Content marketing is what?

Content marketing is for the target audience an interesting presentation of fascinating and useful information. Modest advertising, more benefits (mostly advertising and completely hidden, while content marketing goes along with crowd marketing).

Content marketing is correctly designed messages, distributed and created to attract visitors with a bright presentation, structured argumentation.

What it is?

This content and work with it. And only then - with SMM and SEO.

SEO-specialists without content will have absolutely nothing to optimize. How does SEO work? There is a visible area of the page - article, video, photo - all this content. Also there is a hidden area - metadata, which help search engines index the page. At the same time, each link, every keyword in the text - this is a small hint, paving people the way to your specific content.

Tweets and newsletters, brief descriptions and volume product landings in various online stores are all separate parts of the content. At the same time, content marketing is a certain work with any content that helps you achieve your goals. Thus at all different purposes. Someone wants to increase the recognition of their brand, the second - to demonstrate their own expert potential. Some tend to attract new customers, the latter think, how to retain the former. There are hundreds of goals. And most of them allow you to solve well-created content.

In this article, we will take a closer look at content marketing, new methods of attracting customers.

What does the business give content marketing?

Today in the fashion of content marketing. At the same time, many of them are not being applied - the prospects are too vague and the advantages are not obvious. Of course, I want to be valued by clients, but how can this be achieved? The goal looks very abstract, but how to achieve visible results? We will understand what content marketing is. Promoting the company with his help is becoming more popular today.

Brand recognition

To begin with, after you have created content, people have something to talk about, not just content, but the whole company that created it begins. So, people exchange links, exchange impressions, while form their opinion about a particular firm. Sarafannoe radio is an excellent strategy of content marketing.

Trust and reputation

Immediately it is worth pointing out that gaining trust is not an easy task. It takes time. At the same time, when you prove your competence, you will be treated much more often. People believe the experts. Be it: content marketing (a book on it now freely sold in any store) helps to earn the reputation of a true expert. The main thing in this is to bet on quality, not volume: one good post per week is much better than 7 mediocre ones.

Sites that generate content in tons, while the quality is completely not caring, with excess. They should not be compared. Do not force your readers to rummage in a dump of texts of dubious quality and to snoop unchecked information. A person needs a site that they can absolutely trust. They should be your resource.

Trust is the ladder leading from content to services of the company.

Indirect Conversion

Correctly composed content marketing, new methods of which are presented in this article, allows you to attract the necessary audience, in addition, reduces the distance between your products and people. If a person's article provokes sincere interest, he will also be interested in your services. The main thing is to focus on your reader, on the person you need. In the opposite case, you can run into a rake, as the once famous "Megaplan".

"Megaplan" launched the mailing in the fall of 2012. She got 100,000 subscribers in a year and a half. This is an excellent example of content marketing: really useful and quality articles - and zero advertising. At the same time, the distribution of commercial potential was not. According to her former editor Maxim Ilyakhov, it turned out to be a loss-making project. And Mikhail Smolyanov, CEO of Megaplan, said that 100,000 subscribers are good, but that's not enough.

The newsletter became popular, but it was not aimed at the right audience. The first letters - about sales, management, business - were addressed to entrepreneurs. In this case, all subsequent - about thinking, psychology, personal effectiveness - exclusively hired employees. At the same time, hired workers are completely different people who will start implementing such a system of business management.

This mailing with the product was not connected. And if you plan to run content marketing - you need to consider this.

What else is content marketing interesting? Stelzner, the author of a book about new technologies for managing it, says that it's not worth creating content that is interesting to everyone. It is important that the more the audience, the wider coverage, while you know exactly what you need these people? Let you read not 100,000, but only 5000 - but this will be your target audience. People who can become your regular customers over time.

Increased traffic

Competent management of content marketing is impossible without this. Correctly organized content increases traffic, and this is inevitable. At the same time, the more exciting content is published on your site, the more people you attract. And they will know who you are, and also what services you offer.

SEO-promotion

Considering the methods of content marketing, it is worth noting that without content SEO does not make sense. The more your content is claimed, the more often you refer to it and so it is higher in the issuance of search engines. But this is only the tip of the iceberg.

In addition, the search engines scan it and include it in its own database. Then, when people create a query, an index is built. In it, your page takes a certain position. In this case, the more your content completely corresponds to the request, the higher the page will be in the issue.

Quality content attracts traffic. Examples can lead to a huge number. They all lead to one. Without SEO, content does not make sense.

