Traditional marketing is becoming less effective by the day. Instead of pitching your products and services, there is a new effective way to further your reach as a marketer. Introducing content marketing.
“Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.“
Content marketing is used by leading companies such as Microsoft. Why you may ask? Because it is highly effective. There are three key reasons for you to use content marketing:
- Increase sales
- Cost effective alternative
- Quality costumers who stay loyal to your brand
Regardless of which type of marketing tactic you decide to use, content marketing should be prioritized in your strategy. Quality content is a part of almost every form of marketing. Social media marketing, SEO, PPC, and inbound marketing all rely on quality content to become successful.
Content marketing is different than traditional marketing in that it is more educational than product-specific. Things like webinars and e-books compose enable your company to strengthen your customer relationships, grow your subscriber base, and increase profits. Your content is as valuable as its ability to tract consumers. Once you have a large following, you can stimulate your sales by engaging with your followers. How can I acquire new customers, you might ask. You have to make sure your audience trusts and wants to hear from you when you building a following. Consumers are more likely to purchase your products if they trust you. So build credibility!
5 prime examples of content marketing are:
- Infographics – These are essentially graphics that include charts and statistics presenting your businesses information. You can hire an agency to plan, research, copyright, and design it for you, or use an website like Visua.ly.
- Webpages – Provide graphics and text that resonate to your users and grow it through SEO and PPC
- Podcasts – A podcast grants you visibility through different platforms such as iTunes. They can help you reach millions of people and generate sales by signups and subscribers.
- Videos – An great example is Gary Vaynerchuk. He used online videos different social media platforms to his marketing empire. You can use video to grow your company without the need of high quality equipment.
- Books – Publishing books is another tool to drive customers through quality content. Try publishing your own! Even if people don’t read it, you can use it as a form of content through your other platforms
These are just examples of content marketing. There are a countless of other methods you can use, but in the end, its all about building awareness and ultimately steering your consumer to the purchase.
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