Content Marketing 2023: What You Need to Know–Definitions, Examples, Strategy, and Getting Started…
Content Marketing: A Simple and Practical Definition
Content Marketing Uses Informational Content That Builds Connections Between Your Business and Your Customers/Prospective Customers...
The “content” part of content marketing consists of topical content that is crafted to entertain, inform, educate, or instruct viewers or readers. Often the content is created for your business, brand, and marketing objective. Some content marketing activity may also include the use of curated content (reposting another creator’s content or referencing it).
Content creation (formats, structures, voice…) is guided by your brand and by an overarching marketing strategy. The content you create can be optimized in various ways to achieve any number of marketing goals or objectives.
A Key Component of Content Marketing Is How The Content You Create Gets Noticed, Or Whether It Gets Noticed Or Not, And Whether It Gets Read Or Not, And Shared, Or Not…
Therefore, distributing your content and getting people to engage with it—making it visible, accessible and worth reading—are key components of content marketing success.
You want the content you create to reach your target audience. Your strategy will typically need to include efforts to make your content searchable and accessible through a) internet search queries, b) with the help of paid or unpaid postings or placements on relevant media channels or platforms, c) through sharing links or pages on your own company website, d) through links placed in related digital content, or e) through targeted email campaigns…
Don’t Confuse Content Marketing with Social Marketing…
Short conversational postings on Twitter or Instagram, or similar channels, might be considered part of a content marketing strategy, but this kind of marketing is often referred to primarily as social marketing. Social marketing is often much more “dynamic” than content marketing efforts, and involves active exchanges within conversational threads among a range of participants.
It Is Always Helpful To Remember That Content Is Created In Order To Promote One Or More Specific Marketing Goals Or Objectives…
Once you have set a specific marketing goal or objective and you have defined your target audience, you’ll have the essential insights that will inform your content marketing strategy and guide you in crafting content that offers real value to your prospects and clients, while also helping you achieve a specific marketing objective.
Common Marketing Goals Or Objectives That Inform Content Creation
The following kinds of goals or objectives might guide decision making for your content marketing efforts:
promoting a unique brand story, defining your company’s social values
promoting your company’s thought leadership credentials, insights, and know-how
building empathetic and value-driven relationships with prospective clients or customers (showing them you speak their language, understand their relevant needs and challenges…)
sustaining engagements with existing clients or customers and helping them get the most benefits from your products, programs, or services
generating more leads…
aligning and disseminating content for incrementally engaging prospects and deepening their awareness and understanding of sector practices, of trends or innovations that highlight your company’s products, services, or solutions (e.g., content aligned with the customer’s journey)
highlighting your company accomplishments and proven success stories
This list of MARKETING GOALS above underscores the importance of having a coherent and practical CONTENT STRATEGY.
The Difference Between CONTENT MARKETING and ADVERTISING
If content marketing and advertising have something in common, it’s that both are designed to increase the visibility of your business, brand, and/or specific offerings.
A key difference between content marketing and advertising:
An advertisement is disseminated by a third-party platform or media company and usually aligns with your brand but almost always serves to promote the sale of a specific product or offering. Content marketing is content of a wide range of forms adapted to the many kinds of goals and objectives listed above.
As digital media channels supplant traditional advertising channels such as TV, magazines, and newspapers, the lines between advertising and content marketing are overlapping more and more.
However, because content marketing has developed quickly in the context of digital media and is facilitated by a range of desktop publishing tools, it tends to vary greatly in length and format, is adapted to all kinds of objectives beyond just “selling” something, and is typically disseminated on the worldwide web, where it can become visible to virtually anyone.
It Can Be Exciting To Think That Content Marketing Is More Like Publishing Than Advertising…
Because content marketing involves the creation of lots of content that is original, creative, well-researched, and informative, and because the content should grab and hold readers’ attention, many content marketing experts consider content marketing to be more like publishing as opposed to advertising.
Finally, It Can Be Helpful to Distinguish Between Value-Driven Content and Promotional Content When Comparing Content Marketing to Traditional Advertising.
Content marketing strategies typically rely primarily on value-driven content.
Promotional content, on the other hand, is more like traditional advertising.
VALUE-DRIVEN CONTENT
Responsive first and foremost to the informational needs and interests of your targeted readers
Designed to be “useful” and “valuable” to your prospects or customers (as opposed to sales driven)
Offers the customer or prospect an opportunity to “learn more” or engage further in some way with your business or offerings
May be used to share the “values” or “mission” that drive your business, or to tell a story that makes your brand more memorable to prospects
Common examples include a topical blog post, a blog post or article with evergreen content, a white paper, case study, podcast…
PROMOTIONAL CONTENT
Designed to publicize a specific business event, product, service, program, or special discount…
Used to persuade a prospect to attend an event, subscribe to a program, or purchase something at a publicized price
Promotional content is typically seeking to generate immediate sales, close a sale
Common examples include a sales-oriented email campaign, a placed advertisement, a direct selling sales letter…
Since most content marketing collateral focuses on sharing value-driven content or relation-building content as opposed to promotional content, it is easy to see how the content can take many shapes and use a range of text and media formats, including research articles, white papers, e-books, blog posts, press releases, and case studies, for example.
