Content marketing seems to be the buzzword these days. It's certainly an easy term to throw around. Exactly what tactics and techniques does content marketing encompass? And why should your company invest in creating content?
Simply put, content marketing is the process of creating relevant, valuable content and sharing it with a specific audience. The content could be in the form a podcast, a whitepaper, a video, or even a print newsletter. Typically, marketers can use up to eight different content techniques to achieve their marketing goals. You create content to tell your story, build your brand presence, and solve your customers' business problems.
From Content to Closed Sale
Your ultimate focus in the creation of content should be increased sales and revenue. Be sure that your content offerings can take a first time website visitor and nurture them down the sales funnel to eventually become a closed sale.
Build different content with different goals. For example, an infographic on your industry may strive to increase awareness of your company's leadership position among your competitors. A detailed implementation guide, on the other hand, might serve as a middle or bottom of the funnel download that addresses common industry pain points.
As your potential buyers move from awareness to serious consideration of your services, webinars are an excellent form of content. They provide real time exposure and interaction with experts from your team who will be working with webinar participants that eventually become clients.
The Only Marketing Left
That's what marketing guru Seth Godin says. Useful content for potential customers is the only way you will get them to notice you and realize the value you provide. The question isn't why your business should be doing content marketing - it's how soon can you start generating the content you need to increase sales.
