There are many ways to reach out to your potential client through digital means and content marketing is one of them. Content marketing is one of the main digital marketing strategies to connect to more customers and make the market achieve more business success. It aims to connect to a group of specific target audiences with the help of the content created by the publisher.
It comes in the form of articles, videos, podcasts, articles, and other media. The content should provide relevant, consistent, valuable information, news, and story. It is one of the best ways to engage with customers and gain more market visibility and growth online.
Consuming meaningful content is an interactive way for customers to find out about products and services that they desire and need. It helps marketers attract potential customers and convince them to become buying customers without the need for a physical promoter. Content marketing can also support other digital marketing strategies such as social media by providing engaging content and SEO optimization by contributing more keywords for organic search and natural visibility to attract more traffic so that your website can be seen at the top of the search engine result pages (SERPs).
Why is content marketing important in digital marketing?
Digital marketing is all about engaging with customers online and content marketing holds the key to this goal. It can positively impact your business’s success and complements digital marketing strategies with social media's insane hunger for relevant and consistent content.
Businesses with great content definitely have more chances of gaining more leads and closing more seals. Today, most customers do their own research on products and companies through different content that is shared on websites; through word of mouth, social media, blogs, and more before purchasing a product.
Statistics have also shown that companies that use content marketing in their marketing strategy, have higher growth rates as compared to those companies that don't.
Besides providing customers with good information about products and services, content marketing also fulfills or helps digital marketers to achieve the following goals:
The first and fundamental goal of brand awareness Content marketing is the tool to reach a specific type of targeted audience especially those from other countries that don't have direct interactions or access to your brand.
Engagement Engaging content makes potential customers keep visiting your website, social media, blog, etc. for the required purposes of gaining information. Brands can also get to see responses to the content through the number of engagements on social media in the likes of comments, likes, shares, etc.!
Lead generation This is another important goal that digital marketers in many industries have for acquiring long-term business success. These are companies that will need a longer time for sales conversion e.g. automobiles and useful content will come in handy for these leads to be generated. Content will remain on sites and blogs forever. If a customer visits after years still can find the relevant content according to their needs.
Customer acknowledgment of brand and its products Content marketing will help to impart to your customers up-to-date information and valuable knowledge that matters to the consumers.
Boost SEO ranking When you create content that answers questions, the chances of it appearing on SERPs and a potential client seeing and clicking on it will increase tremendously. The more regularly the visitors visit your website, the faster it will climb up to the top of the search engine result page with the help of great content marketing.
Revenue growth Content marketing causes more brand visibility and more brand visibility brings more customers and more customers leading to revenue growth.
Content marketing is generally split into five categories: written content, video content, graphic content, social content, and audio content. Each category has several types of content and its own benefits for the company’s digital marketing strategy.
1. Written: written content marketing has become a crucial component for most marketers. A content writer can be also called a storyteller of brands, products, and services through digital formats. Content writing-based marketing aims to share informative and useful content with the targeted customers so that anyone visiting could better understand the company and the product. Written contents are in the form of:
· Blogs
· Articles
· Product descriptions
· Landing pages
· Press releases
· Long-form guides
· FAQs
· Emails
· eBooks
2. Video: Video content marketing is the process of passing information about a company and its products through a video. This strategy often seems to create more interesting and attractive content because of the endless creativity that a video can achieve. The fact that YouTube is the top social media platform around the world confirms how engaging video contents are important in communicating with your audiences. The different forms of video marketing are:
· Video blogs
· Studio productions
· Video interviews
· Web demos
· Product demos
· Virtual reality videos
· Educational videos
· Tutorial/’How to’ videos
3. Graphic: Graphic content marketing is sharing information via images, diagrams, sketches, or animated videos. Graphic marketing has been more powerful for certain customers who prefer this over other forms like words or videos. An infographic done well enables your customers to have a clear understanding of the story you want to tell and the products you want to sell. The types of graphic content marketing are:
· Infographics
· Custom illustrations
· GIFs
· Memes
· Comics
4. Social: Social media content marketing is increasing in popularity for marketers and is becoming one of the priorities in digital marketing goals. Today more than half of the world uses social media platforms. The interactions between social media apps and users help marketers understand and reach out to their target audience easier and cheaper.
This is also where a social content marketer can promote their brand and product to a wider audience around the world using different social media platforms that are widely used in a specific country. Social media can also be used for surveys and polls to collect customers’ reviews to understand them better. Some types of commonly used functions on social media are:
· User-generated content
· Hashtag campaigns
· Complementary social posts
· Quizzes
· Polls
· Surveys
· Contests
5. Audio: Audio content marketing is a content type in which the consumers will receive the information or message in audio formats. Audio content marketing can be produced by converting written content to speaking words via audio recorders.
Unlike video content marketing, customers don’t need to look at the screen to consume the content. They can listen to and consume the information anywhere and even while doing other tasks like driving, cooking, workout, walking, etc.
This gets easier with today’s technological advancement, for instance, it only takes a few seconds to connect a smartphone, computer, or TV via Bluetooth to a portable device e.g. ear pods, and perform any other tasks while listening to the audio content. Audio content marketing comes in the form of:
· Podcasts
· Audio blogs
· Webinars
· Recorded interviews
· Radio
· Pre-recorded details/information
· Audiobooks
Content has always been the king even before the digital era and is more powerful than ever for marketers. It now comes in the form of written content marketing, video content marketing, audio content marketing, graphic content marketing, and social content marketing to connect the brand to its target audience.
Each category has its own unique strengths to take advantage of the digital platforms available to provide information, engagement of customers, and brand awareness. To find out more about how content marketing can fit into your digital marketing strategy, consider taking up a digital marketing course in Singapore that is taught by digital leads from agencies or experienced marketers from some of the largest brands. Find out more at our website at https://www.madschool.edu.sg.