There’s a lot to think about when you’re starting or growing a business, and marketing can seem like an intimidating topic to tackle.
There’s a lot of terms and acronyms bandied about, which it seems like you’re expected to know and understand.
Such as content marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO), copy, and copywriting. What do these things mean?! It’s enough to give you a headache.
Lucky for you, I’m here to help break it down. This is the first in a series of posts.
By the end of which you’ll not only understand these terms and their real-world applications, but why they’re important and have the confidence to give them a go.
And be able to hold your own when these terms get thrown around by marketing professionals..
What we’re going to cover:
The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as:
“… 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.”
It means that content marketing is a long-term strategy that focuses on building a strong relationship with your target audience by giving them relevant and high-quality content on a regular and consistent basis.
This can take many forms, such as…
Articles and blogs, like this one! Something educational, interesting and informative written in an approachable style that can be search-engine optimised through the judicious use of keywords.
Regular blog posts that address your target market’s needs and problems can help you build an audience that will come to view you as reliable and knowledgeable. That will come to you when they need a product or service like yours.
Other examples of content marketing include:
One of the important distinctions of content marketing is that it is about education. This is what makes it different to sales copy.
Content marketing’s primary goal is to educate and inform the reader without driving them to a specific outcome. In this way, you can build up confidence in your business or brand, develop your voice, establish yourself as a thought leader, and develop a relationship with your target audience without being too “sales-y.”
Content marketing isn’t about the hard sell, so be wary of using all your content as a sales pitch for your service or product.
Instead, think of it as a way of teaching people about the benefits your product or service can provide, whilst building an audience.
Content marketing can sell, but it usually sells indirectly. We think of traditional marketing as three stages: awareness, consideration, and conversion. I’ll go over these briefly before covering them in detail in a separate post at a later date.
These three things form what is known as the “marketing funnel,” one leading to the other until a customer chooses your product.
Content marketing mostly fits into the Awareness part of the marketing funnel. The point is to build long-term relationships that lead to long-term recurring revenue and sales.
However, content can fall under all three types and so a business should have a mix of all these in order to make the most of their marketing. Which is why it’s important to have a good content marketing strategy.
Some of the examples I use will be from businesses that might be very different to yours. But a good strategy is universal.
It’s difficult to measure the direct results of content marketing next to pay-per-click ads, for example, but when SEO and blog creation are the top two inbound marketing priorities for marketers it indicates how well it’s working for many businesses.
Here are 3 examples of content marketing for you to look at across 3 different mediums.
Poppy Treffrey is a freehand embroiderer who set up her business in 2004, producing quirky products from her sketches of everyday life in Cornwall. Her business has grown, and she now oversees a team of people producing her designs, as well as selling stationery, her books, and many other products besides.
One of the reasons I’ve chosen her blog as an example is because they post regularly. Another is that they’re a good example of how a small, independent business can utilise their blog as part of a marketing funnel. They have blogs that fit under:
Awareness: posts offering tips and advice to people visiting Cornwall, and about the history of their business and locations.
Consideration: posts tying in with national and international events such as International Dog Day, the start of the new school year, and Father’s Day, and how their products are relevant and helpful with all of these things. Posts showing their customers using their products.
Conversion: they also use posts as a platform to inform their customers of new sale lines or last chances to buy their existing products.
I also love the fact that they have a clear and consistent tone of voice. That’s really important with your content.
The National Trust produces a range of podcasts, which cater to a variety of audiences. But all of which tie in with the properties and locations they manage, the events they host, and the work they undertake.
It’s educational and entertaining content that showcases their work in the best possible light and no doubt raises awareness of areas of their work that the public might not necessarily be aware of.
I chose this podcast because it’s such a good example of awareness raising and offering something educating and informative at the same time.
You might listen to an episode because of an interest in history, conservation work, the environment.
Then find yourself being made aware of all sorts of different National Trust properties you didn’t know about. Discovering one near you, or near a future holiday destination, might spark a visit.
At the end of every episode, they direct you back to their website for more audio content. But of course from there you can find out about National Trust properties or events, or even take out a membership.
So it really works as a podcast, but shows how by developing a relationship with a content consumer over time you can convert them into a customer.
The Ingleton Pottery YouTube channel features Dan, one of the production potters at Ingleton, throwing items very quickly.
Although you rarely see the presenter’s face, as videos focus on his hands working on the potter’s wheel, his no nonsense commentary accompanies them and the videos have a real charm about them.
These demonstration videos are fascinating for anyone to watch but are a useful educational resource for aspiring or hobbyist potters.
They showcase the skills of the potters as well as advertising the range of products Ingleton Pottery produces. The channel has 481 thousand subscribers.
You should now have a better understanding of just what content marketing is. Remember to think of it as an opportunity to educate and build your audience, as well as developing your voice as a brand. In my next post, we’ll go into more detail about exactly why content marketing is important.
Of course, if you’d like any help with your content marketing or copywriting needs, then check out the services I offer and get in touch.