Here’s Everything You Need To Know About Content Marketing

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is the process of planning, creating, publishing and sharing content useful on multiple platforms, predominantly in the forms of blogs, newsletters, social media posts, emails, and videos, to reach the target audience. 

It is a marketing strategy used by brands to retain current customers and reach out to potential customers.

Why Is Content Marketing Important For Startups?

Here are some of the reasons why businesses should use content marketing:

• Content that provides value to the target audience helps in boosting loyalty among the customers and fosters a stronger relationship.
• Content marketing drives audience engagement that encourages the target group to interact with the website and other touchpoints of a brand for content consumption again and again.
• When a brand publishes insightful content that showcases expertise in the field, it positions itself as an authority within the specific industry.
• A brand can leverage content marketing to generate leads by attracting the target audience with free but relevant information and strategically placing CTAs for generating leads. This can potentially aid in boosting conversion. 
• If a brand consistently churns out good quality content, it helps improve its SEO ranking and online visibility.

How Does Content Marketing Work?

To make the most of their content, brands tailor their content to cater to the different stages of a sales cycle:

Awareness Stage: The content in this stage is around addressing the target group’s pain points, challenges, and questions with educational content like articles, blog posts, ebooks, videos, and newsletters. Avoid making it look like an advertorial. For instance, a bike touring company can put up content like ‘3 Ways to Choose the Right Bike Trip’.

Consideration Stage: This is the next stage that combines informative content with marketing. The content in this stage addresses the needs of the target group and then natively integrates its products/services and shows how they address those needs. Brands can publish this in the form of case studies, how-to articles, videos, and checklists. Examples: Cloud-based phone system company’s checklist – ‘8 Ways to Improve Your Phone Customer Service’.

Closing Stage: In the closing stage of the sales cycle, customers are close to making a purchase. At this stage, a brand should create and curate content in a way that highlights why its product or service is the best choice for them. This content should demonstrate the brand’s expertise and unique qualities. Such content can be supported by using testimonials, videos, guides, and research reports. 

How To Get Started With Content Marketing?

• Start with identifying the audience. This first step involves understanding the priorities, challenges and preferences of the target audience and then developing profiles of audience members to tailor content effectively.
• Choose a distribution channel where the target audience will likely engage with the content. Opt for formats that align with the chosen distribution channel – for instance, use emails for longer content like article blogs and post shorter content like checklists on social media.
• Develop a short-term plan spanning three to six months based on the audience and suitable formats. Avoid overly ambitious plans that could strain resources and budget. Keeping track of the content creation timeframe aids in effective schedule management.
• Creating content that is easy to understand, devoid of jargon, and offers practical advice is fundamental. The content’s relevance and action-oriented nature play a pivotal role in engaging the audience successfully.

What Are The Types Of Content Marketing?

As per experts, these are some prominent types of content marketing that are being practiced:

• Online content marketing is publishing content on websites to improve search engine rankings and engage the right audience. 
• Social media content marketing is leveraging platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to create and share content that use visuals such as photos, videos, and stories to leverage a large user base.
• Infographic content marketing is employed to present information and data in a visually appealing format through infographics, making complex topics easier to understand.
• Blog content marketing is used to creatively cover various topics, promote internal and external content, and natively incorporate product information.
• Podcast content marketing is fairly new but has been gaining momentum over the past few years. It involves creating and sharing podcasts on platforms like Spotify and Apple. It allows flexibility in content, episode flow and conversational style.
• Video content marketing has also been gaining popularity in recent times. It works especially well in short video format, given the rise of reels on Instagram. Consumers prefer videos to learn about products or services. These videos can also be shared on social media, landing pages, and more.
• Paid ad content marketing reaches a wide audience and enhances visibility. It is particularly effective when paired with inbound marketing strategies. Paid ads can be placed on social media, landing pages, banners, and sponsored content.

Which Indian Companies Are Known For Their Content Marketing Strategies?

The following are some of the Indian companies which are known for their effective and successful content marketing strategies:

• Amul is known for its memorable ads. It engages with consumers by creating content that is relevant at the moment. It creates content using humour, such as memes that change according to events.
• Myntra, a popular online fashion brand, has collaborated with influencers who have millions of followers on social media. It creates content utilising digital marketing strategies like search engine optimisation (SEO), email, social media and WhatsApp marketing to increase revenue. It also uses blogs on its own app that talk about the latest fashion and trends.
• Food delivery giant Zomato is widely appreciated by netizens for its content market strategies. It uses unique strategies like sending push notifications with Bollywood dialogues, customised notifications based on past orders, and weather. The brand also maintains a strong presence across social media platforms.