Digital marketing’s the name of the game nowadays. Heck, a whopping $129 billion were spent on digital ads 2 years ago, and a lot more was spent last year due to the pandemic! And with the internet playing an ever-greater role in our lives, it’s fair to assume that digital ad expenditure will only increase further this year.
Of course, social media, email, SEO, PPC, and programmatic all fall under the umbrella of digital marketing. Of the various subcategories that exist, though, there’s one in particular that stands out from the crowd: content marketing.
Content marketing strategies rule the roost in terms of business potential.
Unprecedented amounts of video, audio, and written content hit the web each day and it’s still not coming close to meeting demand! People are hungry for content, which is a golden opportunity for any marketer. Done right, content marketing will build your brand, turn you into an authority, and skyrocket your conversion rates to boot.
Want to learn how content creation and marketing are done? Keep reading for a beginner’s guide to content marketing strategies.
What’s Content Marketing?
Content marketing’s the process of publishing content (for free) in a bid to drive users to your website. It comes in many forms! For instance, you can create a podcast (audio content), make YouTube videos (video content), go live on Facebook (more video content), or start a blog (written content).
In essence, you’re trying to provide something of value in a bid to get someone’s attention. You’re trying to solve problems, entertain people, and make someone’s life that bit better. In so doing, you glean an opportunity to present your product or service to them.
Here’s an example of cost-effective content marketing:
A cleaning company could publish an amazing blog post on their favorite hacks for making the housework easier. If this started ranking on Google’s first page, people searching for cleaning tips could stumble across their article and land on that company’s site. While they’re there, they might have a chance to sign up for more tips, hire a cleaner, and so on.
They’ve created valuable content. They’ve grabbed someone’s attention. And now they have a chance to convert them into a lead.
The Benefits of Content Marketing
Giving away content for free is enough to make some old-school business owners balk! Trust us, though, embrace this endeavor and you’ll stand to gain in innumerable ways. Here’s a selection of key benefits so you can find out more about the importance of content marketing:
1. It’s Cost-Effective Marketing
Content marketing is a way to get the attention of your audience without spending a dime. Sure, there’s an opportunity cost to investing the time and energy in creating something. But there doesn’t have to be any out-of-pocket expense involved!
That’s a major boon for any business, especially the bootstrapped ones. Free attention is the name of the game. It’s the ultimate ROI and an incredible way to scale an operation.
2. It Builds Brand Awareness and Authority
Content helps you position yourself as an authority in your industry. You can reveal your expertise, solve peoples’ problems, and earn their trust all at once. The best part? You can position yourself above the competition in search results! People will turn to you instead of them and assume you’re product/service is better than your competitors’. It’s natural that your authority (not to mention sales figures) increases as a result.
3. It Isn’t Invasive, It's Inbound
Traditional marketing efforts are designed to disrupt. They nag away at people, interrupt them, and clamor away until they get someone’s attention. In other words, these outbound advertising tactics are annoying and risk alienating you from the audience.
Content marketing is the opposite. Whether you make videos, podcasts, or articles, you’re providing value and allowing the consumer to come to you. They’ll appreciate your input and be more likely to convert as a result.
Effective Content Marketing Strategy Advice
As you can tell, content marketing holds a lot of potential for any business. But only when you do it in the right way! With that in mind, here's a selection of top tips for getting results from your content marketing strategies.
1. Do More Research On Creating Content
This guide’s a good educational starting point, but content marketing is an enormous topic! Be sure to learn more about how to develop content marketing strategy so you can get to grips with the nuances involved.
What content works to grow your traffic and what content should you create to convert? How will you determine the ROI of your content marketing strategies?
Likewise, the best practices in this field are always changing. Staying on top of them isn’t easy, so it’s super important that you continue researching the topic over time. Thankfully, there are swathes of content marketing strategy articles on the internet to help you do it, including right here on the Bootstrap Business Blog.
2. Create a Content Plan
Planning’s at the heart of any strategy. Fail to make one and you risk drifting around like a ship without an anchor! You’ll be releasing sporadic content with no real intention, without considering the point behind it, and with no idea how to measure its effectiveness.
Sit down ahead of time and establish your content marketing strategy. At the very least, try to establish goals for what you’re trying to achieve and a content calendar that details when and what you’re going to post.
3. Aim for Quality and Quantity of Content
The old maxim of quality over quantity doesn’t apply to content marketing. You need both: as much high-quality content as you can possibly produce!
A good tip is to focus on making videos. You can then have someone transcribe the audio into a blog post and strip the audio to create a podcast. In one fell swoop, you transform a single piece of content into three.
4. Track Content Marketing Results
Content marketing is the same as any other: you have to analyze results to see what works (and what doesn’t). You can then alter course, hone your efforts, and iterate in an ever-more effective way. Thankfully, every content channel under the sun offers in-depth analytics for you to leverage.
Leverage the Power of Content Marketing Strategies
Digital marketing and content creation has blown up in recent years. And for good reason! More people are using the internet than ever before, which means that’s where a business’s marketing efforts need to be too.
With any luck, this post will help you get started on one specific component of your digital endeavors: content marketing. Keep this beginner’s guide to content marketing strategies in mind and you should be one step closer to seeing the results it promises.
Would you like to read more articles like this one on content marketing strategy now?
Browse the ‘Digital Marketing’ section of the website now to learn more. We publish a wide variety of helpful articles on content creation and marketing on a daily or weekly basis here on the Bootstrap Business Blog!