Content Marketing 101

Content Marketing is defined as a subset of marketing tactics that involve the vast production of digital materials for distribution. These materials include images, videos, blogs, posts, emails, and any other digital content regularly distributed to audiences as part of a marketing plan.

The roles of images in content marketing are critical. These are usually the first thing people see when they encounter digital content. Our digital world is, for the better or worse, heavily influenced by images. Since this is the case, no matter what your end goal is, key photos can play a large part in any marketing campaign. This can be as part of a social media strategy and can also captivate audiences as engaging pieces of content that pull your audience in for more. High-quality photographs and beautiful graphics can stand out and become a key player in a marketing campaign.

Video is another important aspect of content marketing. Recently, it has been climbing in importance as social media platforms have changed their algorithms to give priority to video by showing this type of content to more people. The rule of beautiful imagery still applies to video just the same as it does to images. If you have the resources to have videos professionally made, it makes for a great source of content to have high-quality clips that are shareable on many platforms.

With content marketing, it’s more than the imagery that counts. Although images and videos first pull the audiences in, it’s the copy that keeps them drawn into reading and learning about what you have to offer. For this, make sure to have a writer create compelling copy that can captivate the audience. Any text that you put out should be tailored to the specific platform in which you are using the copy. For example, social media posts are short pieces that are usually more fun than a serious, much more informative, long-form blog or website copy. The function should dictate the style, length, and tone of your articles it will serve.

There are other aspects of content marketing that you should keep at the forefront of your mind to help elevate your material. One such thing is staying on top of digital trends. For example, around the holidays, specific topics arise that you can use to help boost your materials so that people who usually wouldn’t see your post can get an opportunity to learn about what you have to offer. Be creative with your work, and you’ll be able to take advantage of specific topics and use these trends to boost your post’s performances. Also, using any new features that a platform releases quickly can give you a boost as people will probably look to you to see how to use this new feature of the platform. 

Although creating material is the best option to be in control of your brand, it’s also wise to use material that you don’t produce as part of your content marketing so that you can save on time. When someone else creates the content, you don’t have to do the work, all you have to do is credit them and share their message with your audience who might find it interesting. This is great because it allows you to share content in a different voice and allows a similar message to yours resonate with your audience from another source. If they are saying the same message as you, it will make you seem more credible by having support backing that message.

Another way to share content that resounds praise for your company‘s product or service is to share User Generated Content. There are many benefits of user-generated content. When your customers are happy and want to share their positive experiences with others, allowing them your platform through publishing UGC may give them a boost to continue spreading the word of your product. With someone outside of your company on your team, you may receive credibility in the eyes of your audience.

With all of the options mentioned above for content marketing, you’ll want to keep your platform and audience in mind. Make sure you are building trust through continued visibility via posts, blogs, and other content and are continuing to monitor your efforts like adjusting sales funnels periodically to match your current and evolving needs.