What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing or content marketing is the art of organizing valuable content and distributing it for free with the double idea of ​​fascinating new prospective customers (prospects) and building loyalty to your current customers and making them buy new services/products.
Content marketing is part of a strategy of adding value before asking for anything in return (“Givers Get”) and not interrupting, as TV/radio ads or traditional direct marketing tactics often do.
The number 1 objective of this 100% permissive strategy is to get the readers of your website or your blog to become subscribers to your mailing list. Stop dealing with IPs (web visits) and start chatting with people (email).
The idea is to continue adding value by email periodically with the idea of ​​consolidating your relationship with these subscribers because they are your future customers.
This term is often chaotic with inbound marketing, although in this case, content marketing is only part of that discipline.
Inbound Marketing involves all actions to attract customers to your business, including more traditional disciplines (advertising, for example), while content marketing only consists of working on content.
Also read: What is Content creation? And How it Works?
What Content Marketing is not
Just as important as defining what content marketing is or content marketing is defining what content marketing is NOT.
I am not referring now to writing techniques for advertising (copywriting). It is not about writing sales pages or brochures for your services and products.
People search the Internet for clarifications to their problems. They don’t want someone to try to sell them something on the first visit (Hard Sell).
Instead, the idea is to build trust, credibility, and authority with your content marketing. Once you have won this battle, you will find less resistance in the obtaining process when submitting an offer for a product or provision,
There is talk of Soft Sell or the art of presenting your offer without insisting: This is what it is. If you are interested, join. If not, go your way.
Nobody likes to remain sold. However, if you want to make a living from your content, you will have to present offers.
Advantages of Content Marketing
Content marketing or content marketing presents a series of advantages that make its use practically essential in any online business.
Trust
When you regularly publish content, and your audience perceives its value, they will trust you. The typical phrase “if you offer this for free, how will it be what you offer for payment?” You will start to build that trust you need to get future clients.
Sales
derived from the previous profit, you will see how your sales increase. Using different strategies to attract customers with content marketing will bring you more users, convert more visits to customers, etc.
Peace of mind
a well-executed content plan gives you the peace of mind of knowing what you will do in the long term. Without a guide of this type or an adequate content marketing strategy, you would go blind.
SEO positioning
content is king, and without it, there are hardly any chances to rank in Google. Give Mr. Google good content, and he will return that amount of organic traffic that you want so much in return.
Authority
when a newspaper searches for references on a topic and links you, you will gain authority. where a user creates a post and connects you as a reference source, you will gain control. When someone asks another person, “who is the reference on this topic” or “what company should I follow to learn about this?” and say that you will gain authority. You will be the guide in your sector and the one who answers all the questions.
What are the Most Common Formats in Content Marketing?
There are many formats in which to develop content marketing-
Here are some of them:
- Set up a blog
- Prepare a free sector report or some PDF for immediate download
- Write a newsletter
- Prepare a course with tutorial videos and deliver them by email using an autoresponder system (which would be an info-product ).
- Do a webinar or webinar
People are still quite confused about developing an effective content marketing strategy in your niche, which allows you to attract visits, get subscribers, and make money from your blog.
Content Marketing and Sales
The vast majority of people who profit from [content marketing] tend to have a 1 to 5 ratio of valuable free content to promotional content.
Each case is different, so you will have to find your ratio.
The key is to listen to your audience and prepare ad-hoc materials to meet their needs.
Think of always to put yourself in the shoes of your clients. What content would you like to find in a project in your sector? How would you like the communication to be? In what format?
Strategies for Attracting Customers with Content Marketing
There are many strategies, so I will tell you the simplest and most direct one that I use to generate income with Lifestyle Al Cuadrado.
Why am I going to tell you more strategies if this is the one that works for me perfectly?
Create exceptional content
the basis of any [content marketing] strategy is to create content that leaves users impressed. The so-called cornerstone or pillar content should be the basis, with posts of thousands of words that guide and reference your sector. Here you have an example.
Work SEO on your content
if you create brilliant content, but nobody sees it as challenging to get clients. I know that social networks are another great generator of visits, but the only “passive” is SEO. Read this article and position all your posts as much as possible.
Create a hook to convert visits into customers
visits are worth next to nothing. Subscribers are worth the money. You have to convert those visits into a name with email, or you will lose them forever. For that, you need a Lead Magnet and an email marketing strategy.
Plan for the long term
once you have the entire minimum system in place, create an editorial calendar, and plan your long-term content plan to generate subscribers and sales. There is nothing better than planning from the top-down, knowing that you write to generate subscribers and sales.
Also read: 3 Content Marketing Examples to inspire your Strategy