What Is SEO and Is It Important for Content Marketing?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. And, yes, it is often an important component of content marketing…
To optimize content so that it shows up when prospects engage in online search queries, content creators integrate search-related keywords and phrases into the text of the content document.
The goal of this kind of optimization is to increase visibility by increasing the odds that the content will rank high on the results pages or SERPS (search engine results pages) that a search engine such as Google or Bing generates in response to a specific online query.
This kind of keyword strategy is sometimes referred to as on-page SEO. Additional SEO strategies involve back-end SEO inputs—inputs that are not visible to a reader but are integrated into the document’s digital coding.
Some common SEO best practices include:
Keyword research to create of a repository of relevant keywords and phrases
Integrating the keyword research into a more comprehensive SEO plan aligned with your content marketing strategy
Implementing the SEO plan by integrating specific keywords and phrases into the content you create (on-page SEO)
Common Types of Content...
Content Used In Content Marketing Strategies Is Often Topical and Informational: Blog Posts, White Papers, E-Books, Video Scripts, Infomercials, And Case Studies.
Does It Matter What Kind of Content You Use When Creating Content for Your Content Marketing Initiatives?
YES. In most cases, it does matter what kind of content formats you choose….
Use the following questions to guide decision making when selecting the best format and best topics for your content marketing strategy:
What is the specific marketing objective for the content I plan to create?
Who is the targeted prospect (as informed by a prospect profile or buyer persona, for example)
What kind of informational or topical content will be the most valuable, insightful, and compelling for the prospect?
How do I plan to share or publish the content?
What budgetary and workforce resources do I have to commit to the content creation?
Your answers to these questions make it easier to know when to use a white paper or case study or blog post, for example, AND will inform essential editorial decisions when crafting your content.
Here are TWO PRO TIPS to keep in mind when selecting a format or crafting content for content marketing:
1. Have a clear marketing objective within a larger content marketing framework and strategy
2. Develop and use a pre-planned editorial calendar to make content management, creation, and sharing as strategic, effective, and efficient as possible.
Examples Of Two Common Content Marketing Formats or Deliverables
White Paper
Definition:
A white paper provides a well-developed expose of a contemporary challenge or trend in a specific business sector, and may provide insights related to specific products, innovations, or solutions related to a specific business activity or need. White papers are usually longer documents, typically six to eighteen pages in length, and include illustrations or diagrams that help convey key facts and ideas.
Marketing Objective(s):
Companies often use a white paper to generate leads, to build greater awareness about specific products or product features, or to establish thought leadership in their sector. Gordon Graham, an expert white paper writer, notes that white papers require strong supporting documentation and can be structured in a variety of ways to better align with different marketing objectives.
Blog Post
Definition:
A blog is typically a short, sometimes longer, conversational and informative article that is posted on a website blog, and will often contain a link to additional business content or information or a specific call to action to promote engagement with the business without being explicitly promotional in nature. A blog post will often range from 500 to 2,000 words.
Marketing Objective(s):
Blog posts typically serve to help a business boost the visibility of its brand and/or build, maintain, and develop engagement with prospects or existing customers.
Blog posts and are often optimized using on-page SEO in order to maximize search result rankings in the hope that more users seeking information online engage with the messaging and, simultaneously, develop awareness of the brand and offerings of the company hosting the blog.
Content Marketing—A Simple 4-Step Roadmap for Getting Started!
STEP 1: Think about some of the ways content marketing might work for your business (such as):
Increase our visibility on the worldwide web, especially with our best business prospects
Offer valuable content that can be used to generate more leads
Create awareness, or deepen awareness, of problems, needs, challenges, and solutions that are relevant to your best prospects and your business sector and offerings
Enhance the credibility and authority of your brand to enhance your position among competitors
Better demonstrate, document, and highlight the effectiveness of your business offerings or solutions
STEP 2: Identify the content formats, topics, and designs (type of content, type of information, brand voicing for your target audience, etc.) that align with specific objectives (such as those listed in STEP 1.)
STEP 3: For content you’re using to make your company more visible in response to search queries online, conduct SEO keyword research, create a keyword repository, and use this planning to guide your content marketing efforts.
STEP 4: Create a content production action plan and editorial calendar to track and assign tasks and help guide and monitor progress.
Your action plan should align marketing objectives, content formats, task responsibilities, distribution channels, workflow, and, if applicable, SEO keyword integrations, all in one place (spreadsheet or table formats for example…).
Want to Learn More About Content Marketing?...
EdPro Communications recommends the following additional resources for businesses interested in learning more about Content Marketing:
Bly, Robert W. The Content Marketing Handbook: How to Double the Results of Your Marketing Campaigns.
Pulizzi, Joe. Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break Through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less.
About EdPro Communications and Professional Content Marketing Services...
EdPro Communications offers flexible content marketing support, specializing in white papers, blog posts, and case studies.
EdPro Communications offers specialized insights and experience for B2B companies who market to K12 schools and school districts.
www.edprocommuncations.com
Tel: 510.684.2935
