Content Marketing Tips
The importance of content has been long foretold, and there isn’t any point discussing the same point again. The interesting aspect of content now lies in its ability to influence and persuade a normal person.
Quality content has a profound effect on consumers. Understanding this simple fact, marketers have begun looking at content marketing as an essential cog in their plans. Content is no longer a vehicle for information transportation, but also a device which can make consumers perform certain actions. For a marketer, these actions are typically related to buying a product or service.
The rise in the use of content marketing has also led a whole host of digital marketers to learn the ropes. In this article, we go through some typical content marketing tips new digital marketers should know.
Fluff and Value- Imbibing Good Content Marketing Practices
Fluff refers to content with desirable keyword density but shallow content value. While fluff did work a long time ago, search algorithms are much smarter now and are less likely to be gamed by shallow content.
Content marketing is a value-driven exercise. If prospects do not see value in the content, the entire exercise has no meaning. Providing value through content simply involves giving users all the necessary information pertaining to a topic in the best way possible.
The job of creating useful and informative content usually falls to content creators. Content can be created in a variety of mediums. While content writers are the most commonly found content creators in most digital marketing teams, video-based professionals are also slowly joining this line of work.
Create a Relationship beyond Conversions and Sales
Traditional and even the initial ideas of digital marketing revolved around converting prospects to customers and then leaving them out in the cold. To most marketers, once a prospect became a customer, he/she had become a used commodity no longer an asset for the company.
Subsequent changes in the industry have changed that notion to a great degree. Companies go out of their way to hold onto existing customers to provide them further value-added services. For example, a company selling health products online should ideally remain in touch with its customers by sending weekly or monthly newsletters on health-related topics. Keeping the conversation with the customers makes sure a bond is formed and the customer returns to the same company next time.
Content marketing is ideally placed to make this strategy work. Useful content provided as a value-added gift to a customer goes a long way.
Invest in Video Marketing
When talking of content, the conversation tends to veer towards written content by default. Video, on the other hand, remains the most influential form of content but is somehow mentioned briefly in most content marketing discussions.
The fact that people prefer video content is beyond dispute. There are also enough studies to suggest video content is absorbed much more by the average customer. Video is the future of content marketing, and investing in the same will have great long term benefits for a given company.
Offering video tutorials about a product or service, or sharing praiseworthy testimonials from other customers are only some initial ideas for using video in content marketing.
Social Media and Social Branding
Just saying social media is not enough. For content marketing to work on social media, digital marketers need to work on a long-term strategy. This involves establishing goals for a social media marketing campaign, working on a content strategy, finding a unique brand voice, and working on social branding to boost engagement. Finally, there is also using analytics to ascertain the success of a given campaign.
Content marketing is only a part of social media, albeit an essential part. Social media requires content creators to chisel their creativity to fit the short attention span of the typical user. Long winding posts don’t tend to perform, as users look to establish an instant connection with a post.
In many ways, content marketing for social media is much harder. Content creators need to dig deep and find the right words to sway the winds of social media to blow their way.
About the Author
Gaurav Digital is an SEO strategist with seven years of consulting experience. He has worked with major brands such as DelhiCourses.in, an institute known best for its advanced digital marketing training.
