Let’s be real, nobody in this world is interested in advertisements. It’s annoying to be interrupted by commercials on TV and radio. We have ways to avoid these loud commercials altogether. DVRs, satellite radios, etc. So, we know how to avoid traditional advertisements, and this is where content marketing comes into the picture.
What exactly is content marketing?
Content marketing is a clever marketing strategy to include a commercial in any content that people consume regularly. In traditional marketing, the most corresponding thing to content marketing is product placement in mainstream media. Any modern marketer knows that currently, it is a strategic method of marketing to provide a commercial within any valuable and relevant content, hence driving a specific audience towards your content and hence increasing the sales and profit. Businesses usually hire specialists for this and these are known as Digital marketing consultants.
This type of marketing aims to target an audience and then increase their engagement. Content marketing does not just show what the product is. It also states how the product is relevant to our daily lives, hence making the want into a need among future customers. This will result in a positive response towards your business and ultimately the product.
Who uses content marketing?
According to annual research conducted by content marketing institute, it is used by prominent organizations in the world like Cisco, P&G, Microsoft, etc. It is also used by small businesses and companies that are being run by single people. It may seem like a very modern strategy, however content marketing was used way before it seems.
The methods were surely different than that of today, however, no one could deny the power that content marketing holds. The subtleness is the beauty of this strategy.
If your content is just trying to sell a product, it becomes spam. Constant delivery of valuable information gain trust, feels more personal, and change consumer behavior in favor of your business. This simply implies that if your Digital marketing consultant is experienced, he/she will be drafting the appropriate strategy for you.
All that I stated above can make you feel something special about content marketing that only top marketers know, but honestly, it’s just around us, everywhere. Social media posts, blogs, YouTube videos, podcasts, etc. Influencer marketing is one of the most successful forms of content marketing.
Content marketing take the upper hand in today’s market for the following -
1: Permissibility
The audience is always rendered with a choice of consuming or ignoring. This gives them an illusion of choice which is a much more subtle way of showing the product.
2: Valuable information.
Giving information to people that they may use in daily life makes them want more. Imagine your pitched audience waiting eagerly for your commercial. This would be a rare case in traditional marketing. This also implies that the length of the content will increase. According to Orbit media studios, the average count of a blog post increased from 808 in 2014 to 1,054 in 2016.
3: Increased interaction.
Interaction with the audience helps the business to flourish via positive reviews and address the negative ones. Due to increased interaction, professional integrity and hence trust increases.
4: Ease to change.
It is easy to change with the times when we are using content marketing. Creating minor tweaks, edits and perfecting it according to the market makes it easy for marketers to reach a pitched audience with time.
5: Pitched audience and SEO
SEO always favors businesses that produce consistent and quality content. This helps in reaching a target audience better than renting an audience in traditional marketing. Renting screen time on TV or commercial time on radio is way less effective and is also way more expensive, which gives us the next reason to try content marketing.
6: Cost
Content marketing is cost-effective. According to wordstream, 62% more cost-effective than traditional marketing. It does not need any billboard rent, TV, or radio time cost and still way more effective than these methods. Therefore, marketers, these days rely so much on content marketing.
By this time, we are aware of what content marketing is and what different benefits that are associated with it are, but we do not have any idea about how doing it. So, let’s find out, but how do we do it?
A business that provides regular social media posts of their product, blogs on blogging websites like medium, microblogs on sites like Tumblr, and relevant posts on Instagram reels, YouTube, and memes of twitter which makes it a good strategy. If your content comes under the genre infotainment, the chances of your commercial being consumed shoots up.
The addition of humor in these contents is well received and appreciated. Today’s humor revolves around memes, trends, and roasts. Using them will make your audience come for more.
One of the most successful merchants of this technique is Wendy’s. They have a national roast day on Twitter wherein they roast everyone. That is a pretty cool marketing trick if you ask me. Those posts are witty, humorous, and give constant content. Some people may follow Wendy’s on Twitter, just for their witty comebacks, hence convincing them to try their product someday.
However, the key to great content is consistency. Consistent posts help increase the audience. And most importantly understanding the wants and need of your audience and pitching your content according to that is something that will increase your audience, sales, and hence the business.
Conclusion:
The biggest advantage of content marketing is that you can monitor the numbers in real-time and can act accordingly. It’s not really possible in traditional ways of advertising where you will be able to see the output only after a fixed time. For this reason, many companies ranging from small to MNCs are using this mode of advertising. As an ending note, you must have an experienced digital marketing consultant with sufficient knowledge of digital marketing to get the desired results via content marketing.
