Content Marketing is the process of creating and distributing content that attracts, engages, and inspires customers to take action on your business’s products or services. It’s a long-term approach that builds trust with potential and existing customers by consistently sharing helpful information that solves a problem or answers a question.
Content marketing includes elements like audience research, journey mapping, channel selection, topic selection, and project management. But the most important part is knowing what you want to achieve with your content. This will guide everything else, including what type of content to create and when to publish it.
When companies know what they want their content to do, they can focus on creating it and promoting it effectively. A clear goal will also help them understand how to measure their success.
The top of the sales funnel needs to be wide enough to cast the largest net possible to get eyes on your brand. This is often accomplished through awareness campaigns, which share how-to advice on the most pressing problems that your audience faces. A good example is GoPro, whose YouTube videos are viewed by millions and have helped the company become synonymous with handheld adventure cameras.
As you move down the sales funnel, your content needs to be more targeted. It’s important to create content that addresses specific problems, questions, or challenges that your audience is facing at each stage of the buyer’s journey. For example, in the consideration phase of the journey, hair care company Curlsmith creates a blog post about how to find the right balance between high-protein and high-moisture shampoos. They don’t mention their products until the end, but the article helps readers solve a common problem and makes them more likely to choose their product when they’re ready to buy.
Once your content is created, it’s important to distribute and repurpose it as much as possible. This can be done by sharing it on social media, putting it in relevant online directories, and sending it to influencers within your industry. It can also be done by reformatting the content into different formats, like turning text into video or audio, and by republishing it on other channels, such as podcasts and blogs.
A successful content strategy is built on a consistent basis over time, and requires the commitment of both teams to be effective. If you’re not willing to put in the work, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to compete with businesses who do. But if you have the right support, content marketing can be an incredibly powerful way to grow your business.