Growing your Audience through Content Marketing

Gone are the days when traditional marketing used by businesses reigned supreme as they have shown to be less effective and obsolete to consumers. Savvy marketers are recently turning to other innovative marketing alternatives such as Content Marketing to position their companies as experts in their industry while creating a platform where they can build their audience and turn them to potential customers.

You've probably heard of content marketing somewhere but what is it really about? Copyblogger defines it as “creating and sharing valuable free content to attract and convert prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers.” The end goal in every successful content marketing strategy is to keep their readers more informed and interested in finding more about the company and what it has to say.

Compared to traditional marketing where you interrupt a customer's attention to advertise your products or services, content marketing engages with your customers without selling. Content marketers provide valuable contents to their customers in exchange for their permission to market your business. Content marketing uses different methods and platforms, which include:

• Blogs
• Podcasts
• e-Books
• Webinars
• Videos
• Infographics
• Industry articles
• White Papers

Some of the best companies that used content marketing successfully are: Hubspot (a leading inbound marketing company whose inbound leads mainly comes from their content marketing strategies) and Coca-Cola (everyone knows the brand but do you know that they are also creative storytellers and content creators? Check out their Content 2020 marketing statement that sets the bar for other marketers).

Not Designed for Sales

Just like social media, content marketing is not exactly designed to sell products and services but it can have considerable impact on raising brand awareness and effectively establish a company as a thought leader in their industry. It may not directly translate into sales, however, there will be a significant reduction in the sales cycle, which makes it an impressive marketing platform especially for small companies and start-ups in a competitive niche. Content marketing is a practical way to increase the organization's brand recognition minus the hefty costs associated with traditional marketing.

How to Make your Content Marketing Strategies More Effective

1. Set objectives

Every smart content marketer starts with an objective in mind—be it to raise brand awareness, boost sales or increase customer retention. Whatever your objectives are, make sure to create strategies that can best achieve those objectives and develop metrics that measures your content marketing efforts.

2. Create contents that your audience will find valuable and interesting.

Create a valuable experience for your audience by advertising less about your business and more about what they need or want. If you write your contents in way that will make them interested to know more, consumers won't mind if you market your brand as a solution to their needs. Your contents can be in a form of how-to guides, informational blogs, an e-book guide, or educational videos or podcasts.

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3. Check out other websites for content ideas.

If you find it hard to keep track of topics that people want to read, you might want to check out other websites' blogs and see which posts get the most engagement. Research on trending blog posts within your industry, then write and publish content on similar topics.

4. Set up a schedule for your contents

If you have different writers or content strategy employees that create contents for you, make sure that you have a consistent editorial schedule to organize your content marketing efforts and ensure that everyone in the team is consistent with your content goals.

In a highly competitive market, it has become apparent that content marketing will put you high above the crowd. Content marketing is not only a cost-effective alternative to traditional marketing but it can also help establish your company as an industry expert and build genuine relationship with consumers.