The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as:
“… 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.
It is a long-term strategy that focuses on building a strong relationship with your target audience by giving them high-quality content that is very relevant to them on a consistent basis.
Eventually, when customers make a purchase decision, their loyalty will lie with you due to the predisposed trust they have in your brand, resulting in many more sales than expected.
When it comes to your marketing strategy, it’s a good idea to have visitors know that you’re thinking about them first and foremost.
Thanks to content marketing, you can build relationships with the community of people who visit your website. Today, more than ever before, people want to feel like they matter.
The Internet is louder and noisier than ever before, and attention spans are shorter than ever before. People want to see that you care about them – keep that in mind as we take a look at some of the different types of content marketing.
Joe Pulizzi founded the Content Marketing Institute in 2010, and I don’t think he knew exactly which path it would lead him down. He just wanted to teach clients what they needed to know when it came down to content marketing.
At first, his website didn’t have many watchful eyes on it but as soon as it started building more of a reputation for itself, his blog began to be read by thousands upon thousands of people today.
Content marketing and the act of commerce have always been intrinsically linked. Since content revolves around the art and science of storytelling, as you might now know from a brief bit of history that we shared just now, one can deduce that there’s more to understand about the foundation on which content marketing is built today.
But even though social media wasn’t around for the first marketeers who used words and traditional offline methods to sell their products or services, we still want you to know it’s important not to ignore these new tools in your activity since they add an element of direct customer engagement into your activity that simply wasn’t there before.
Content marketing is a tricky business. The digital age has made it easier for us to provide readers with the stories they want and need, and yet there are millions of pieces of news, videos, pictures and more published every day.
How can one even hope to stand out? By simplifying your message.
In today’s era, success comes as much from a streamlined marketing campaign in which you include only what is necessary to get the point across as it does from being a top talent in your chosen field of work.
There are three categories where great content marketers find success: online, offline, and hybrids. Influencers who have mastered all aspects of the art will help you to sharpen your instincts and expand your horizons so that you too can become a truly great content marketer.
Though we have all the social media platforms at our fingertips, content marketing can be a more primitive form in its most basic but direct essence.
It simply comes down to reiterating a brand voice via speaking with its target market through storytelling. Great storytelling has been around as long as humans could communicate, and without fail it will always remain an unparalleled way of captivating audiences’ attention.
When Hasbro and Marvel decided to collaborate together to launch their “G.I. Joe – A Real American Hero” comic book series in 1982, they knew they needed a plan.
They wanted to create what Kenner Toy Company’s Star Wars action figures had created years prior: a rich backstory for their action figures.
As a result, within two months of releasing the first installment of the comic book, about 20% of their target audience, boys between the ages of 5 and 12, had two or more G.I. Joe action figures.
In fact, three years later, this same age group owned at least one G.I. Joe action figure based on how well commercialized the franchise was at that point in its history as an ongoing series by Marvel Comics!
The 80s are long gone. A lot has changed since then and what used to work won’t necessarily work now.
That’s because with new marketing channels like social media popping up almost daily, opportunities have multiplied.
Strategy of Content Marketing
Tons of different content marketing strategies exist today, just like there were tons back in the day.
If you’re an entrepreneur who needs help with your marketing strategy you might want to start by asking yourself what you can include in your strategy so that you don’t end up struggling just to make it to the finish line?
You want to make sure whatever ingredients you decide on are really something that will hold their flavor and keep people coming back for more.
It’s not always easy for an entrepreneur to figure out what exactly people like about their product, so as difficult as it may be don’t give up because sometimes all it takes is one well thought-out marketing campaign to shift thinking and create a need from an already established audience base.
One of the best ways to advertise your business is through content marketing.
Effectively communicating a brand’s message can boost visibility and credibility with customers, which make them feel more comfortable engaging with the brand in one way or another.
Today, there are numerous content marketing platforms from Facebook, YouTube to LinkedIn.
With these tools being widely used across many industries today, it’s even more important to have an understanding of how to effectively utilize these mediums and methods in order to appeal to your target audience.
History of Content Marketing
If you guessed that content marketing is less than 350 years old, then you are absolutely correct.
This powerful advertising strategy has been around for much less time than some people think.
The first use of it as a way to advertise was in 1732 when Benjamin Franklin published his annual Poor Richard’s Almanac.
Why did he do it?
Did he do it for fun because he liked expressing his own personal thoughts and ideas in a written format?
No, that definitely wasn’t the case! They did it to advertise their brand new printing press company and possibly encourage more people to start using them.
According to Content Marketing Institute’s Almanac of Modern Content Marketing History , this is considered the very first occurrence of true content marketing.
As per their recorded history, media produced back in 1704 was done so with the intention of marketing its brand new printing press company by way of publishing an almanac.
This can also be considered another milestone towards what we now know as content marketing.
Some people will argue that John Deere, the tractor company, did exactly this with The Furrow in 1895.
But there’s a more likely explanation as to why they were so nice as to create a magazine for people who operated farms.
At the time, agriculture was growing and people were starting new professions based on how much their farms were worth.
In return for creating a lifestyle magazine for farmers, John Deere would get large amounts of advertising because the information that these new farmers wanted most was how to make more money from their properties.
Most likely, John Deere didn’t realize at the time what content marketing could do for their business later on down the road – but now when you look back in retrospect it’s pretty clear that they did.
Few other examples are:
- Jello-O was another company that recognized this early importance of content in their marketing journey.
- Safari Cards that ran for almost 10 years starting in 1978.
Content marketing has been around for thousands of years. It takes on many forms ranging from old fashioned newspaper advertisements to engaging in conversations with potential customers on social networking sites, but the message remains the same: present your company’s products and services in a way that appeals to your target audience.
A good formula to follow would be:
Reach out to people who have some sort of problem by listing off all their complaints (or ways they feel hindered), then providing them with a solution.
For instance, if you manufacture regular toothpaste, talk about how natural products aren’t good enough for cleaning teeth since they don’t provide the same results as chemical-laden products and show a need for something like your special lemon scented brand.
Content Mapping Based on the Customer Journey
Content Mapping guides customers and helps them make a better and fully informed decision about the product that they are looking to purchase.
The better you know your customers, the more efficient it is for moving them through their purchase decision.
Think about it this way:
55% of consumers would pay more for a better customer experience, and 86% of business to business (B2B) buyers would do the same.
This is further proven by 89% of people either taking their business elsewhere or stopping to buy from a company altogether after receiving negative experiences.
If another person you know has never heard of you and knows for certain that they want to buy from you, your business, how does it increase the odds that they’ll end up moving forward with their decision?
One way is by being approachable. After all, many of your prospects will consider your competitors before arriving at a decision about who to purchase from.
It’s important then for kind and friendly support to be on hand if people need more convincing or even if they just want more facts in order to gain greater clarity on why any one product might be the best fit for them specifically.
Your content marketing efforts can deliver this wonderful experience but only if your texts are written in such a way as to make it clear what stage of the sales journey each point is targeting.
There are three basic stages:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Decision
