Content Marketing Fundamentals: What You Need To Know – Definitions, Examples, Strategy, and Getting Started…
Content Marketing: Why It Matters
Every organization creates content — but not every organization uses it strategically.
Instead of simply adversiting, organizations can use content marketing to connect with prospects across digital spaces (like the internet and social media) — in order to forge points of contact with prospects (and with their networks) — increasing brand visibility and awareness — but also in order to build credibility and nurture deeper engagement with this growing audience by connecting with them in ways advertising doesn’t.
Although it’s absolutely true that spending on advertising still far exceeds overall business investments in content marketing, content marketing investments continue to grow, and over the long term a consistent content marketing approach can drive deeper gains in credibility, trust, and thought leadership, and efficient returns on investment.
For many businesses, success requires a holistic approach to content marketing — an understanding of how content marketing strategies and different types of content drive different kinds of returns, across the entire sales funnel.
“In B2B marketing, 84% of businesses report successfully raising brand awareness through content marketing, making it the most achieved goal. Generating demand and leads follows closely, with 76% of businesses seeing success in this area. The nurturing of subscribers, audiences and leads is a key outcome for 63% of businesses, emphasizing the importance of engaging and retaining interested parties. Generating sales and revenue, a goal for 58% of businesses, has seen a notable increase from the previous year.”
Because of the digital spaces that now connect people, SEO and AIO (search engine optimization and AI search optimization) can be highly effective in expanding reach and visibility (connecting with top of funnel prospects).
“Over half of content interactions today result from organic search, as reported by BrightEdge. This figure is a clear indicator of the significant role search engines play in how users find and engage with content on the web.”
"Top Content Marketing Statistics," Forbes Advisor, 28 March 2024—
“Top ROI Performers: SEO leads with a 748% ROI, followed by email marketing at 261%, and webinars at 213%.”
Meanwhile, white papers — when tailored properly — can be used for a range of purposes, from top-of-funnel lead generation to bottom-of-funnel conversions. Here is what Seth Viebrock at Challenger CEO says about them:
White papers are ideal for in-depth analysis and providing technical details that can't be easily conveyed in shorter formats.
Gated white papers can be effective for capturing leads and gathering contact information.
Well-researched white papers can position a company as an authority in its industry.
Ready To Learn More About Content Marketing?..
Now that you know that content marketing is a fundamental marketing approach, alongside advertising, keep reading to learn more about content marketing essentials, such as:
what content marketing really means
how it helps you connect with your audience
how to start building a content marketing approach that’s consistent, intentional, and effective
Content Marketing: A Simple and Practical Definition
Content marketing uses engaging and insightful content that builds connections between your business and your audience.
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, that includes how to reach your target audience(s) and their engagement journey (customer journey).
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 being strategic: so the content reaches your target audience, it gets noticed, read, and shared…
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.
Your content marketing strategy will typically need to include efforts to make your content searchable and accessible through
a) internet search queries
b) paid or unpaid postings or placements on relevant media channels or platforms
c) sharing links or pages on your own company website
d) links placed in related digital content
e) 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. However, it can also be used very effectively for content marketing: such as to drive more prospects to your content (raising reach and visibility).
Remember That Content Is Created as Part of a Larger Strategy
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.
This strategy guides 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:
Advertising 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, this kind of content
tends to vary greatly in length and format
is adapted to all kinds of objectives beyond just “selling” something
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.
Distinguishing Between Value-Driven Content and Promotional Content
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)
The Advent of AIO, or AI-Optimized Content
[update pending]
Common Types of Content...
Content used In content marketing is most often topical and informational:
Blog Posts
White Papers
e-Books
Video Scripts
Infomercials
Case Studies
Does It Matter What Kind of Content You Use?
YES. In most cases, it does matter what kind of content formats you choose, depending on your goals.
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.
Remember: Your content marketing action plan should align all of the following:
marketing objectives
content formats
task responsibilities
distribution channels
workflow
and, if applicable, SEO keyword integrations
Want to Learn More About Content Marketing?...
Advertising alone is no longer a strong enough marketing tool. Content marketing also has an valuable, highly efffective role to play. According to the New York Times (2024), “90% of all organizations use content in their marketing efforts. In addition, content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing channels, and of these leads, they are 6 times as likely to convert.”
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...
Did you know that about half of all content marketing efforts are outsourced? It’s true, so this approach is one that you can trust in, if it’s right for your organization’s current size, budgets, challenges, and goals.
“48% of content marketing is outsourced to agencies or third-party companies (37% for copywriting)”
— Forbes (2024)
Two key benefits of outsourcing are:
Agility and Flexibility — getting the level of support you need, when you need it
Expertise and Quality — ensuring you deliver content that’s truly well-researched, compelling, and high quality
“For 59% of B2C marketers, high-quality content tops the list as the most effective strategy in search engine optimization. This reflects the importance they place on creating content that not only engages but also meets the information needs of their target audience, thereby enhancing their online visibility and search rankings.”
If you’re an education innovator and ready to improve your content marketing strategy and your content quality, let’s talk…
EdPro Communications offers flexible content marketing support, specializing in white papers, blog posts, and case studies at competitive rates.
EdPro Communications offers specialized insights and experience for B2B companies who market to K12 schools and school districts.