What Is Content Marketing Strategy?
For some time, Content Marketing has become a fundamental aspect of any digital strategy so that, in many cases, only some action can be conceived to implement it.
So, if you are not yet using Content Marketing in your strategy, situations like these may be happening to you, which I mention below:
- Do you feel that your traditional strategy or marketing plan no longer works?
- Does a large part of your target audience start to ignore you, or that they pass on the messages that you can send them?
- Are you beginning to despair?
Rest assured, many professionals or companies have had the same symptoms and have long been able to solve them by changing their strategies. This is nothing new.
That feeling of abandonment that we are talking about usually occurs when a brand only promotes itself, or its products and services, without considering what its target truly wants and/or needs (pure and straightforward self-promotion ).
Perhaps the solution you are looking for is to learn what Content Marketing is and incorporate it into your business strategies.
What Is Content Marketing Strategy?
Ultimately, content marketing is not a big deal, nor something so challenging to understand by any mortal.
Do not think that it is that new super revolutionary method that many speak of, which luckily has come to solve all the ills of your business; it is something much simpler …
Definition: Content Marketing is a technique that involves analyzing and trying to understand what our target audience wants or needs and then offering it in a relevant way and, above all, more attractive.
This is not a definition I have created out of nothing but my own interpretation of others that I have come across on the Internet.
For example, the definition that Joe Pulizzi made many years ago and that I leave you below (almost literal translation from English):
It is the art of understanding what your customers need to know to deliver it to them in a relevant and compelling way.
As I was saying, this is nothing new!
Some brands or offline agencies have used these techniques for some time, perhaps in a much more basic or straightforward way, but they do.
For example, who has yet to ever receive in a supermarket a recipe book made by a brand related to the world of gastronomy, that monthly health magazine that your private health insurance used to send you every month, etc.
Well, now take more or less that concept and give it a new touch, a little more modern and current, that is, take it into the digital environment.
Today content marketing is presented in many different ways and forms, adapting it to our potential customers’ lives.
That monthly book or magazine today could be:
- An article on a corporate blog.
- A post on a social network.
- A video on the YouTube channel of a brand or a professional.
- An infographic on Pinterest or on the blog of an influential Blogger.
As you will see, almost all companies have a relationship with the Internet and search for their customers on it.
Therefore, the most significant thing is not the method and channels that we decide to use to share that content, but rather the main objective (or the most essential thing to use content marketing among our strategies) is that this content puts tastes first and solve the needs of our target audience, not those of our company.
What Are The Basic Foundations Of Content Marketing?
Content marketing is based on a premise: the best way to build a strong, lasting and trustworthy relationship with your clients (current and potential) is to share with them content that offers quality added value.
That premise is based on taking the initiative by providing valuable content that we will distribute for free among our public and those we are interested in capturing.
In other words, use those contents focused on the needs and tastes of our target or audience as a less invasive channel than traditional channels and more segmented by the users’ interests.
In this way, with him, we seek that these clients do not feel like prey we are trying to hunt but rather like valuable members of the community surrounding our company or Brand.
But all this strategy must be approached logically and, above all, naturally.
Because what we are looking for with all this is to build trust in customers and awaken their loyalty, not to make them feel used.
You may think I am talking about Inbound Marketing because of the similarity, but it is a part of this discipline.
We won’t lie to anyone if we acknowledge that the goal is commercial. Still, again, unlike advertising, content marketing tries to appeal to that target audience more naturally and less invasively.
“Content Marketing is mainly based on the idea of being useful.”
The final objective of our strategy should not be to show how good, beautiful and cheap our product or service is but to demonstrate to our audience how we can help them solve their needs.
Obviously, in some of those same contents, but naturally and where it is logically necessary, our products and services will also be shown.
The reason is that our clients request information above all. They need help to know how they can do something …
There are many examples of all this, but one of the best is to see how with a simple “How?” In a Google search, our audience can find what they need on our website.
In this way, traffic is generated, but not any type. Still, of better quality -that you can repeat those visits- and through the trust and added value we offer you, a transformation of potential customers is made to actual customers.
Not surprisingly, Google does not stop modifying its algorithms, and with each new update, it gives even higher priority to content that answers user questions and offers quality solutions.
The 6 Advantages Of Doing Content Marketing
Now that I have defined the topic and explained the basic foundations, how about I tell you the advantages it can bring to your business?
Let’s go with the six advantages that it can bring you.
Recruitment And Loyalty
Content Marketing will allow you to connect those public and current customers who already follow your Brand, helping retain them and finally offer them products or services.
It also favours the attraction of another new public interested in our content and our Brand.
Cost Savings
You will incur fewer costs than with actions implemented in traditional channels, thus reducing your advertising budget.
It is 62% cheaper than other practices (according to Demand Metric)
Customer Segmentation
Due to the advantages that digital channels and media present, as well as your own content, you will be able to better segment your target, obtaining a community that is really interested in your Brand and, therefore, with more possibilities of getting conversions.
SEO
Content Marketing enhances the positioning of our Brand in the network, mainly in search engines, helping and complementing actions that we are carrying out to improve the SEO of our business website.
Brand Image
By publishing valuable content, you will directly improve your Brand’s reputation.
One of the three reasons why users follow a brand is for its valuable content (according to content +)
Interactions, Two-way Communication And Feedback
It generates interactions and much more direct, more natural and fluid communication between users/clients and the Brand so that it is easier to know the client’s interests, satisfy their needs and, ultimately, get more feedback from them.
The Main Pyramid Of Content Marketing
Vilma Nuñez defines the priorities and needs in any content strategy very well, making a simile with the Maslow pyramid of needs.
In her infographic that I share below, she places the public as a priority and base of the said pyramid, then the content, channels, conversion and finally, the achievement (realization) of the business objectives set by the Brand.
- Public
- Contents
- Channels
- Conversion
- Achievement Of Objectives And Benefits
Public
They are the raison d’être and the leading actor of any Content Marketing strategy we implement.
All our content will be aimed at that audience, but previously we must first of all:
- Identify which is our target audience or target to target
- What content is of value to them
- Where are they to find out how to contact them and then decide the channels to use
Contents
These are some of the types of content that we can use:
- Sending newsletters with valuable content to our community
- Blog
- Webinars, seminars, videoconferences
- Online courses
- Ebooks
- Videos
- Infographics
- Podcasts
Channels
Suppose we have detected where our audience is and what content is most relevant. In that case, we can better define the type of communication necessary and, therefore, the channels to be used.
Forget using all possible channels and focus on those that work for you.
Main channels:
- MKT Email
- Social networks
- Blogging
Conversion
Once you have a defined audience, content and channels, a natural step is to obtain conversions.
You should set up a conversion funnel for your business.
Achievement Of Objectives And Benefits
In this stage as a Brand, you will have achieved your business objectives and benefits thanks to your content.
Is Content Really King?
There is a general belief that content is King, but how much truth is there? What role does content really play?
Content is the realm where users (or our potential customers), the true kings, must feel comfortable to want to always be with us.
Conclusions
Whenever someone finds our website and reads one of the articles on our blog or sees an infographic, a video, a post on a social network, etc. He must feel that this content gives him something that he wants and that he does not press or invade it.
Ultimately, proper content marketing respects customer time and ensures your visit or interaction has paid off.
Again, remember that the content you share is for your audience’s benefit, not your own; only then will you finally get results.