What is content marketing? Part 1: The Intro

As an industry, PR and marketing is littered with buzzwords and nonsense phrases, so it’s no wonder that so many businesses are confused about how to integrate the concept of content marketing into their already full communications plan. The truth is, it needn’t take up too much time or resource if it’s done properly. It’s also proven that effective content marketing generates as many as three times the leads that outbound marketing creates and costs 62% less (CMI: 2017), so if you haven’t thought about it already, it really is worth taking a look!

Why should my brand add content marketing to our to-do list?

The chances are you already have great stories to tell, you just might not realise it. The efforts you’re already making on your website, at events or trade shows, on social media, or through advertising or PR could be put to much better use – and be much more cost effective – if they were all working together.

Optimising your marketing into informing, entertaining and even shareable content is simply another way to tell your brand’s story or view on something. Consumers receive thousands of different marketing messages every day and if you want to cut through the noise, you need to be providing something that really taps into their interests. It might be an infographic made using some new industry stats or research you’ve gathered or just pointing your audience to read a special interview with your CEO, it’s all content marketing.

Here are some of the other things that great content marketing can help you do:

• Establish a stronger brand identity
• Build trust amongst both existing and prospective customers
• Establish people within your business as industry thought leaders
• Increase traffic to your website and boost lead generation
• Move people down the sales funnel and demonstrate clear ROI.

How to get started with content marketing

Starting on a content marketing journey can seem like a daunting prospect but the first building block is a solid content strategy. This allows you to assign responsibility to individuals and plan content according to the interests of your audience, define key messages, work out seasonality and identify trends in your sector. There are some great templates available on the internet to get you started if you’re not sure on the best format or structure, such as this one here from Moz.

In the next two parts of this content marketing trilogy we’ll be explaining how to use tools and tactics to get the most from your strategy as well as explore how to analyse your efforts. We’ll also be including some ideas on the different types of creative content you can use, and how to ensure a balance of social shares and links back to your site.

We’re always happy to chat through ideas and answer questions, so if this article has left you wanting more and you can’t wait for part two, please feel free to get in touch with us here for a free consultation.