Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
Content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behavior. It is an ongoing process that is best integrated into your overall marketing strategy, and it focuses on owning media, not renting it.
The heart of a content marketing strategy is delivering valuable content consistently — without always selling. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent. The essence of this strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.
Content marketing requires a strategic approach and it needs to be an integral part of your overall marketing strategy.
Your content must be relevant to your audience and it must be delivered consistently in order to be effective. It should also be compelling and engaging in order to encourage your audience to take action.
The first step in developing a content marketing strategy is understanding what your goals are and what you hope to achieve with your content. Once you have a clear understanding of your goals, you can develop a plan for how you will create and distribute your content.
Your plan should include who will create your content, how often you will publish new content, what format your content will take (e.g., blog posts, e-books, infographics), and where you will distribute your content (e.g., social media channels, email lists).
Creating great content is only half the battle — you also need to make sure that your target audience sees it! In order for your content to be successful, you need to have a distribution plan in place so that you can get it into the hands of those who need it most.
There are many different ways to distribute your content (e.g., social media channels, email lists), but it’s important that you select the channels that will work best for reaching your target audience.
Once you have a distribution plan in place, start promoting your content! Share it with your social networks, post it in forums related to your industry, send out email newsletters featuring new pieces ofcontent — get the word out about your great content!
Content marketing is not a one-time event — it’s an ongoing process that should be incorporated into your overall marketing strategy. By regularly creating and distributing high-qualitycontent, you’ll be able to attract and retain more customers than if you only used traditional marketing techniques (e.g., print ads)..
