We often think of content as one thing and marketing as another, but what about when the two come together? Content marketing is rising in importance in the success of businesses of all shapes and sizes.
What is content marketing, though?
This is probably a good place to start: you can’t get content marketing right if you don’t know what the damn thing is. Content is everything – from the words you see here to the feature image, to a photo album and even the odd GIF, this is all content. Think about it this way: without content, you’d basically be non-existent in the digital space. Which means no search engine will ever find you. Ever.
Ian Lurie, CEO of Portent, aptly describes content as “anything that communicates a message to the audience.” If you can derive something from a thing that you see or read, it is content. Content marketing, then, is using this information to help meet a marketing goal for you and your business or organisation.
Why content marketing is essential for your business
There are both intangible and tangible reasons why content marketing should be an integral part of your business and your strategy. The intangible reasons are:
– It gives your audience something to talk about and consequently brings awareness to your brand. “Oh my gosh Cheryl these guys wrote a blog about content marketing, and it’s so on point, you should read it * sends link *” is a simple conversation that will raise the awareness of your brand.
– Content marketing builds up respect and admiration from others in the industry. If you are churning out content as quickly as possible, with little consideration for the impact that content will have, then your brand will not gain the respect it deserves. These kinds of business are called ‘content factories’, and this is a label you should avoid at all costs. It’s important to strategise, plan, think it through, then decide whether or not you should publish it. Respect is earned when it is evident that you respect your content, too.
– You have to make money somehow, and great content marketing will help you achieve that. Indirectly, you will be encouraging customer conversions if your content is drawing audiences in and letting them know what you’re all about. An acknowledgement as simple as “Wow, this blog on content marketing is handy. And look, these guys also offer graphic design services * takes a moment to reflect on ugly logo that is in dire need of a revision * * phones The Brand Collective to talk about possible revision of said logo *” could turn a person from an outsider to a loyal customer or client.
These reasons should be taken into consideration if you are unsure of the current direction of you or your business. The other, tangible reasons for why you need content marketing is that it will drive traffic to your website, your search engine ranking will be boosted, and that will result in direct customer conversions – all good enough reasons to allocate resources to content marketing, in our humble opinion.
That being said, you can do nothing if you have no content to start with. We can help you populate the content representing your brand. Let’s have a chat if your brand is missing something.