Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing for Businesses

Content marketing is an ever-evolving field. It refers to a strategic marketing approach to create, distribute, and promote content that can extract and engage your target audience. It is the task of the content marketing team to create clear, concise, relevant, and consistent content that will help businesses get quality leads.

Content marketing is done to create an image of the company in the written word. It works by building trust, improving engagement, and driving prospective buyers into paying customers. It is a popular way of marketing your content. In fact, after the pandemic, the use of content has increased by 207%. There are different ways in which different people approach content marketing. However, the end goals are often the same – attract users and create more business.

Content Marketing Funnel

To create content that engages users, it is important to follow the marketing funnel. The content marketing funnel helps segregate the content that needs to be prepared from beginning to end in the context of the buyer’s journey. Consider content marketing services to help eliminate the content issue in your organization.

• Top of the Funnel – It is also known as ToFu. At this stage, the aim of your content should be to create awareness about your product and educate the audience about it and the problems it seeks to solve.
• Middle of the Funnel – Popularly called MoFu, it is the stage where content is created to make prospective buyers consider your product. Write content that highlights solutions and helps the audience evaluate how valuable your product will be for them.
• Bottom of the Funnel – BoFu is the stage where the customer makes the decision to either buy or not buy your product. At this stage, content should be written to spike buyer’s interest in the product and encourage them to try it. 

Types of Content Used for Marketing

Based on what stage a customer is on their journey, different types of content can be used to gain their attention. From your website to social media, these are the following types of content that can be leveraged for the purpose of content marketing.

• Blog posts
• eBooks 
• Infographics
• Whitepapers
• Videos
• Case Studies
• Podcasts
• Guides
• Social Media Posts

Steps to Develop Content Marketing Strategy

Content marketing is crucial for your business’ growth in the digital age. Having an effective content strategy can do wonders for you. 83% of marketers believe creating high-quality content less often is more effective. Below, we have mentioned steps to create a content marketing strategy that is sure to provide you positive results.

Phase 1:

• Identify Target Audience – In your content marketing strategy, the first step creating a buyer personas and choose who your audience is. Decide their demographics, level of understanding, etc., to plan what kind of content you can cater to them.
• Set a Goal – Your strategy needs to move towards a certain goal. Else, what is the use of it? Moving forward with a specific goal and working in its direction is important. Whether creating more leads or a certain brand image, your goal must be clear so your content is not confusing.
• Create a Content Plan  – You need a content plan to know what kind of content you need. It is important to consider what you want to tell your audience and what kind of content will best suit that purpose. Also, create a content calendar to ensure your project is going according to the timeline.
• Decide Your KPIs – To measure the success of your project, you need a list of key performance indicators. It can be the number of times your email is opened or the bounce rate of your website. It depends on you and what you seek to accomplish from your content marketing strategy.
• Allocate Resources – It is a content marketer’s job to set a budget and resources for your plan. Decide how many people you want on your team and how much it costs to produce, distribute, and promote the content.

Phase 2

• Do a Content Audit – You should also go through the content you already have. It is better to use that content if it can be used or repurposed to minimize the costs of your project. Identify the gaps in your content and decide what else needs to be created.
• Start Creating – Once you have identified the gaps, brainstorm how to fill those gaps and start creating! Whether writing content or designing visuals, ensure you follow your calendar and create quality content.
• Choose Where to Post and Publish – The channels you decide to post your content are crucial. There might be instances where you will need to repurpose the same content for different platforms. Ensure you are creating content and publishing it on the proper channels, keeping in mind the target audience.

To Sum Up

Content marketing is indeed a brilliant way of ensuring your marketing efforts move in the direction of your choice. From creating to promoting content – content marketers take care of everything. Content marketing is an essential strategic practice that ensures your business generates quality leads.