Have you ever wondered how Buffer and HubSpot made a name in the online world? How does Zomato acquire 1.3 million followers? And how the iconic Rolex is rocking Instagram? The single answer is “content marketing.” How is it? Let me tell you a story!
In the 1900s, brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin founded a tire manufacturing company in France. During that time, there were around 3000 cars in the country. So, to increase sales, they think of increasing the number of cars in the country. The brothers then created the Michelin Guide. It is a list of the best hotels and restaurants in France. It also included car mechanics, petrol stations, road maps, tire repair, and tire replacement instructions. Today, it is one of the best examples of effective content marketing material. The Michelin Guide made Michelin one of the largest tire manufacturers in the world. Among restaurants, being awarded a 3 Michelin Stars means having exceptional cuisine that is worth trying on a special journey.
According to a digital marketing speaker Hong Kong, content marketing is a strategic marketing approach. It creates and distributes valuable content to attract and keep a defined audience. The content relates to what one sells. In this way, one educates people to know, like, and trust a business. Ultimately, it aims to drive profit. Below is a basic guide about content marketing.
What Does Content Marketing Mean for Your Business?
Bill Gates wrote an essay in 1996 entitled “Content is king.” He published it on the Microsoft website. He said that “Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting.” It’s indeed happening now. Content marketing is a necessity for the modern brand.
Everybody’s aware that content marketing works. But here’s some statistics to prove it:
- Around 78% of consumers prefer knowing a company through articles rather than ads.
- Around 80% of businesses engage in content marketing.
- Content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing and generates 3x as many leads.
- Content marketing increases conversion rates by 600%.
- Seven out of ten consumers prefer articles over ads.
- Small businesses with blogs get 126% more lead growth than small businesses without blogs.
- Coca-Cola spends more money on content creation than on television ads.
- Half of the Top 200 Fortune Companies have business blogs.
- Leading brands, including Microsoft, Cisco, P & G, and John Deere, used content marketing.
Content Marketing Formats
According to a social media agency Hong Kong, marketers know that no single type of content appears to everyone. Especially among social media networks, a mix of content posting can make a very powerful marketing strategy. Here’s a list of content formats that Hubspot put together:
| Autoresponders | How-To’s | Predictions |
| Blogs | Infographics | Press Releases |
| Book Summaries | Interviews | Q & A Session |
| Cartoon/Illustrations | Lists | Quizzes |
| Case Studies | Meme | Quotes |
| Charts/Graphs | Mind Maps | Resources |
| Company News | Newsletters | Slide Shares |
| Content Curation | Online Games | Surveys |
| Day in a Life Of Post | Opinion Post | Templates |
| Dictionary | Original Research | Timelines |
| eBooks | Photo Collage | Tool Reviews |
| Photos | Users Generated Content | |
| FAQs | Pinboards | Videos |
| Giveaways | Podcasts | Webinar |
| Guides | Polls | Whitepapers |
| Helpful Applications/Tools |
The Four Elements of Content Marketing Strategy
There’s a lot of content marketing strategies that exist today. It’s up to marketers to take the creative chance. Here are four elements of content marketing strategy recommended by Semrush:
Brand Positioning is crafting an impression on your target customers. It associates a specific quality to your brand. The main goal is to make it unique and consistent. The type of brand positioning depends on the market situation.
- Competitor Smackdown means finding the market leader of a specific niche and defeating it.
- Focus on a Sub-Segment is aiming for a specific niche and positioning the brand accordingly.
- To Reshape an Already Appealing Market means reframing an existing market with new benefits and features.
- While Creating Something from Scratch is positioning on a new need in the market. It’s the I-came-first brand positioning.
Value Proposition is a promise of the value you will deliver. It’s a short sentence about your organization’s unique offering. There are three steps in creating a successful value proposition:
- Identify your customer’s needs
- Link their needs to your value offering
- Differentiate your position, making you a better option
Aim for something easy to understand and which you can read in five seconds.
A business case is a document containing the necessary information to make a decision. It answers the how, what, why, and who of a new project. It’s also a justification for resources and expenditures. It’s best to include four sections in every business case:
- Executive Summary communicates vital information about the project.
- Financial Appraisal identifies the financial implications of the project.
- Project Definition describes the project goals, benefits, and limitations.
- Project Organization outlines the roles of the team and how they made decisions.
Strategic Plan summarizes how a company plans to operate and grow over the next three to five years. It presents the decisions made by the management in three areas:
- Strategic Goals – the targets of the business, both financial and non-financial
- Strategic Scope – the business offerings and their target market
- Key Success Factors – what’s needed to achieve the goals
The foremost step to creating a strategic plan is by doing an internal SWOT Analysis and creating SMART Goals to increase performance.
Today, videos have been a favorite format for consumption among online users. A video marketing agency Hong Kong recommends using video ads to promote your products and services. They are a great form of content to explain how things work and solve the customer’s pain points. In conclusion, the methods to deliver content are changing. But the core principles remain the same.
Reference: https://www.spiralytics.com/blog/beginners-guide-content-marketing/