What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is the powerhouse of digital marketing in the 21st Century but it can seem like a vague term to those not in the marketing industry. This guide is a comprehensive answer to the question ‘What is content marketing?’. You will discover what content is, how it works and why it works, as well as the key components of a good marketing strategy.

Content Marketing: A Definition

The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as:

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.

The focus is on creating informative or entertaining pieces of work rather than ones dedicated solely to sales. Of course, the eventual aim is to drive sales but it’s good to remember that while sales are the goal, content marketing is a process to achieve that.

What is content?

To help you understand the marketing strategies surrounding content marketing, it’s good to have in mind examples of content. In general, I will discuss digital content rather than traditional physical marketing collateral but it’s good to remember these other forms in the back of your mind.

We can break content into three key categories; written, visual and audible content.

Written Content Examples

• Blog articles
• White papers
• E-books
• Case Studies
• Web Page Content
• Product Descriptions
• Emails
• Brochures
• Leaflets

Visual Content

• Photos
• Graphics
• Infographics
• Video
• Memes
• Slideshows

Audible Content

• Podcasts
• Audio Books
• Music and sounds used on videos or websites
• Radio/podcast adverts
• Voice Search Optimisations

How content marketing works

As I said in the intro, content marketing is a process rather than a goal, and it’s a process that is a long-term strategy based on consistency. There are four essential points in the content marketing journey which I explain in this section.

1. Create valuable content

The first thing you need in a content marketing strategy is some content of course. You need to create content that adds value to your audience and isn’t about sales. Jump to the section The key Components of Great Content Marketing to discover how to develop the right kind of content. 

2. Make Content Accessible

Once created, you need to distribute this content so users can find and engage with it. Most pieces of content can be used in many different marketing mediums with a few tweaks. A blog post can be added to your website, shared on social media, be used in an email marketing campaign and utilised as a landing page for the right PPC campaign. If it’s newsworthy it could also be featured as part of a PR release.

3. Users Consume & Enjoy the Content

Once users have found your content and it appears to be relevant to them, they will consume it. The idea behind producing quality, engaging content is that your readers will enjoy it. It might be they find it informative, entertaining or inspirational. Whatever feeling it elicits, producing content your audience enjoys is key.

4. Users become customers

The final step in content marketing is turning those users who enjoy your content in to customers. It may not be instantaneous but if you continue to produce excellent content you will convert more users.

These four steps are the basic principles behind the content marketing process. Point one; producing content, and point two; making content accessible, are explored in more detail in the next section, The key components of Good Content Marketing. While point three and four is explained in the section, Why Content Marketing Works.

The key components of good content marketing

There are millions upon millions of pieces of digital content out there today. At some points, it seems like there is an overload of information accessible and that most content will be lost to the recycle bin of history. While that may seem overwhelming when it comes to starting your own content marketing, with a good strategy you can succeed. The challenge is to make the best quality content that you can and make sure it is suitable and accessible for your target audience

Producing Content

Quality

Content that will succeed has to be good quality, but what does quality mean. When it comes to producing ‘quality’ content, I focus on:

• Excellent spelling and grammar, not only do users appreciate this, so does Google.
• Uniqueness, it adds something to the conversation, takes a different approach or breaks old information into a better format. 
• For written pieces, it’s the right length. If this guide was only 500 words, it would not cover the topic with enough depth. In other instances, some subjects really only need 300 words. There is no point writing content for the sake of quantity.

Consistency

Consistency of content is important for your audience. They need to recognise the content produced belongs to you to build that all-important trust. Consistency in content means:

• The tone of voice is the same as well as the way you present written content
• Designs remain on-brand, think colours, typography, layouts, photography, graphics. 
• Your focus is clearly defined and users can come to expect certain subjects from your digital presence. 

Frequency

An essential component of a good content marketing strategy is a consistent frequency of content. Whether producing blog articles for a website or posts for social media, posting at the same frequency is key. This is because:

• Engaged users will see your work more often and it will keep your brand at the forefront of their mind
• Google and other search engines reward frequent content updates with better site rankings.
• Social media platforms reward frequent posting with larger reach potential.

