Content Marketing Guide For Beginners

Content marketing is not just a buzzword or phrase in the land of social media marketing or advertising, it’s an important aspect of building a brand and digital marketing. A content marketing strategy is the most important part of any marketing campaign. It defines what type of content to create and how to distribute it. Content marketing is a marketing strategy that uses content to attract, engage and retain a company’s target audience and reaches potential clients. It is a key part of any company’s marketing goal.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing high-quality content that is relevant to your target audience. It helps your brand build trust, authority, and brand awareness with your customers, clients, and prospects. It also can creatively highlight the products and services you offer to your customer.

“Content marketing is the gap between what brands produce and what consumers actually want.”

The goal of a content marketing strategy is to create more leads and increase sales by providing valuable, educational, or entertaining information that your audience wants, as well as creating more leads and increasing sales by providing valuable, educational, or entertaining information that your audience wants.

An effective content marketing strategy relies on the same fundamental principles as traditional advertising. It is a way of building trust and credibility with your target audience, educating them about your product or service, and motivating them to take the desired action.

It can be difficult to know where to start when it comes to content marketing. Check out our blog post about creating content easily if you feel stuck.

The following are some questions you may want to ask yourself before you create your content:

What do I want my message to say? What is my goal for this piece of content? Who are my target audiences? What will I talk about in this piece of content?

Why You Should Be Using Content Marketing Strategies

Content marketing is a powerful marketing technique that has been proven to be effective for a wide range of industries. It can be used for various purposes, such as building an audience, increasing brand awareness, generating leads, and driving sales.

It is important to use content marketing because it allows you to build your business from the ground up. You can create content that is specifically designed for your target audience and this will help you build trust with them. Content marketing also provides you with the opportunity to increase traffic to your website and generate leads through social media channels.

How To Avoid the 5 Most Common Mistakes

Content marketers are always looking for ways to improve their marketing efforts. The following list is the five most common mistakes that content marketers make when it comes to creating content for Facebook, Instagram, stories, search engines, and more.

1) Not having a clear message – K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid!) is the acronym that comes to mind! Your message needs to be extremely clear, so when people are scrolling on their phones, they understand the message within a few seconds. Know what you are promoting and state it clearly!

2) Not knowing the audience – this is a must! Knowing exactly who your target audience is and what they want to hear is foundational because you need to speak to the people who are most likely to buy your product. 

3) Not understanding the medium – every social platform is different, so your content cannot be duplicated across all platforms. 

4) Using outdated content strategies – the digital world moves quickly! You can’t use the same techniques you used five years ago today. A strong strategy takes planning, creative ideas, and up-to-date, best practices. 

5) Poorly optimized landing pages – this is a deal-breaker in the eyes of Google. Your landing page must be optimized properly, with great images and use of keywords, as well as have no broken links. 

Great Types of Content Marketing Examples

Content marketing is tricky, so here are a few websites that are doing an amazing job. Enjoy these examples of great content marketing.

www.4xem.com  continues to create skyscraper blogs and articles to build its authority in the connectivity space.

www.ripcurl.com is doing an amazing job at creating fresh content on their site and on social that is fascinating to consume.

Of course, Coca-Cola continues to be a company to emulate!

 

Of course, these companies have a team of employees dedicated to creating content for their industry, but you can take a lesser approach and still have success in your industry. There are lots of benefits to having a smaller company with fewer employees. One of the best examples is that your team can think and pivot quickly! You won’t need to run an idea through a content marketing institute, you will be able to react and find solutions quickly.

Quick Content Marketing Tips

Use Video

Videos are an easy way to get your message out – whether they are shot in a studio or on your phone, it doesn’t matter.

Find the Right Content Tools

It’s a fact: having the right tools makes every job easier, including content creation. Look into Canva for graphic design, iMovie for editing videos, and buy a smartphone – a beautiful camera that will always be within reach! There are many other tool option available.

Highlight your Special Features, Options, Products, and Services

This is easy! Show your consumers what you have to offer with a blog, video, Facebook post, or email.

Show off your Location

Walkthrough your business location with a video camera. This is a simple piece of content that makes your business easier to approach.

A Few Final Thoughts on Creating a Content Strategy

The article concludes with a few points that are worth mentioning.

Content marketing is a very important aspect of digital marketing and social media. It does take a bit of work to create a content marketing strategy, but when everything runs smoothly, consumers love it. Businesses that utilize Facebook and other social media platforms benefit from using it. It is vital to create content for the right audience. For example, if you are a car repair shop, a blog article or resources or videos on quick tips on how to fix different types of engine problems would perform very well for you. Not only would it educate readers, but because it is a helpful resource, it would most likely bring other visitors to your site.

Recap of Benefits to a Content Marketing Plan

Although there are a number of benefits to having a content strategy, one main one is that content marketing is a great way to market your business. Use it to get in front of your ideal customers and prospects. It can provide great value to other brands, businesses, or consumers, as well as educate readers on any sort of topic within your industry. Research shows that 81% of shoppers research their products online before they order something.

Content marketers should be aware of their target audience and what they want to know about a product or service. It also needs to have goals, whether it’s an online order, collecting email addresses, or getting the phone to ring. Whatever your goals are, make sure you measure your results and understand the ROI.

The more you create content, the more experience you gain, which means the better the content will be! If you consistently produce content for your brands, your data and results will speak for themselves. The ROI is worth the effort.

 

Learn more about the author, Sherri Barna.