Direct Conversion

Nothing persuades people as much as the correct descriptions of a service or product. This is mentioned in the book "Content, Marketing and Rock and Roll" (D. Kaplunov). If customers say that you are unusual - they will reach out to you. Important: "loyal" means competently made and targeted at your target audience, specific, interesting and clear.

Flywheel principle

In this case, do not think that this will happen very quickly, as also mentioned in the book "Content, marketing and rock and roll." D. Kaplunov, the author of the book, says that this is always a very long voyage. In achieving rapid goals, it is absolutely useless. If you think that it is worth starting your blog, and a month later you will be visited by crowds of customers, and organic traffic will grow at times - you are cruelly mistaken.

This type of marketing works like a flywheel. It takes effort to start it. You push the flywheel, the energy expends, the wheel accelerates - and only after it untwists, it starts to produce energy itself. Stock up with enough patience - eventually everything comes. Content marketing is not a panacea; here results are not instantaneous. If traffic to the next day remained at the same level, it does not mean that the content does not work. Wait, while continuing to do everything according to the earlier plan.

Without team and budget

From content marketing to refuse, if you have little or no money for it, while in the team only 2 people do not need. Of course, if there are not enough capacities, then you can not always physically generate good content. In this case, focus on the content.

Here is an example of Google's search algorithms. It all started with a little material that the author of the company created for his own needs. In doing so, it turned out ... you know what. Today, anyone who wants to learn about the changes in the algorithms of "Google" appears on this page. It has since 2011 scored 1,700,000 views. In doing so, all this with a small budget for further advancement. And also with a little effort: the author replenished the material bit by bit, while fixing only important.

On the reverse side, at low capacities, you will be more intensive and more careful in planning your goals for the quality of the material. Here it is worth noting that less is better, but better.

How to convince the client or the boss that they need it?

Content, of course, the king, but the people who produce it, often too intensely trying to convince everyone of the value of such marketing. The reason for this is simple: the most popular types of content (manuals, articles, videos, mailings, webinars) refer to the very top of sales, to that stage that is a few steps from conversion.

This content helps you find people. You can even fall in love with or remember for him. You are able to gain a large audience. At the same time, educational content is not a final stage, and it rarely leads to sales. There are more conversion variants of it. The effectiveness and value of it is hard to check, and therefore, to explain to the boss or client what the beauty of this marketing is, it is not easy.

Enlighten

Initially - tell them about the benefits:

1. Experience accumulation.
2. Long-term relationships with the audience. So you build trust with people who will come back to you.
3. Talking about virtues, be completely frank. Do not make unrealistic promises. Build the right expectations. Interested in creating an image? Increase the audience? Raising awareness? All this will be. Just be careful. This type of marketing is the very first stage of sales, the period of the emergence of awareness, when the client only remembers and recognizes the company. Therefore, it's silly to think that buyers will crowd in a crowd to your store in case they read 2-3 posts on the blog. In this case it is necessary that the chief understands this as well.
4. Running a flywheel, allowing you to achieve the desired marketing goals.

Many of the content marketing refuse, because they believe that their business is too specific and people will not be interested in reading about the cement plant, as well as about producing mineral fertilizers or matches. But this is absolute nonsense.

It's important how, not what. Not what you are talking about, but how you do it. The question is in the right strategy. In the case of content marketing competently, clients will be interested in learning about anything. Including, on matches and cement.

Speak the language of numbers

Despite the fact that content marketing is at the top of sales, it does not mean that the rest can not be convinced of its true value. Can. Only it is necessary for this to build a complex method of calculations - one that will demonstrate how the content leads to conversion.

We will be helped in this by Google Analytics. In it we will use the model of multichannel sequences. It will be necessary to properly configure the analyst - it will start tracking all interaction points right before the conversion.

What does this all mean?

In the event that a user on your site has moved through social networks, they receive a conditional point in the analyst. If the post in the blog read, then the same score is already a blog. After that, it will be necessary for you to analyze what role each sales channel plays in sales. And already draw conclusions based on all this.

Now you need to know only one thing: you can measure everything, including content marketing. Thus, you will have to justify on the figures how much content is profitable.

Show competitors

"Already all our competitors use content marketing with might and main", "This is what everyone is doing" - these are rather strange arguments. At the same time, if you need to convince someone that he is needed and useful, then in this case all means are good. Demonstrate the competitors doing this. At the same time, be prepared that you will be told: "Do the same." Just do not rush: for content marketing copying is always a losing strategy.