Beginner’s Guide to Content Marketing

“Content is king”. This has become an inescapable fact for marketing professionals and consumers alike. Simply put, content marketing is the process of planning, developing, publishing, and distributing content to reach a target audience. It is one of the most popular marketing tactics known to boost brand awareness, drive sales, improve engagement, and inspire brand loyalty. However, if you want to get it right it won’t be as effortless as it looks.  

Types of Content Marketing  

There are many different content types you can mix and match for your campaigns. Depending upon your audience, distribution plan, and depth of the topic being covered These are some of our favorites:  

• Blogs: Blogs are a strong form of inbound content, ideal for building trust with your audience and aiding with lead nurturing and conversion. Aside from covering topics critical to your brand, blogs can be filled with relevant keywords to enhance your SEO efforts.   

• Infographics: Infographics, like the one you’re currently reading, display information, and data in an engaging format. These are ideal for distilling your complex technical topics into easily understandable material for your audience.  
• Videos: Consumers retain 95% of a brand’s message when they watch a video, compared to the 10% retained from reading text. (invisia)  Video content can take many forms, from explainers to product demos, and can be especially useful to improve conversion rates, drive ROI, and build lasting relationships with your audience.  
• Social Media: Unlike other content, social media is directly focused on getting your audience to not only look at your content but also engage with it directly. It is easy enough to repurpose other forms of content for your social channels, however, take the time to analyze what resonates with your audience.   
• Longform / Technical: While many consumers prefer a simple easy read at the beginning of their buying journey, this changes later in the funnel. Case Study and Whitepaper content can help your brand establish thought leadership and showcase solutions to common issues your audience faces. 

Developing a Strategy 

Before you dive into your content development, it’s important to take a step back and refine your content strategy in order to reap the maximum rewards. Here are a few of our top recommendations:  

1. Set Goals and Determine KPIs: The first step is to determine your goals and how you will measure them through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Common goals include boosting revenue, improving brand awareness, or driving lead generation. KPIs related to these goals could include measuring web traffic, monitoring sales, or assess social engagement.  
2. Define Your Audience: The next step is to figure out who your content will be speaking to. Some things to consider about your audience are demographics, common pain points, websites they frequent, or influencers relevant to them.  
3. Choose the Type(s) of Content: To choose the type(s) of content you’ll create, think about your target audience. What are their needs? Why do they need your product or service? Where do they spend their time? From here, you can decide which types of content would work best to meet your audience where they are.  
4. Decide on Distribution Methods: Once the content is written, it’s time to choose where your content will live and where it will be shared. While owned content, like blogs or infographics, may live on your website, they can be shared across social channels, email marketing, and paid advertising campaigns.