What is content marketing and why is it important?
Content marketing is engaging potential and current customers by speaking about what matters to them. It’s not a ‘hard sell’, but genuinely winning their interest – consistently sharing valuable content helps build a long-lasting relationship with your audience based on continually showing that you value their time and attention.
Relevant and engaging content also helps optimise your website for search engines too.Your content can include any articles, blogs, newsletters, pictures or video you share, and should always put your audience first, support your business strategy and be planned out in advance – while making room for spontaneity on social media, where being spontaneous and human can be a real winner.
Successful content marketing is:
- Valuable – aim for ‘news you can use’ and make sure it’s worth your audience’s time to read or watch your content
- Relevant – content that’s targeted to your audience’s interests
- Regular – follows a consistent timetable that sets and meets customer expectations, whether it’s every day, week or month, without “over-communicating”
4 tips for effective content marketing
- Ask “What’s in this for my audience?” for everything you share. If it’s not clear or compelling, re-work it until it feels right.
- Define a clear outcome for each piece of content – is the goal to engage with your audience, build your brand or drive sales?
- Great content increases your touch points with clients and prospects and places you ‘top-of-mind’ in the consideration process as well as building loyalty with existing customers.
- Use Google’s keyword planner to help spot areas where people are looking for information that you could deliver on.
Content marketing is about engaging potential and current customers by speaking about what matters to them. Put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself ‘what’s in it for me?’
