Content marketing is very much different than advertising and other online marketing channels. The strategy, tactics, and even the goals of content marketing are very different than other marketing channels.
Yet a lot of companies still treat digital content as an ad campaign. Doing this is harmful not only to their respective brands but to the entire motive of the content marketing as well.
Why Content Marketing is Important?
Content is king and it always will remain king. People spend their time on the internet consuming content. Be it, a video, audio, literature, user-generated content, or any sort of other content. But, it’s content that people want to consume when they are online.
Content is like inventory and the best part is that it doesn’t deplete. Good content always keeps the users come back to consume it.
Content Marketing into A Different Timeline
A few years back when the ideas behind content and inbound began to gain momentum, a lot of businesses wanted to position themselves as thought leaders in this arena.
They started writing blogs under the banner of their respective brands, but they weren’t upbeat in building out the right audience.
Since they saw no short-term increase in ROI, they neglected their blogs altogether after just a few weeks or months.
But, you know what? Content and its marketing are not designed to convert leads instantaneously. Rather, marketers should keep in mind that the goal of content marketing is a long-term game.
Its purpose is to create “continuous engagement” not converting leads in short-time. In fact, many of your leads can be in your pipeline for quite a while. Those leads remain probably in the consideration stage of their customer journey cycle.
And that should be welcomed by the brands — they should rather show no hurry. The more time your leads or customers spend interacting with your content, the more educated and familiar they become about your brand until they are in the pipeline. They see you as a credible resource, and your brand remains at the top of their minds.
Ultimately, when an educated lead will see something relevant it will most probably trigger a response.
Maybe, for instance, the lead reads one of your competitor’s posts and needs more information about the subject, and you have already built a relationship with your lead, so the first call your lead makes will be to you only.
So, you should not forget that content marketing may take a little longer time to convert leads. But over time, it appreciably drives down your conversion and customer acquisition costs.
A Different Perspective of Content Marketing
There, is no doubt that content marketing and advertising do share some common goals. Both seek to develop positive brand associations in the target audience’s minds.
But, only content though, has the power to develop brand advocates. These are people who trust your brand and understand it and to a greater extent are loyal customers of your brand. Because they’re so passionate about what you do, they take it upon themselves to evangelize in most of the cases. The most glaring example is Apple, people keep a tab on everything Apple does.
My personal experience is that you should keep your loyal customers always in touch with you through your content, and it gives you and your brand a far better positioning, Online Reputation and more customers (through word of mouth marketing).
That kind of influence can’t be measured in numbers of tweets, retweets, likes, or any of the metrics that advertising counts. Despite the fact that an ad campaign may yield short-term spikes in sales, but a network of brand advocates has lasting power and it always turns in your brand’s favor.
Preparing and Evaluating
Take the long view, when you’re planning a content marketing initiative for your brand. Any firm initiative requires at least six months for yielding results.
The mantra of success here is “Evaluate and iterate constantly.”
In general, the biggest challenges in launching and supporting a content marketing initiative are the creation of content itself and the ability to take full advantage of the value of the content.
But being organized for these challenges allows you to invest your resources advantageously from the outset.
Rather than just examining the sales figures, expand your analysis to include SEO, social engagement, talent recruitment, and brand loyalty.
Set up a content creation pipeline with clear deadlines and a division of resources.
Make sure that your social marketing, email marketing, and PR teams all leverage your content to get the most out of their know-how to reuse any piece of your content you publish and meet their departmental goals. And most importantly, take a holistic approach to evaluate your content marketing.
Patience Yields Benefits
Be patient and just focus on providing your fans and customers with the most meaningful and engaging content possible. Remember, that a successful long-term content marketing plan will pay lifelong dividends, once it’s up and running.
If you don’t see the results instantaneously, don’t lose heart yet, content marketing takes time but gives far better results. Content creation, demands a real investment of time and resources. The blog of your brand exists to provide long-term value to users, not to push a product.
With a long-term content marketing strategy and continuous efforts, everyone wins in the end.
In case you need help in this regard you can always get in touch with us.