Relevant

Content needs to be relevant to your audience. There is no point in discussing a topic that is not on brand, distracts from your own message or is counter to the image you are looking to create. Here are some examples and how you should approach relevancy with them.

• Posting news articles on social media that aren’t related to your niche. Instead, focus on news articles that affect your business or your customers, adding context to why you are sharing it. (E.g. you might share something about Brexit because it’s affecting your supply chain and slowing delivery)
• Writing an article on your blog that has nothing to do with your business. Instead, write about subjects that are related even if not directly linked. (e.g. If you sell dog food, you could write articles about the Best Toys for Dogs or How to care for your pooch’s feet.

Engaging

What turns good content into great content is that it’s engaging. If I’ve said it once, I’ll say it a thousand more times. Content marketing is not about selling, It’s about:

• Entertaining – whether it’s social media posts, videos, podcasts, these are all things people can find enjoyable and entertaining. When people laugh or smile, they will think much more favourably of your business
• Providing information – The majority of people will do some form of research before making a purchase, so informative content that explains a product, service or a concept can help in that buying process. A key element to why customers love a brand is that it produces informative content.
• Being Inspirational – Social media influencers are defined by their inspirational content. They don’t say ‘buy this Skincare product’, they show you their day to day life which just happens to include their skincare routine. It doesn’t just have to be about products though. Seeing a motivated business owner dispensing advice can inspire you to improve your own business, so you might just invest in their online course.

Whatever your style, you need to make content engaging for your target audience.

Making content Accessible

‘If they build it, they will come’. This maxim is a BS cliche. If you built an amazing underground restaurant in the woods with Michelin Star quality food and told no one, then guess what, no one would come. This may seem dramatic but there is a lot of work in getting customers to your business, and that includes online businesses as well as bricks and mortar stores. Half of content marketing is about disseminating your content in the right way, to the right people, at the right time. 

Optimised for Search Engines

If you are producing content for your website and you want people to find it through SEs, then you need to optimise it for those SEs. This includes:

• Creating content that targets relevant keywords
• Adding appropriate meta tags
• Optimising images and videos for search engines, this includes optimising posts on social media and not just your website
• Include Structured Data Markup where relevant

Optimised for Social Media

If you are creating content for your website that will be shared on social media too, you need to ensure the content is optimised for those social platforms. This includes:

• Adding Open Graph data and imagery to make sharing to social media easier. It also makes the shared links look more attractive.
• Creating images that are sized correctly for each social media platform. 
• Have relevant content for the particular audience and the platform you are sharing on. A small example is that there is little use in sharing links in Instagram post text as they aren’t clickable.

Accessible for all

Creating content for all types of users will allow you to reach a wider audience and help make society as a whole more accessible to everyone. For those customers who are living with a disability, providing content that they can more easily access is essential. 

• Providing descriptive captions and alt tags on graphics and photos can ease reading for those with vision loss.
• Closed captions on videos can help hearing-impaired people gain more from the content. While audio descriptions can help the visually impaired understand actions occurring that are not verbally communicated. 
• Writing content that is easy to understand is essential when communicating ideas to a wider audience. You can also add text-to-speech software to a site, like ResponsiveVoice which users can use to hear the text rather than read. This can be helpful for many disabilities.

Content that is optimised with disability in mind will improve your content quality, allow you to reach a customer base that is often ignored and create a better world in the process. 

Choosing the right kind of content marketing

One thing to remember when producing content is to choose the right kind for your audience and that it’s relevant to them in their buying process. This content marketing strategy is best explained with the help of a Marketing Funnel.  Sometimes called a sales funnel or purchase funnel, a marketing funnel describes your customer’s journey from when they had no idea your company existed to becoming a dedicated customer and maybe even a brand ambassador. 

A marketing funnel shows you the different stages of a customer journey and the types of content that are most suitable for that buying stage. Every company’s marketing funnel is slightly different in the types of content it will approve but the different stages generally stay the same. This is an example of a marketing funnel to help you visualise the concept.

