When you hear the word “content marketing,” what really crosses your mind? 

Instagram? Facebook? LinkedIn??

You’re right in a certain sense but, content marketing has been around for a much longer time than any of these social media apps! 

Take a look at this.

You may call it by any other name, but it’s a great example of old school content marketing. 

When J. Howard Miller crafted this World War II poster in the U.S, his target audience were those who were part of the labor force as well as the management responsible for producing war equipment.

This led to the creation of 257,390 war artillery and other army ready equipments.

Needless to say, this and many of his other posters created a wide impact on people. 

So realistically speaking, content marketing evolves with time.

What is Content Marketing?

According to the Content Marketing Institute, “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.” 

Simply putting it, content marketing means creating content that’s worth your target audience’s time. You need to keep in mind it’s three core characteristics – valuable, relevance and consistency. 

Content is all about crafting visually pleasing content that’s relevant to your target audience. This can keep your audience coming back for more because they relate to what you’re saying. 

Consistency is another key aspect. If your content is not consistent, that is, if it does not relate to your brand voice and what you’ve been presenting to your target audience all along, your content won’t make sense. 

Major brands like Buffer, TED and P&G use content marketing to their benefit. Many other small startups and freelancers use it because it has the power to create this impact. 

Content Marketing – Most common types 

There’s a wide variety of content marketing out there but most marketers only use the key ones to reach their marketing and sales goals. So let’s cover those key ones in this article. 

Content Marketing with Blogs

As per the State of Content Marketing report, blogs contribute to 86% of content marketing. 

Yes, that’s huge! 

Blogs reflect the unique knowledge that only you as a particular business owner have within your reach. 

By dealing with and discussing about the topics within your niche, potential customers are driven towards your content and then they also eventually convert to a customer.

Content Marketing with Social Media 

This type of marketing is on almost every business’s bucket list and it’s quite understandable why. 

Currently, 53% of the global population uses social media. 

Social media marketing has paved a way for brands to get closer to their target audience, and even to get to know them better. 

Since the audience is constantly evolving, businesses find a way to stay relevant through this channel. 

When you use social media to make a positive impact about your business which is at the same time is also of value to your potential customers, you’re bound to see some good results. 

Are you considering introducing your company to this type of content marketing? Here’s a guide to help you through! 

Content Marketing with Video 

This is one of the most viable forms of content marketing. Usually, audio-visual mediums are known to attract a large crowd and it’s true till date. 

Although the demand for more evolved video content keeps growing, there’s a lot that you can still do with video.

As discussed earlier, your potential customers are seeking information that’s beyond their reach. With video, your business can be introduced in the form of how-to videos, DIYs, etc. 

And the best thing about video content? You can repurpose it anywhere you want! You can use it on your blog pages, websites, social media handles, etc.

You can use this as a guide if you want to create a video content marketing strategy. 

And always remember to use the right keywords, as well as to tap on all the relevant channels and ways to help your potential clients and customers discover your content. 

Content Marketing with Audio

It’s also called Podcast marketing. Though it’s not exploding now, there’s much for businesses to invest in here. 

Have you heard advertisements on Spotify? Don’t most of them sound convincing? 

Well that’s the beauty of podcast marketing. Of course, this one may not be viable for all the brands which can then be marketed via the above types but if you’ve got a creative mind, then nothing should stop you. 

Just make sure to stay professionally prepared since if done well, it can produce some great results.

Content Marketing helps your business bloom

Well, if content marketing is so very beneficial for so many big brands, then the real question here is, can it help you? 

Let the statistics explain… 

More website traffic

A 2018 study by Sparktoro very clearly demonstrates that related to search, Google helps more websites to get discovered than all other mediums combined. 

The truth being, with content marketing, the SEO for your business will organically improve making you more discoverable. 

This is because people are searching for specific answers and if you’ve got those answers, then Google is just leading the audience your way. 

Content Marketing increases brand awareness

When you create good quality content that adds to your potential customer’s experience, you’ve then successfully added value to your overall marketing strategy. 

Good content with a high SEO rank presents itself to millions of people worldwide who hit that search button daily for answers. 

Let’s take a simple content marketing example of “how to take a screenshot in laptop.” Imagine, you’ve written an article that helps users step by step on how they can exactly take a screenshot on their laptop. 

Using this long tail keyword could propel you to the top of the SEO ranking on Google, showing your article to almost 8100 people.

With content related to the most common searches that are happening and which also falls within your brand niche, your business can be on everyone’s list.

Trust is built with good content marketing

If your content is discoverable, relevant and unique to your target audience, they will definitely come back for some more. 

75% of the content marketers use content to build trust among their target audience.

When you produce content that’s relevant, it improves the user’s experience on your write-up, website and videos.

It shows that you know in depth and care about the subject that they’re looking for and that will keep them loyal because your brand is the subject matter expert that they need. 

Content Marketing influences digital marketing

This goes without saying. Digital marketing is nothing without valuable content. 

Successful digital marketers spend 40% of their budget on content. It involves the use of content – be it blogs, social media, videos or podcasts. 

Even optimizing your content is part of content marketing. So if there’s been a conversion on your website, it’s not just your digital marketing strategy that’s working it’s magic, it’s also your content that’s influencing it. 

Is Content Marketing worth your time? 

Yes, it totally is. Today’s world is all about quality content, from websites to social media. It’s all about working on good, innovative, relevant and unique content that can attract a few seconds of your audience’s time. 

So if you want to have that attention of your audience which can also add value to them, why not make the best of it? 

Moreover, if your business dwells on creativity, content marketing is a great way to water it. You can play around and create some valuable content that your target audience may be happy to just lap up. 

What are the types of content marketing that you adopt for your business?  What innovations do you do in this age of modern-day content marketing? Any content marketing example that has influenced you?