Digital content marketing is when you put up a bunch of really good blog posts that people will be interested in, right? No, it is far from that. There are many types of content other than blog posts, and the more of them you use, the more your business will grow.
These days there are so many people online, in diverse areas of the internet, that if you want to get your message across to them, you need a good content marketing strategy.
So What Exactly is Digital Content Marketing?
We define it as “a strategic approach to marketing focused on producing content that has value, is relevant to the needs of your audience and is consistent. A content marketing strategy aims to persuade visitors to become customers”.
Wikipedia.com defines it as:
Content marketing is a form of marketing focused on creating, publishing, and distributing content for a targeted audience online. It is often used by businesses in order to:
- Attract attention and generate leads
- Expand their customer base
- Generate or increase online sales
- Increase brand awareness or credibility
- Engage an online community of users
The old style of advertising using banners, and even pay per click (PPC) ads, are losing their effectiveness. They still work to some degree, but not like they did before. With digital content marketing, you will be providing value first, so that you can connect with potential customers and assist them in solving problems that they have. This is opposed to people just clicking on a banner or ad without knowing what it will take them to.
Many major brands are switching to content marketing these days. Mega companies like Microsoft and Proctor & Gamble are doing it, so if it is good enough for them, it is good enough for you, right? Why are these big brands deploying a content marketing strategy? Because it works, of course!
Content marketing has a number of benefits to offer and here are the main three:
- It is a cost-effective marketing method
- Potential and actual customers will be more loyal to your brand
- It increases sales and profits
High-Quality Content is Essential
You will only achieve these benefits if your content is of high quality. You can’t just put anything out there. If your content is poor, then this will reflect poorly on your brand, and you will lose customers rather than gain them.
Your overall marketing strategy should definitely include digital content marketing. When you are planning your approach, it is essential that you consider both inbound and outbound marketing. For inbound marketing, your website needs to have some really high-quality content on it that your target market will find useful.
Google and the other major search engines have changed their algorithms and now reward high-quality content with higher rankings. You need to make sure that every piece of content on your website or blog is of the best quality and is well optimized.
For outbound marketing, use your content marketing strategy to drive your social media marketing. Don’t just jump on to social media – you need an effective content plan. You should be writing press releases that assist people and cover the issues that they are interested in. But don’t use a press release to “big up” your business.
If you want to use PPC advertising, then you have to make sure that the content “behind the click” is of the highest quality. The search engines insist on this nowadays, and it makes a lot of sense.
Types of Content Marketing
It is always advisable to have a mixture of different content formats in your strategy. Here are the most popular:
Blog Posts – you need to develop a schedule of blog posts. You can use your blog to promote your products and service and cross-reference with other content on your blog.
Videos – you do have a YouTube channel set up, don’t you? You want to create videos that will last a long time and do not require regular change. Videos really should be part of your content marketing strategy.
Case Studies – if you can show that someone used your product or service and achieved real results (with numbers) in a case study, then you have a very powerful piece of content to share.
EBooks – use eBooks as lead magnets so that people subscribe to your email list. Don’t give too much away but do provide value here.
Infographics – people like to look at infographics, so create ones that are relevant to your industry. It is a great way to visually tell the story that you want people to know.
Templates and Workbooks – the aim here is to produce useful resources. Create easily printable workbooks. Make templates clear and easy to follow and provide instructions.
Cheat Sheets – here you will provide a short document (usually in PDF format) that summarizes the cheats to achieve something fast. Don’t forget to add links to other publications that explain things in more detail for additional learning.
There are many other forms of digital content, but these are by far the most popular.