What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a phrase you hear being thrown around a lot lately. But what exactly is content marketing? Let’s try to break it down, shall we?
What exactly is content marketing?
I’ve heard lots of different ways to explain it, both highly technical and overly simple. The best way I can think of to explain it is this: Content marketing is indirect selling through information and knowledge sharing. So, instead of hitting customers with the hard sell, (Buy it NOW!) you are giving them access to information that relates to your product or service for free. This information can be delivered in tons of different ways: blogging, video, Twitter, Facebook, games, magazines, etc.
Is it different from traditional online or offline marketing?
Yes, it’s quite different from what you would normally think of as “marketing”. The best way I’ve heard this difference explained is that content marketing is “non-interruption marketing”. With traditional marketing efforts, your message is catching the customer while they are in the middle of doing something else. Ads on television, radio, in print or outdoors all pop up while the customer isn’t actively looking for information about your product. With content marketing, your message finds the customer when they are in the middle of looking for information about something that relates to what you’re trying to sell. By giving out this information and sharing your knowledge, the customer becomes more confident in your company and will be more likely to come to you when they are ready to buy.
What does this mean for your business?
It means that you need to approach your business differently. In the past, customers would go to the store in order to learn about products. Now, people are using the Internet to do their own product research before they get to the buying stage.
It means that you can no longer shrug off content as something that isn’t as important. These days it is critical to build strategic content into your marketing plan, along with traditional marketing efforts. You want to catch customers while they are in this research phase and give them relevant information that will help them make decisions. While marketing is normally about you approaching the customer on your terms, content marketing is about meeting customers on THEIR own terms. You need to be able to both in order to make sure you are reaching people at the right time.
Think about your content on your website. Are you actively participating in content marketing? Let us know your thoughts.
