EXPLAINED- CONTENT MARKETING IN LAYMAN’S LANGUAGE
Want to understand what is Content Marketing? How much Content Marketing costs? Here are all the answers.
In the previous articles of this series on digital marketing, we got to know about the various types of digital marketing.
Moving on, we’ll cover all the parts in detail. So the first one is content marketing.
In this article, you’ll read everything you need to know about content creation, content for marketing, and how it’s different from content writing.
Content Writing — Content Marketing
Once in our life we all have associated content marketing with content writing. It’s assumed that if one is a content writer, they can do content marketing. But it is not so.
Content writing is a vast field that covers all the aspects of writing, creative, stories, articles, fiction, research, etc.
Content marketing is just a part of content writing.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is an art of producing such content that is intended for the marketing of a particular brand. Its main aim is to stir the public interest, to draw the attention of intended buyers towards the product.
Content created may be in any form, videos, posts, art, or anything else that succeeds in gaining attention. It depends on the creativity of the marketers and how much effort they are willing to put in.
One might simply write a slogan on a poster or create a whole video around the product. It all depends on the resources and type of audience you are targeting.
In digital aspects, content marketing is simply a technique of creating and distributing relevant content online in order to promote a certain product.
Most of the brands use Twitter nowadays to announce a new product or to promote an existing one. That tweet is a content marketing technique on the social media platform.
Anything, from a video to a blog, anything that you create and publish online for the purpose of marketing comes under content marketing.
Why is Content Marketing Important?
Your work speaks for itself. But only if you know how to put it out there, how to present it in front of the audience.
Suppose if you manufacture the best saree and the quality, the style, is one a kind. But how would the people on the internet know about it if you don’t describe it well??
Content is the key to reach your audience, it’s the backbone of Digital Marketing.
It helps to establish a connection between the audience and the creator.
On the internet, you need it to express yourself, to reach your audience, gain their trust, and convince them to buy your product.
Anyone remember that ad of washing powder Nirma, everyone used to sing along with that. And even after so many years of its telecast, we remember the whole song.
That’s the power of good content, it stays forever in the minds of the audience.
Think of a tweet by Zomato you might have read. Or a post by Mercedes that left an impression on your mind. The Impressions these content creators leave on our mind shows the importance of content marketing.
How Does It Work?
The content you create may it be for some social media platform or as a blog, it improves your visibility on the search engines.
How?
The social media posts reach more audience and if your content is convincing enough, then it draws them towards your website. And there, it increases the number of visitors directly, indirectly it gains popularity for your business which finally results in the increase in business.
The blogs you post are visible in the searches and if the content is unique and good, it attracts a lot of audiences, increasing the click-through rate. This directly increases your search rankings.
The improved search rankings mean that your website would appear higher in search results. And you know what, the first few results are the ones getting 70% of the visitors.
So that’s how content marketing gains more visitors on your website and how it works to improve your search rankings.
Types of Content Marketing
There are various types of content marketing options available to us. Since the domain of the internet expanded and reached each and every household, the options for marketing have also become widespread.
The most common ways to put out your content for marketing are
- Social media posts
- YouTube
- Blogging
- Infographics
- Videos
- E-book or e-zines
- Podcasts
- Webinars
- Online courses
- Websites
There are ample options available to publish your content if you are creative enough to use one. One may also use Wikipedia to post their content for marketing if and only if you know how to stay within the guidelines and achieve what you need.
How Much it Costs?
Let’s talk about money.
The main criteria of a decision-making process for any business are “How much money?”.
So let’s clear this doubt, content marketing doesn’t cost much, well it doesn’t cost a penny if you can do it on your own but better leave something for professionals.
It depends on the scale of your business, it’s reaching, it’s requirements, and finally, on the service provider, you’re choosing.
On average, it costs Rs. 50 per 100 words. It varies for different service providers.
Though it costs much less than putting up a hoarding or running television ads. Yet good content can get more audience than all the mentioned methods combined.
How to Strategize Content Marketing Techniques?
There are some aspects you need to focus on, before finalizing a marketing strategy.
- What is your target audience?
- On which platform you want to put forward your content?
- Which platform your target audience uses more?
- You want to keep it subtle or go all the way to YouTube?
- Your brand is an established one or still struggling?
- What kind of content, you want to put forward?
- What type of marketing your brand actually requires?
You know some of the answers well, but some can be answered by careful analysis of your website.
After getting all your answers, you can hire a professional or do it yourself, as per your demands.
For strategizing yourself, you have all the answers, now all you need to do is create the content following all the guidelines you have created. And post them on a fixed schedule.
How To Check The Outcome?
Should we even be asking this question?
Just like any other marketing campaign, the outcome of content marketing is checked by the growth of business and the increase in the number of customers.
The content you have created is out there, now it’s working on its own way to the audience.
If the content is good enough to attract the audience, you will know the results quickly.
The increase in visitors, the improved search rankings, and rising brand image, are all the outcomes of a successful Content Marketing.
In the upcoming articles, I’ll throw some light upon the other aspects of digital marketing. Stay tuned to discover the hidden secrets of the digital world.
