What Is Content Marketing? Infographics And Examples

You have opened a business, so what is your ultimate goal?

You need to promote your services and products. You might have spent tons of bucks on different marketing strategies, but there lies one cost-effective and straightforward process that can provide you huge ROI.

I can feel your curiosity growing here.

This strategy is called Content Marketing.

Content Marketing involves creating online informational material via various mediums like videos, blogs, and other social media mediums, sharing them in different ways.

Content Marketing may be used for the following purposes –

  • Attract the target audience
  • Engage with the target audience
  • Retain their interests
  • Establish expertise amongst the target group
  • Brand awareness
  • Promote services and products

It keeps on nurturing your relationship with your target groups so that they recall you when it’s time to buy.

Why Is Content Marketing Important?

  1. Companies who use blogs and keep them updated are 75% more likely to get strong results. Consistent posting and timely updates may result in an overall traffic increase as high as 402%
  2. Investing as little as 6 hours a week in content marketing has resulted in an increase in web traffic for at least 90% of the marketers.
  3. At least 70% of consumers have shown a positive view of a brand after consuming their content.
  4. Around 75% of marketers have said that Content Marketing has increased the quality and quantity of inbound leads.
  5. The average conversion rate is 6 times higher for companies that use Content Marketing rather than those that don’t.

These facts are enough to understand why Content Marketing is important for your business. But if not, I can drop another bomb fact for you.

Content Marketing has become a $300 million industry by now and there is no stopping to its growth.

How Content Marketing Works?

Content Marketing isn’t something that only works to attract customers. Content Marketing works on every stage of the customer’s journey.

Let’s see how it works on the stages of Awareness, Consideration, and Action.

1. Awareness –

So how do you truly attract customers? By understanding their pain points and challenges. But answering their questions and engaging with them.

So how do you do it using content marketing?

You can create content that is educational like how-to guides or videos or podcasts. Provide values to your customers as much as you can.

For example, you can create an ebook on how to use your products, dos, and don’ts, etc.

Or you can create a blog on the topic – “Questions to ask before hiring a content writer.”

2. Consideration –

Before we jump to the main points, let’s understand what exactly is a consideration stage.

This is the stage where prospects aren’t ready to buy. Here they take all possible options available to them out in the front and try to make the best decision possible.

We need to understand that we aren’t their only option. Educating and connecting with them in this stage becomes more crucial.

TIP: Try not to be pushy here. This is a subtle stage of communicating.

During the consideration stage, you might want to share your case studies, checklists, worksheets, features and benefits guide, etc.

You can use:

  • Guides like – ‘Sustainable tips that make a product last longer.’
  • Mistakes to avoid.
  • Videos that act as a case study or testimonials from your previous clients.

3. Action –

You can finally focus on sales here. You have educated the customer enough to help them form a decision and they are close to the buying stage.

You should focus on your expertise and what makes you different. You can also focus on what benefits you provide.

Products videos, research reports work best at this stage.

How to get started?

1. Determine your smart goals and your target audience for those goals

Your goals could be:

  • Brand awareness
  • Increase revenue
  • Boost conversions
  • Increase customer engagement
  • Build trust
  • Attract partners

TIP: You should also know your key performance indicators for those metrics.

2. Decide the right content

In order to decide this, you must know the answers to the following questions:

  • What are your customer’s requirements?
  • What are their pain points and challenges?
  • Why do they need you?
  • How can you help them?
  • Where are your customers most active?

Now you can decide what type of content they would prefer.

3. Identify the right resources for doing the task. One writer or one designer can’t do all the jobs. Finding niche-specific resources can help you stand out in the content that you make.

4. Find out how you will promote. Choose the right channels for the type of content that you made and by reviewing the kind of audience you have on those platforms.

5 Choose a budget.

TIP: You may want to keep the budget a little higher (maybe 10-20%) than your actual cost.

6. Choose a schedule.

Choosing a schedule is the best practice you can do for getting good results. Content Marketing is about planning and a little effort.

All this could go in vain if there is no consistency.

7. Experiment, analyze, and measure results.

It’s a miracle if you went right the very first time. Content Marketing is about experiments.

Remember the famous saying – The true method of knowledge is experiment.

Well, that’s true. The more you experiment, the better you get at ‘The right Content Marketing’.

Analyzing your experiments will help you understand your lacking points, loopholes you missed, and much more to enhance your ROI the next time.

The Content Marketing Cycle

Content Marketing is much more than you expect it to be.

Given below is the loop that can help you stay focused and not forget any part of the cycle.

Don’t forget to provide exceptional value to every content that you create. It will help you stand out from your competitors.

Use this loop to determine what works best for your customers and boost your business today.