persuasive communication tools between the company and its target. Target that, let’s not forget, must be targeted and specific.
The contents can be educational, entertaining, and informative and must have the purpose of directing the public’s attention towards the company itself. If you do not aim directly at the sale of the product or service offered, you will arrive there indirectly.
| The game you will have to play is quite subtle: it will not be you, with your brand or with what you represent, to chase the customer. By creating relevant and interesting content, you will be able to draw their attention to you naturally. |
Content as an Inbound Marketing Strategy
On balance, content marketing involves a much less invasive strategy than more aggressive and pressing advertising campaigns. However, the basis for action is the same: the web and the tools it makes available.
Among these, you will find the use of social media irreplaceable since the audience you refer to is now constantly connected to social media. The goal will remain to convey users to the brand without being aggressive. It will be informative, fun, and valuable content to speak for you.
Inbound Strategy
The appropriate strategies are manifold. We talk about inbound marketing, meaning all those actions that are aimed at attracting the customer’s attention to their web page.
Within this inbound strategy, the one that has caught your attention here emerges content marketing, intended as the creation of content to be disseminated on the web and on the main social networks. The most used contents are articles, posts on social networks, stories, and reels. With the metaverse that Zuckerberg’s Meta is planning, who knows what other marketing perspectives will open up. The basic idea is the following: by creating something that has value for the user (informational, entertainment, interesting), you will also talk of a product or service. The attention will then be diverted from the content to the product.
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Here the concept of engagement is well connected. The involvement of the public is essential in content marketing because it is what makes the difference between a targeted and widespread marketing strategy and a redundant, aggressive advertising campaign and, to be honest, so conventional as to leave us indifferent or, worse, annoyed—the recipients. Not surprisingly, content marketing and affiliate marketing go hand in hand, combining objectives and results. In the guide that I linked, you will find concrete indications to earn with affiliations, even with Amazon ones, which do not go beyond the content. Indeed, perhaps, it finds space of choice, given the very high competition. |
Customization of contents
The amount and variety of content in circulation on the web and on social networks are truly impressive. Creating something eye-catching, engaging, authentic, and valuable can seem complex. This is basically the reason for the extreme importance of content marketing today.
Among the most effective content, images stand out. The photographs, from the more traditional ones to infographics, are specially designed to instantly inform the observer. And then, let’s face it: this is the time of appearance, of aesthetics. The images used strategically aim at saving a resource that is essential on the web: time.
But textual content also dominates the scene: guides, articles, blog posts, or tips and reviews. Content marketing remains the most effective tool to inform, entertain, entertain and interest the reader. Some offer more, focusing on much more voluminous content than a blog post, making an e-book available. Interesting tool, easily accessible by subscribing to the site or to the newsletter, and, above all, not yet mainstream. In short, they are capable of making a difference.
| I wrote a guide on how to start a successful blog from scratch. The blog and social networks are the best space to approach content marketing. Having your own blog will allow you to practice and test yourself and your content with a real audience. |
Content video marketing and storytelling
The texts, however, do not enjoy the immediacy that a video or photo could enjoy, which is faster and more impactful. Hence, the attention of digital marketing towards the more specific content video marketing, based on storytelling. Captivating technique: The product is not mentioned directly, but a story is told. This will slowly lead the viewer to the destination that you have decided for him.
Essential tools of a story to be told are a character to identify with, a goal, and perhaps an impediment involving the viewer. And then, the happy ending: the solution offered by the product or service you advertise.
Finally, nothing will prevent you from putting in place even more detailed and concrete content, such as webinars or real seminars, to gain a greater share of the public, often more professional.
Whatever content you want to propose, both online and offline, you must never forget the target you are targeting. Here the concept of buyer personas comes into play: the profile of your ideal customer, categorized by origin, age, tastes, needs, and difficulties. Elements that will allow you to intercept it more easily with the most suitable techniques.
So we now have created content that needs to be disseminated. It’s time to focus on the concept of diversification. Images, reels, and texts must be designed for different platforms. The public is present in different spaces and it is not even the same from one place to another. People with a different propensity can enjoy diversified content to convert into customers and purchase that particular product or service.
The customer in the funnel
A well-known marketing rule says that there are four degrees of distance between the prospect and your product :
- Those who are far from the moment of conversion and are just looking for information or browsing
- Unconvinced users still need an extra push as they search for very specific information
- Users who are about to make a purchase
- Those who are already considering making a purchase after the first one.
The need to propose targeted content to each of these groups with respect to their precise position in the conversion takes the funnel’s name (literally “funnel”). Calculating this distance to hit the user right will be the key to easier conversion. Alternatively, you can achieve deeper loyalty or plan for a later return.
The keywords of content marketing
But content does not generate itself, just as having an idea of a funnel is not enough to know how to apply funnel marketing strategies correctly.
The application of any content marketing strategy requires a precise investment, obviously aimed at an economic return. After all, having arrived this far in reading has the purpose of understanding how you can earn online thanks to content marketing. The acronym ROI has also known as the economic return: the return of investment. The income generated by an investment which is subtracted from the size of the investment itself. ROI is one of the concepts behind a correct evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of an inbound marketing strategy, regardless of the tools used (including the contents). Clearly, a positive ROI guarantees the certainty that that particular investment has been successful and that that strategy is actually proving to be valid.
However, you will have to be careful to evaluate from time to time, beyond your rudiments of funnel marketing, even the response times of other strategies adopted. In diversification, some may be more effective over the long term and may not be readily assessable in the short term.
At the same time, the content is not automatically found by your potential customers. In this case, you will have to deal with SEO, that is, with the optimization of content for search engines. SEO encompasses the strategies necessary to ensure that your content is identified and placed high in search engines’ SERPs. It goes without saying that it doesn’t make much sense to create content that no one can find because it’s not optimized. Thus emerges the importance of a correct SEO-oriented content marketing strategy.
Conclusion:
| Furthermore, any internet marketing content strategy cannot be separated from a sound organization of work, which is concretely applied in the editorial plan. It is careful planning of the various activities to be carried out on the various portals, social networks, and blogs, with the definition of the frequency and type of content to be published. Thanks to an essential tool like the editorial plan, you will be able to streamline your work and correctly plan the use of resources. The aim remains to better organize the publications of images, stories, videos, posts, and articles for a capillary and complete coverage of each user, also giving you a margin of space and time for managing unpredictable events of varying scope. |