What is Content Marketing and Why is it Important?

The face of business has changed drastically over the past five years. Making sure your brand messaging was received by the right customers was much easier than it is today – albeit more costly. The goal of any marketing strategy is to attract the right client to your business at the right time. With an optimized marketing strategy, you can interact with your ideal clients almost every time. An optimized marketing strategy ensures you are truly open for business. The key to optimizing your marketing is through content marketing. Content marketing is all about using internally generated content to market your business to those perfect clients.

What is Content Marketing?

The days of “letting your fingers do the walking” are far behind us. But even the face of digital marketing is changing. The digital marketplace continues to evolve. Potential customers scroll right past links on web sites. As a culture, we have trained our eyes to ignore banner advertisements and to tune out the noise. We close pop-ups without looking at their messages. Companies need to find ways to innovate their digital strategy to make sure their message gets in front of the right people. Content marketing is a solution that grabs the attention of your ideal clients, even with these potential barriers.

So, what is “Content Marketing?” The Content Marketing Institution says,

“Content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire and engage a clearly-defined and understood audience — with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

Content marketing is more than creating social media and blog posts. It is a strategic approach whereby educational, informative, relevant and substantial content is created in a manner that excites and entices your ideal client. That content is then shared across your company’s digital platforms, across multiple digital channels. One good piece of content can be repurposed from a blog, to social media, to an infographic, and even integrated into an email campaign. Good content will not only attract your client to your website, but encourages them to stay on your site. The goal of content is to engage your clients fully, delighting them with your company, your brand and your unique message.

“Content Marketing is a commitment, not a campaign.“ ~ Jon Buscall, CEO of Moondog Marketing 

Building a Content Marketing Strategy:

A good content marketing strategy will create content that compels clients to get closer to you and to work with you. It encourages your customer to learn more and brings them closer to making a buying decision. Content marketing is about creating trust and building a relationship, but it also has to move them closer to a profitable action. A good strategy creates content that is:

Relevant: Content should be interesting, educational and pertinent. Make sure that it is on trend with the latest industry developments and is in line with current events.   

Valuable: If you don’t know your target market, how do you know what content is important to them? The more focused you get, the more value you can provide to a targeted group of people. Content should be meaningful, resonating with your audience. When they finish with an article, they should feel it was worth the time they invested in reading it. The more value you can provide, the more they will trust you because it feels like you are talking just to them.

Consistent: Messaging and tone should be consistent from piece to piece. The cadence, voice and overall message should support your brand and tell the world what makes your company unique.

The words, images and content you create and share must work together in order to attract more customers to your site so they can do business with you.

Why is Content Marketing Important?

Content marketing is a valuable strategy because well-written content is important to your clients and your prospects. In doing business today, trust has become a currency. We’re constantly being bombarded with different flavors of solicitation. From emails to pop up ads to suggested links and ads in on the websites we browse, marketing is everywhere. In truth, because of viruses and spear-phishing, we’re trained not to trust anything!

The key to building trust with your clients and prospective clients is value. What can you provide to your clients that will be of value to them? Think about the content that you can create that will help your clients. Give before you ever ask in return. When you offer them valuable content, you begin to build the relationship that leads to trust. Consumers want to buy from companies whose values reflect their own. So how does a customer know what a company’s values are? You guessed it! Through their content.

In a recent Roper Public Affairs survey:

• • 80% of business decision-makers said they prefer to get information via articles, not advertisements.

• • 70% said content makes them feel closer to a company,

• 60% said content provided by companies helps them make smarter buying decisions. [source: https://www.gfkamerica.com/]

Not only that, but a study by the Content Marketing Institute found that 9 out of 10 businesses now market with content. Business are increasing budget for content year-over-year. To rephrase it: that’s your competition stepping up their game. If you’re not on board, you’ll be left behind. [source: https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/12/2012-b2b-content-marketing-research/]

Analyze your Current Content Marketing Strategy

Consumers everywhere are now finding companies to do business with by researching on the internet. You can see it as one by one, retailers are closing their doors. Furthermore, clients are making buying decisions from their mobile devices in the comfort of their homes. In this age of technology, it is critical to your business that you can be found. Consistent content drives SEO. Creative content drives traffic to your website, but only when that content is built correctly.

Search engine analytics are constantly changing. And, with the end of net neutrality, search engines have undoubtedly changed again. So, understanding how to optimize every piece of content is more important than it ever has been. Content without an SEO strategy isn’t enough.

• • Are you leveraging your keywords in your page title, text, images and metadata?

• • Do you have a link-building strategy?

• • Are your images optimized to the best size for viewing? For both desktop and mobile apps?

• Are your posts scheduled so you have a new blog post with fresh content every week?

At Fotoskribe, we can help you and your business navigate the complexities of organic search. Moreover, our team can help you build a focused, strategic and targeted strategy that will drive new customer acquisition. We can also help engage customers with your brand, and – more importantly, your values; increase traffic, profitability and longevity.

Don’t hesitate to learn more. Make sure you are open for business! Contact us today online or give us a call at (415) 692-3669 to speak with a live person.