You’ve probably heard this once or twice already.
“content is king.”
or something like, “content is the heart of everything you do within your business.”
People throw these terms and phrases out there with little context, usually creating a confusing internal dialogue of unanswered questions.
You may think to yourself, “what is content,” and “what content do I need to make?”.
How does content solve your problems with customer acquisition? Why is everyone focusing on it, and why do you even need to do it?
Look, these are all really great questions! I’m here today to put that internal conversation to bed for good.
Starting from the top, what is content marketing?
What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is anything that communicates a message to your audience, current customers, or potential customers.
ANYTHING.
Content is the backbone of every marketing message and advertisement you create.
Talking to your customers, regardless of how you do it and what platform it is on, is your content.
We are talking about blogs, social media posts, youtube videos, Instagram stories, podcasts, ebooks, memes. The list goes on and on and on.
It’s all “content.”
Don’t worry so much about the different content types yet because we will most definitely be going over those further along in chapter four.
For now, look at everything from an ariel view and take it in as a whole.
Okay, now that we have a better understanding of what content marketing is, why the heck do you need it, and what’s in it for you?
How Can Your Business Benefit From Content Marketing?
What’s in it for you?
Content marketing allows you to control where your message is going. It gives you control over the conversation and what happens in it.
By presenting your companies message in a way that adds value to your customers, everyone wins.
The more value you provide upfront (pre-sale), the more likely you will gain a new happy customer.
What a great deal, right?
Not only that, but the more often you can get your message in front of the right people who are looking for it, the more potential clients you can attract!
That’s just the tip of the iceberg as far as the upside is concerned.
Content marketing benefits are plentiful; however, some are tangible results that you see and can track with your own eyes. In comparison, others aren’t so apparent and are a little less visible upfront.
Let’s break it down.
The Things you can see:
Increased Website Traffic: You will see more people coming to your site due to your content. The more content like blogs and youtube videos you put out there, the more often people can find you through their Google searches.
Increased Website Visibility: Every time you create a new piece of content like a blog post or video for youtube, you are essentially entering a raffle. The more times you enter, the greater chance you have at winning. In this case, you win more chances of your website being seen in Google searches (more opportunities for people to come to your website and become customers).
Increased Customer Conversions: If your content adds value to people that have the potential to become new customers, the likelihood of them becoming a new customer is high. Help them before they are paying customers, and then when it comes time to buy, you will come top of mind.
Everything I listed above is trackable with tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console. You can set up everything you wish to track and the most critical data to you within those great resources.
We will be covering all of this in chapter 10, where we discuss reporting & analytics.
The things you can’t see:
Stronger Brand awareness: When you become the one producing the go-to information within your industry, people will naturally refer their friends and co-workers to you. The more content you create that can be seen as helpful and informative, the more your message will spread with time.
Becoming the conversation topic: This ties into the concept above. Suppose you can help one person with their problems and leave an impact on their lives. In that case, it is a lot more likely your brand will be brought up within a conversation with their friends or co-workers when they are having that same issue. Good Content marketing gets people talking (which is what you want).
Higher levels of respect and industry authority: A byproduct of content marketing is becoming an authoritative figure in your industry. When you know what you are talking about and get that message out there enough, your reputation level will begin to rise, and your name will slowly spread around town.
Increased organic referrals: This one is a bit repetitive but still a perspective worth viewing. When you focus on helping others solve their problems, the chances of them giving out your name the next time they talk to a buddy with the same problem skyrockets way up.
Does Content Marketing Work For All Businesses?
Yes.
Every business can and should implement content marketing into what they are doing currently.
Whether it be with blog posts, tutorial-style videos, eye-catching images, or podcasts.
You can add your unique spin on what is already working in your industry and help your existing and future clients along the way.
Example:
Jim runs a custom automotive shop that specializes in restoring old cars.
After speaking with a customer, he learned that most classic car owners don’t know how to take care of their nice rides properly.
Jim thinks to himself about how he could help more people like the one he just spoke with.
Later that week, Jim concluded that creating how-to videos and posting them on youtube would be a great logical option. The videos would help anyone interested in taking care of their prized garage trophies.
A few months pass by, and the videos Jim created are not only being watched and praised by his current customers but by car enthusiasts everywhere.
In this example, Jim tried to add more value to his current customers by teaching them the best practices for maintaining and protecting their prized possessions.
A real-life example of this story playing out is the Scotty Kilmer channel. It’s a place where he talks all about cars from maintaining, to buying the most reliable ones, all the way to repairing them in your driveway.
At the age of 14, he learned his mechanic skills from his grandfather, Elmer Kilmer, the chief mechanic at the Texaco gas station Scotty’s father owned. A few years go by, Scotty figures out how to leverage his knowledge. He wrote a book named “Everyone’s Guide to Buying a Used Car and Car Maintenance,” which ultimately landed him a tv show on a local CBS affiliate KHOU.
After a fulfilling tv show career on CBS, he began creating youtube videos to give practical and straightforward advice ordinary folks can use.
A few years later, down the road, he has an audience size of nearly 4 million subscribers.
Needless to say, he has created an entire business around the sole purpose of providing actionable value.
Can You Utilize Content Marketing Even If You Have A Small Marketing Budget?
Yes.
100% yes.
Content marketing can cost as much as you would like or as little.
Creating a blog costs a little upfront for setting up your website hosting and buying your domain name.
If you already have a website and those expenses are already covered, then you will be golden.
You don’t need anything fancy yet. The most important thing you can do is get your blog filled up and focus on putting out articles people can level up from reading.
Over time, you can come back and improve the looks of your website. However, ugly websites still possess the ability to convert and work for the time being.
Social media is free to play.
Anyone can sign up and create a business profile for free on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Linkedin, Twitter, and pretty much any other social platform.
We will be diving into the specifics of creating content on all platforms in chapter 8.
Conclusion
Content marketing is everything you do to communicate your message to your audience.
It’s not only helpful for your customers to learn from you, but it also creates a unique opportunity to earn more eager, happy, paying customers.
Content production helps you lead the conversation throughout the buyers’ journey and be there when people need you most.
It’s all about adding value upfront before going in for the ask.
There are many ways to implement content marketing cost-effectively. You can choose to pay as much or as little as you feel comfortable.
Hopefully, this has helped you understand the topic and giving you the answer to the question: what is content marketing.
Next up, The History of Content Marketing
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