There’s a famous quote by Seth Godin, a marketing guru.“Content marketing is the only marketing left.”
Why? According to Brafton, 89% of businesses use content marketing and they’re about 75% successful. In marketing terms, that’s a pretty good average.
So … what is content marketing?
Content marketing is providing information and entertainment to engage your audience (customers, prospects, etc.). You’ll attract new prospects (potential customers) as well as help lead interested parties to become customers. Customers may even provide more services and products, or deepen their relationships with you. Interested groups may want to partner with you.
In other words, it’s a way to engage all the audiences you’re hoping to market or sell to.
Content includes the following:
- Website text and images, including landing pages
- Emails
- Videos about your products, services, tips, customers, and ideas you have
- Podcasts
- Blog posts
- Articles
- Testimonials and reviews
- Graphics and infographics
- Social media posts
- eBooks and long-form content you download
All of these work together to provide your audience information about you and what your business offers.
What makes a successful content marketing plan?
It can be complex with a full-blown content journey, but we recommend you start simple. Start with your audience’s pain. (Ouch — sad, but true.)
Think about what typically drives your customers to seek your services or products. Then try to relieve that pain through content — on your website, in your blog posts, using video, etc.
We’ll give two examples for two different industries.
Example of content marketing for real estate
If you’re in real estate and prefer to sell houses or commercial properties, talk about where to spend money to fix up a place — bathroom or kitchen. Discuss what curb appeal is and why it’s important. Provide ideas about how to stage a home, including contractors you use. And make sure that you always give an option for someone to contact you as they’re learning about tips.
If you’re in real estate and prefer to help people buy property, help them understand what they want quickly and easily. Also, provide ideas about good neighbors for properties and interesting things to do in those neighborhoods. Give thoughts about what makes a good investment.
Example for content marketing college consultants
If you’re in college consulting, your job is a bit easier. You know the pain — people want their child to go to college or find a satisfying (and perhaps lucrative) career. There may be issues around their goal — financial issues, knowing which college to go to, getting good test scores, and understanding which careers are available.
Your content should help them solve these issues from little-known scholarships to top overlooked careers. Just because you’re giving people information doesn’t mean they won’t rely on you for your services. The idea is to give them a taste of the advice you and coaches provide.
Timely, relevant information
Also consider what’s timely and relevant — what content would be useful and when. For example, landscape ideas for potential sellers is probably helpful in late spring and during the summer. But winterizing a home is probably more helpful in late fall.
Where to start content marketing?
Often when people think about the options available, they become overwhelmed, unsure where to begin. We recommend you start small. What’s small? What you can do! Here are a few places to start:
- Website. Complete your website or landing pages that take the place of your website.
- Blog posts. Add this to your website or provide landing pages with these ideas. Write two or three articles to begin with — something you can promote.
- Emails. Your audience probably needs information about once a week. Send an email with one idea and go from there. The more success you get from that content, the more you can explore expanding it.
- Social media. Promote using social media — Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.
Of course, you can get fancier from there — advertising content, etc.
Need help with your content or marketing plan?
Contact us! We love providing ideas about what types of content might be useful to your audience. We even have a marketing course that expands on ideas. Sign up!