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What is Content Marketing?
Put succinctly, content marketing refers to any marketing approach that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content for the purpose of acquiring and retaining customers. As a business owner, this would be something you’d be interested in, right? In today’s information-at-a-glance world, this info can be presented in a myriad of formats – from news and video to white papers, e-books, infographics, case studies, how-to guides, question and answer sessions, photos and more.
But don’t misunderstand us – because of the digital age we live in, content marketing has become all about online pursuits of business…so much so that by 2014, Forbes Magazine’s website had covered the phenomenon surrounding the seven most popular ways companies use content marketing. In the editorial piece, the columnist points out how by 2013 the use of content marketing had jumped across corporations from 60-percent a year or so before, to 93-percent as part of their overall marketing strategy. Interesting to note, as well, is that despite the fact that 70-percent of organizations are creating more content, only 21-percent of marketers think they are successful at tracking ROI (return on investment).
How a Content Marketing Strategy Builds Your Business
The bottom line is that if you’re interested in marketing your business online – and you should, at this point – you must look to powerful content marketing. It’s everywhere you look and everywhere you listen; but you may be asking…so what? What does content marketing actually mean for my business?
Content marketing boils down to creating and sharing valuable free content to attract and convert prospects into customers – and customers into repeat, return buyers. Bear in mind there is a relationship at play here: The type of content you share is closely related to what you sell. In other words, what you’re doing is educating prospective customers so that they know, like and trust you enough to do business with you.
You May Hear…
- That people don’t want to “deal with” advertising when making purchasing decisions, they are looking for valuable information.
- That it’s content that spreads via social networks, generating powerful word-of-mouth exposure for savvy marketers.
- That it’s also content that buyers are seeking out, and it’s a great thing that Google wants to rank your company high in the search results so those people can find your business.
- That content is the best way to achieve what advertising was designed to, but doesn’t when it comes to online activity – to get people to know, like and trust your brand.
…yet one of the key similarities in all the different ways of looking at content and how it relates to marketing is that the customer experience and needs, preferences and questions from the buying public – the so-called “target audiences” – are at the heart of it all.
We here at Multiverse Media Group understand that content marketing is a core necessity for maximum online visibility in search engines…and that content marketing is the present, and future, of marketing. As such, our experts help our clients understand that content marketing:
- Quickly gains massive search engine rankings
- Gets more visitors to a website, yielding more sales and leads
- Keeps visitors on the site engaged and interested
- Converts new visitors into paying customers
- Establishes the company as an industry leader in its respective area of commerce
- Yields greater and more long-term ROI than PPC marketing
