Today, the strategy used by businesses to find their target audience is quite different from a few decades ago. Content Marketing has come to position itself as one of the most efficient techniques for finding potential customers and retaining those who have already bought something from you.
Content Marketing not only appeals to people interested in your brand propositions, it is also the best way to convey your business identity and values. For example, it is a way to make a daily presence in people’s lives through social networks.
Learn more about the concept:
What is Content Marketing?
Content Marketing is the process of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, capture and retain a clearly defined audience with the goal of creating profitable consumer actions (University of San Diego).
In addition, experts indicate that in order to achieve these goals, it is essential to work with well-developed and quality content. Given the cultural contributions of Content Marketing, Harvard Business Reviews has indicated that we are in the “Age of Corporate Illumination.”
And it is precisely in this environment where experts point out that “Nine out of 10 companies work with Content Marketing – that is, they go beyond traditional sales techniques and instead promote brands by publishing or disseminating information, ideas and entertainment valued by the consumer. ”
They also indicate that “… the success of Content Marketing has radicalized the way companies communicate. For winning brands, a successful Tumblr has a big impact, hashtag campaigns have become as important as slogans… ”.
And that is how Harvard Business Reviews came to the conclusion: “The Content Marketing revolution… Marks a new and important chapter in the history of business communication: the age of corporate enlightenment.”
Advantages of Content Marketing
The advantages of content marketing for your business are:
improves how you reach your audience by delivering relevant, quality content.
improve the web positioning of your content, page and business proposals.
Lets you convey your brand values.
Helps capture and retain potential new customers on social networks.
Creating content relevant to your audience allows you to use SEO techniques that help improve the chances of you appearing in Google’s early results.
The Content Marketing Numbers: Key Statistics
In the following, I will share a selection of the most important content marketing statistics. This will allow you to gauge the importance this technique has gained in the commercial sphere in recent years.
According to Forbes magazine, 88% of B2B businesses – ie direct sales to other businesses – use Content Marketing as part of their marketing strategies.
The most successful B2B content marketers allocate a large portion of their budgets to such a strategy: 42% of the total budget, compared to 29% spent by the least successful specialists.
Content-Marketing-Statistics-4
90% of B2C Businesses – those that drive their sales directly to the end consumer – use Content Marketing to build and promote their brand image.
48% of the most efficient B2B marketers have a well-documented editorial plan as part of their content strategy.
61% of the most successful content marketing specialists meet every day or week with their work teams.
76% of B2B marketers decided to produce more content in 2016.
94% of B2B marketing experts keep their LinkedIn accounts up to date as part of their content strategy. See numbers on other popular platforms: Twitter (87%), Facebook (84%), YouTube (74%) and Google+ (62%).
On the other hand, Content Marketing Institute provides important content data for North America:
85% of the most efficient B2C businesses have one person who coordinates their content marketing strategy.
Both B2B and B2C Marketers use an average of six social networks.
What is Content Marketing for?
As you can see from reading the previous statistics, more and more businesses are understanding the importance of this strategy as a way to reach their audience using the internet. That’s why Content Marketing is an increasingly important way to position your brand.
Content Marketing Techniques
Now, ok: What are the channels understood by the Content Marketing sphere? What platforms can we take action on to reach our specific audience? Here is the answer to these questions:
Articles on Your Page and Blogging
One of the best strategies for getting the most out of Content Marketing is to create your own articles on your blog or web page. After publishing, you need to broadcast the material on Social Networks. Reason? Because it allows you to increase web page traffic and deliver original and relevant content to your audience.
E-mail marketing
Email Marketing, which includes sending newsletters and promotions to your audience via e-mail, is a great way to keep your audience informed of your news and content, and to spread your business proposals.
videos
Creating videos as part of a content marketing strategy is very beneficial as content is among the most shared on social networks. Therefore it is recommended to create a Youtube channel – the most important platform in the category – and share the content created.
Social networks
It is on social networks where you can meet with your target audience and interact with your audience. That is, it is the best place to spread your proposals and content. So you need to remember to optimize your page or blog so people can share your Social Media articles.
Also, as it’s often not very feasible to create your own content to post to Social Networks daily – lack of time, resources, etc. – it’s important to find and define qualified sources where you can find relevant articles to share on your channels.
To keep your accounts up to date, it’s good to have tools like Postcron so you can schedule your posts for the week or even the month. What happens next? All your content is published to Social Networks automatically. This saves you hours of work time and frees you from the need to be online permanently.
Last but not least, social platforms should not only be viewed as a means of diffusion but as a channel of interaction. Lasting relationships are built through dialogue, so make sure you interact with your audience by making comments, replying to messages, and liking them whenever you think you deserve it.
Graphic Parts
Another great pillar of Content Marketing is the creation and dissemination of graphic pieces on blogs and social networks. Such content is among the most shared on Social Media as it is much more visually appealing. Content we can create can include infographics, create GIFs, use photographs, illustrations, and text images.
Other Content Types
There are several other types of content you can share in your marketing efforts. Think of it this way: You need to share relevant information – that is, that entertains, teaches, informs, and moves your audience – in any format.
That way you can create a Podcast – that is, an audio piece – to share, you can spend time creating Webinars (online conferences about your products, services, and topics relevant to your field). You can develop mobile apps, publish eBooks, and even develop themed games.
And that’s all for today! As you can see, the possibilities of Content Marketing are very wide. This quality makes this technique one of the most flexible and adaptable to the needs of your business. Therefore, I suggest you consider which ones are most convenient and start enjoying!
Leave a Reply