Before we start discussing the power of content marketing there are
some simple things we need to understand. First of all there has to be a clear
idea on what content marketing is and how much the scope of it has increased
over the years.
Content Marketing is basically an evolved method of marketing that recently bloomed
along with the internet revolutionizing the business and marketing fields.
Today content marketing is ranked second only to internet advertising in
accelerated growth and is accounted more than 20 percent of the total marketing
budget.
Content marketing has seen only success in its further paths, often
respawning the already created hype of creative marketing to even bigger
heights and the idea has undoubtedly earned a high position over other
marketing techniques.
SEO is yet another fact that comes along with the idea of content
marketing. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a powerful tool that allows
search engines to prioritize you to any generic search requests and also
inevitable improve your website ratings.
So along with a creative content quality for your website you also
end up obtaining increased SEO ratings and hence content marketing becomes a
win win situation for everybody.
The one and only factor that determines the success of content
marketing is the quality of the content, people are invariably subjected to
trillions of data on the world wide web, so in order to stand out you should
make it creative and catchy, the drive for creative methodologies in web design
can serve only as a plate on which the content can be served, it’s the quality
if the content that alone creates value for the marketing strategies.
The major advantage of content marketing is that it makes everyone
publishers, allowing the companies to freelance the work which makes it cheaper
and also improves the quality of the content as it comes from a range of people
with different culture and traditions rendering a distinguishable uniqueness to
the article and thereby making it stand out. The ability of the marketers to
obtain a worldwide audience without spending much as they do in the traditional
form of advertising only increases the demand for the supply of quality content.
The implications of cheap marketing reaching wider audience will be directly
seen in the financial returns for any organization. The growing mistrust
towards traditional media has only accelerated the growth of content marketing.
Even though it seems very feasible and easy on the outside, it’s not
an easy task to create quality content. There are often ambiguity about factors
such as copyright and plagiarism in content marketing. As more and more image
providers are putting up more and more restrictions to the image copyright is
becoming more and more difficult to small content providers to create a
completely comprehensive article inclusive of pictures and data. It’s to be
always remembered that Content marketing is a powerful tool to create big
advertising and marketing platforms but also needs to be highly monitored in
terms of plagiarism and copyright to prevent further lawsuits and cases. Good
Luck.
Vaishnavi Agrawal loves pursuing excellence through writing and
have a passion for technology. She has successfully managed and run personal
technology magazines and websites. She currently writes for Intellipaat, a global training company that provides
e-learning and professional certification training.
The
courses offered by Intellipaat address the unique needs of working
professionals. She is based out of Bangalore and has an experience of 5 years
in the field of content writing and blogging. Her work has been published on
various sites related to Hadoop, Big Data Training, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, IT,
SAP, Project Management and more.
Before we take a look at the below infographic by the guys at Uberflip that summarises why 2014 is the year of content marketing, let's just take a minute to look at what content marketing is.
Content marketing is any marketing format that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire customers. This information can be presented in a variety of formats, including news, video, white papers, e-books, infographics, case studies, how-to guides, question and answer articles, photos, etc.
Content marketing is focused not on selling, but on simply communicating with customers and prospects. The idea is to inspire business and loyalty from buyers by delivering "consistent, ongoing valuable information".
As you can see, content marketing is about getting sales, but without the "buy this now" angle. It's indirect marketing and highly effective.
And now on to the infographic...
It's clear that a lot of the big name sites are already on board, Google, Twitter, Facebook... This content marketing trend is clearly a good thing for both freelance writers, bloggers, and authors. It helps you climb the search engine algorithms and connects you with your audience without you having to be a salesperson... who likes sales pitches right? What is surprising is how long it's taken people to realise that strategies like this are the way to go.
Do you already use content marketing as part of your marketing plan? What marketing strategies are working for you?
One of the common reasons I hear from writers for not blogging is that it's hard to come up with ideas for content. A good way to make sure you have plenty of ideas for blog content, and to make sure you stick to your goals for your blog, is to use a blog calendar.
Blogging is a great way to connect with readers, build your author brand, establish yourself as an expert in your field, and a whole bunch of other stuff too (that I won't go into in this post but will be covering soon). That said, here's two big reasons you should be using a blog calendar:
1) It saves you time. You can plan out a month's worth of content in under 30 minutes. No more searching for a last minute idea. As you know what you're going to write about you'll be able to do so faster.
2) It gives your blog better focus. Why are you blogging? What goals do you have for your blog? By planning out your posts in advance you can make sure you stay on target.
Writing a book is one of the best ways to establish yourself as an expert in your field but to really own your niche you need to figure out what makes you different from your competition. You also need to optimise your website and target your marketing efforts.
Here's a few things to consider in order to own your niche:
What do you have to offer that makes you stand out?
Have your own unique way of presenting your subject matter, know what makes you different and capitalise on it.
Know your target audience.
Concentrate on your target audience. Where do they hang out? What do they look for?
Think big.
Whilst it's good to think about how to contact single potential buyer, what you really need is to find ways of contacting communities of potential buyers. Participate in communities within your niche, websites, blogs, forums, Facebook groups, etc...
Optimise your sites.
Show up well in search results for your niche. Showing up in the top ten results for a search on Google can do wonders for highlighting that your an expert in your niche. Understand the Google algorithm and make sure your using keywords, have relevant quality backlinks, and update frequently (Google likes fresh content and by consistently adding new content you make it easier for Google to find you).
Create content for your niche.
Use content marketing to leverage your target audience. Write and distribute articles to websites that reach your target audience. Use guest posts, podcasts and video's to attract the attention of your target audience.
What tactics and strategies are you using to own your niche?
