Content Marketing: The smarter way to promote your business.

Let‘s start with these statistics published by some agencies. Content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing & generates 3x as many leads, says@demandmetric. Almost half of the 18-49-year-old people get their news & information online, says@pewresearch Small businesses that blog get 126% more lead growth than small businesses that do not blog, says@impactbnd 61% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog, says@blogher The most effective SEO technique? Content creation, says@Techclient

Ok, to make things easier, they are all referring to digital contents published on the web. There are plenty of different types, you sure have heard of them but perhaps not very clear about how they will matter to your business.

Content marketing is the evolved form of the print media marketing methods which has come to the fore due to an exponential increase in Internet and online users. The maximum online presence of the people brought about the opportunity to catch their attention using various types of online contents.

The USP of content marketing is that it works on a personalised level with the readers and directly influences their thoughts. If they like your content they may share that with others or choose to start dialogues with you.

This is a technique of marketing that aims to strike the right chord with the audience through relevant and valuable contents – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

The challenge lies in making your content valuable and relevant, How can you tell that your content is valuable and relevant?

The simple answer is if the content is valuable and relevant then it will have many likes and shares. People will actively seek it out by visiting your website. But for that to happen your content must be disseminated to the right type of audience.

Your content is valuable when it is relevant i.e. if someone has an interest. You can greatly increase the viewership by identifying the target market and putting up the right type of content

What is the success chance of content marketing?

It is a proven fact now that Content Marketing works better than traditional ad-based marketing firstly because a content carries more information and addresses buyers’ concerns in a simple manner. What are the advantages of content marketing over other channels?

• Higher visibility of the brand name and the products at a much lesser time.

• Much faster conversion probability because all required steps of purchase ( awareness, product info, research, dialogue with the company, order placing and payment ) are online and help faster decision making.

• Offers lower upfront costs and deeper long term benefits.

• Target region and audience are possible to be specified.

• Multiple metrics are available to measure viewership and assess the interest level in the products.

• Feedbacks from the readers give the opportunity to personalized attention for direct as well as reference marketing.

• An easier way to learn if there are negative sentiments about your products and take measures promptly.

• Much higher performance/price quotient.

What are the common types of contents that are doing best?

Blogs – Relevant well-written pieces that connect with your target audience can be very effective in building authority, trust, and relationships that consequently drive conversions.

Videos – Very impactful form of content. Current data shows almost 75% chance of conversion if a perfectly made video is watched by the right demographic.

Infographics – They present the figures that matter, in attractive visuals. Various statistics, research, and other data provided in understandable, engaging, and sharable formats highly influence decision making.

How-to guide – Well written instruction or How-To guide is a great way to brand development that can help generate a loyal community of users and enthusiasts.

E-mail marketing – Very effective way of enhancing business or brand relationship by sending attractive graphics and short texts to current and previous customers. This is a proven practice to encourage loyalty, repeat business, and acquire new customers.

Online Writing forums – Popular online writing platforms such as Quora and Reddit are very effective channels that boost your industry authority and traffic to your site. These are also very useful for research because writers exchange independent views.

Wrap up Human psychology has more trust in something expressed in writing which is not reversible. Consumers will look for clarity in the concept which symbolizes the authenticity of the company and the product. It is a psychological process of confidence building.