What on earth am I doing?
That is the question I often find myself asking whenever I dive into a new topic, and with content marketing it was no different.
Since starting in the content marketing industry, I’ve found myself in a fascinating world that changed my view of the marketing industry. I hope to explain a little bit of that to you in this post.
So, What is Content Marketing?
According to the Content Market 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.”
Let’s dive into that a little more.
History shows that content marketing has been practiced for a long time, but businesses have begun to use it more and more widely in recent years.
In fact, as of 2013, 9 out of 10 B2B respondents use content marketing, so it’s kind of a big deal.
Let’s talk about what the major difference is between product marketing and content marketing.
Product Marketing Sells an Item; Content Marketing Sells Information or a Story
Rather than try to tell you why you should buy a product, content marketing focuses on educating you about the product itself. Most of the time in very indirect but massively effective ways.
The end goal is still the same. Content marketers want you to buy their product or service as much as any other type or marketer, but they go about it in a creative and education way.
Here are some examples of good content marketing practices.
1. Posting a “how-to”
One of the best ways to market a product is to show the consumer right off the bat how to use it. This worked tremendously well for the owner of Jell-O in the early 1900s. The owner gave out a free cookbook full of recipes using Jell-O products as the main ingredient.
As a result, within 2 years a little-known and little-used product saw sales rising to over $1 million a year! All because of a simple, free, how-to cookbook.
That is why magazine articles or pamphlets with titles like “12 ways to use (insert brand name item here)” are so common.
If you inform your audience about how a certain product can be used, they will be more inclined to use the product.
2. Using Visuals
Callaway golf does an excellent example. They post interesting videos about trick shots and tips for golfers on YouTube. No payment or subscription necessary.
Without being pushy or throwing some greasy sales pitch into the mix, they show off their product and do their potential costumers a favor in short videos.
This makes the company reputable and makes their audience more inclined to buy from them in the future.
3. Behind the Scenes
Building credibility is an essential tool in marketing. People buy what they trust and one of the ways to garner that trust is through behind the scenes access.
One of the biggest proponents of this method is Disney World, which often gives insider looks at how one of the most successful theme parks in the world creates the land of magic and wonder that attract millions.
By letting people in on the process, Disney World creates trust between itself and the consumer, piquing their interest and making them more likely to return time and again.
Here I have only briefly listed three examples of good content marketing tools, but there are many more examples of these three strategies as well as others that will help you on your way to becoming a well-informed and effective content marketer.
So in the end, content marketing is not a new form of marketing but it is being used more and more often.
Content marketing focuses on telling a story or giving information about the product and its function rather than merely trying to make the product look attractive and can be used to educate customers in artistic and informative ways.
I hope this gave some insight into what Crowd Content is all about as well as some tips on how to be a good content marketer.
Comments and questions are welcome. I will do my best to answer!
