Or everything you wanted to know about Content Marketing but were afraid to ask…
With apologies to Woody Allen, Max Fischer, and Buzzfeed…
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a way to sell not just your product to consumers but your brand as a whole. What is the best way to sell a consumer? When they don’t know they are being sold. It is almost like subliminal marketing except not illegal and you gain brand loyalty. Content marketing is exactly what it sounds like. You market your products through the quality content of your website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or whatever new social media has your fancy. And that content is not about how to buy but what to buy. For example, check out the Michael Kors Facebook page. The vast majority of his posts do not provide a link to his website or any website where you could buy the merchandise being pictured. He is letting his product speak for itself. He knows that the content shown can speak for itself, so much so that you the consumer will now search for ways to consume said product.
What if I am not selling a product?
However not everyone trying to market to consumers is selling a product. In many cases your company is providing a service. How do you market a service using non-traditional, non “click here to sign up” methods? You market a service through quality information. Using your website you deliver up to date, important, consistent, and quality information to your customers or would be customers. Setting up your website with blog posts with the who, what, where and why’s of the service you provide will then help gravitate customers to your page that are just looking for simple information. Once at your page and reading your information that content can present your brand as helpful and knowledgeable, making the person searching more likely to use your service because you presented them with the original material. After they are hooked through your quality content you can nudge them to contact you to learn more about the service provided.
Blog posts? My company doesn’t have time to write weekly/monthly blog posts and no one here was a liberal arts major.
Lucky for you there are now companies that specialize in this strategic content marketing. You can hire them to do all the writing for you. In fact the website on which you are reading this post has many helpful suggestions.
TL;dr
I know some of you have skipped down here to the last paragraph for the big take-away. Companies need to find new and less tradition ways to market their products to consumers. I use Netflix and not Hulu Plus for my streaming television needs. Why? Because Hulu Plus makes me sit through commercials but Netflix does not. Also, and this is just as important: Netflix has a larger base of quality content. Modern companies need to market without commercials, because consumers can just mute or ignore them. And let’s face it, commercials are annoying. You can sell without selling through strategic content marketing, and that is basically through providing important quality information. Then allowing the consumer to choose you without all the Meridth Grey “choose me, pick me, love me” nonsense.
Content marketing makes you look like one of the good guys.