1. Awareness 

The user does not know your business at all or may only be vaguely aware of it. At this point, they may not know they need your services or don’t realise you provide the items or services they want. Content for this stage could include;

• Company blogs and guest blogging
• SEO for products and services
• Social media posts
• Podcasts
• Online ads including PPC and social media

2. Interest

The user has seen your brand several times, they may have followed your social media profiles and visited your website. They may be starting to find information to see if you do the things they need. Content for this includes:

• Web page/product page copy
• Videos
• Case studies

3. Evaluation

After gathering more information, the user should be in a position to start comparing you to other similar businesses. This evaluation period is where your offering needs to stand out and any questions asked are answered in the right way. Content for this phase includes:

• Pricing Guides
• Newsletters
• Whitepapers
• Webinars
• Slideshows
• Remarketing campaigns

4. Commitment

Once they are at the point where your company stands out from other companies, they are in the commitment stage. They are ready to learn a little bit more, they have some loyalty to your brand and they are dipping their toe further into your business. Content for this stage includes:

• Trials
• Demonstrations
• Personalised digital or physical packs
• Explainer videos and how-to articles
• FAQs

5. Sale

You finally made it! You have a new customer. However, that doesn’t mean you are at the end of your content strategy. Remember from the beginning of this guide, content is about value not sales. So just because you’ve made that sale doesn’t mean you always will. With the exception of a few products, you should be able to resell to customers in the future. As for services, most will be something ongoing that you’d like to keep providing. Therefore, the after-sales content plan is as essential as all the other stages. Examples of content for this after-sales phase includes:

• Welcome emails including how to get support and provide reviews
• Newsletters that include discounts and offers
• Inspirational blogs, videos and images
• Gifts and personalised content
• Referral campaigns and early bird offers
• Feedback forms and questionnaires. 

Most of these are more interactive than at the beginning of the marketing funnel but they serve businesses well in creating happy customers who can be turned in to repeat customers and brand ambassadors. 

Content Funnel Resources

• Content Marketing Strategy using Funnels
• What is an Ethical Marketing Strategy
• What is SEO? Target Audience Research Section

Why Content Marketing Works

You’ve done all the work, created content for every stage, made some customers but why does content marketing work? I will repeat it once more, you are providing value to your audience for free, and people love free things. Below are the more nuanced explanations of why content marketing works so well and has a great return on investment.

1. Find the right customers

The first stage of the marketing funnel is awareness and by producing quality content and sending it out into the digital world you are making your company available to your audience. Content is a great way to attract people to your website, whether that’s through organic search, social media or ad campaigns. When you create content you increase your brand reach. When you produce quality content you reach the right people. 

2. Build Authority

Producing content that entertains, informs or inspires will create an emotional attachment to your company for the reader. By using your website or social channels as an educational platform, your target market will learn about your products and services, understand that you are an expert in your field and start to trust that your business can deliver what they want or need. Content creation will build your authority and klout with audiences as well as search engines and social media platforms. 

3. Increase Engagement

Engaging content leads to engaged users. If your content is worth sharing, it will be. If your social posts are enticing enough to comment on, people will. When your email offer is too good to refuse, readers will click that link. Engaged users are more likely to invest in you as a business but equally, their online engagements will be spread to their network, further increasing your reach. 

The results of content marketing

Once you have found the right audience, they trust you as a company and they are engaged in your offering, they will turn in to customers. This is the ultimate aim of any content marketer; that you will gain sales. The content marketing process is a long term strategy that nurtures leads from the awareness stage through to the purchase stage. The other result of a great and sustained content marketing plan is that it will also increase revenue with existing customers. Ensuring content continues to reach your existing client base means you will have repeat sales and additional services will be taken up. Content marketing works because it keeps you visible for longer and ensures your audience stays engaged and loyal. Focus on producing amazing content that is accessible to all and your audience will repay you tenfold.

Further Content Marketing Resources

• Why is Content Important
• Business Blogging – What are the benefits?

Start your content marketing strategy

I hope you’ve found this guide helpful. If you’d like additional information on these concepts, there are further resources throughout this article under each section. If you’d like to grow your audience and gain more customers, start a content marketing strategy today. It’s never too late to invest in your business’ content plan. If you would like to develop your content marketing process, get in touch and let’s grow your business together.