Marketing that makes use of material such as articles, videos, podcasts, and the like in order to draw in and keep viewers is known as content marketing. Expertise, brand recognition, and continued consideration of your company as a go-to source for your products or services are all outcomes of this strategy.
Building credibility and authority for your brand is the goal of content marketing in Calgary, which entails producing and disseminating information in a variety of formats to attract and retain customers. An effective strategy for keeping consumers around, content marketing is an inbound marketing tactic that draws in new ones while strengthening relationships with existing ones.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing pertinent, applicable content to both current and prospective consumers. This content may include blogs, newsletters, white papers, social media posts, emails, videos, and more. This content effectively communicates a company’s commitment to the individuals it serves and demonstrates its level of expertise.
The consistent implementation of content marketing fosters and develops relationships with both current and potential consumers. When your audience perceives your organization as a valuable source of advice and guidance and a partner who is invested in their success, they are more inclined to select you when it is time to make a purchase.
Why Is Content Marketing Important?
Now that we’ve defined content marketing, let’s look at its importance.
In many respects, content marketing is the most comprehensive client acquisition channel. It increases traffic, fosters confidence, establishes authority, and generates revenue.
Sure, pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements can generate visitors and income. Social networking can help position your brand as an expert. However, only content marketing allows you to achieve a variety of marketing objectives without being salesy in the first place.
Content marketing is important—and effective—because it captures customers throughout the sales funnel.
You may employ content marketing to entice consumers at the top of the funnel, before they consider making a purchase.
In many cases, a great piece of content marks the beginning of your relationship with the consumer, and that material will accompany them throughout the customer journey.
That’s fine, but it’s all for naught if your efforts don’t result in money. That is not the case with content marketing. The annual return on investment (ROI) for a successful content marketing program is $985,000.
This explains why 83% of marketers continue to spend in content marketing. That’s why you should, too.
What Makes a Successful Content Marketing Strategy?
A content marketing plan that is successful doesn’t follow the newest trends in the field. It is one with a specific target audience and a well-defined aim.
You see, you’re probably going to waste your content marketing efforts if your material doesn’t target the correct audience with the proper problem (that your product addresses).
Begin by defining the goals you have for your content marketing campaigns. It can be to boost conversion rates, gather email addresses, or build brand exposure.
Next, specify who you wish to specifically target. For instance, my content marketing efforts are directed at entrepreneurs and marketers who run primarily online businesses and who would like to know more about driving more customers to their Calgary Website Design and making more money online.
Lastly, clearly outline your strategy for achieving your objective in writing.
For example, your content plan might include writing an eBook, creating a landing page for the eBook, and then creating a series of blog posts and emails that direct readers to the landing page in order to increase email subscribers. Each piece of content should include a clear description of who will generate it, when it will be created, and where it will be posted.
Content Mapping
Content mapping is the process of thoroughly analyzing your customer so that you can develop content for each stage of their journey to purchasing your product.
Few individuals go directly from discovery to purchase. Instead, they frequently discover your website and product, think about it for a few months, see a retargeting ad, and then purchase.
Or something like that.
What makes content marketing so effective is that it can be used to target every stage of the customer journey: enticing, engaging, delighting, and gradually nurturing them until they become a buyer and, hopefully, a loyal customer.
Content marketing exists at every level of the consumer journey.
If you get it right, these loyal consumers will become brand advocates, spreading the word about your products/services through friends/family, social media, and other channels.
However, you cannot employ the same type of material at each stage of the customer journey. As I describe below, each step necessitates a distinct type of content marketing.
Becoming Aware
Consumers do not make purchases from brands immediately upon becoming aware of them. Consumers may require weeks, months, or even years to progress through the contemplation phase of the buyer’s journey.
The good news is that content marketing can expedite this process.
Ask any exceptional salesperson, and they will inform you that individuals are significantly more inclined to make a purchase when they are assisted in the process.
However, it is not feasible to implement the same brand awareness strategies during the contemplation phase, or rather undesirable.
Pay particular attention to the number of returning visitors, newsletter sign-ups, form submissions, and resource downloads.
The manner in which content marketing can assist individuals in the contemplation phase.
In essence, your objective is to evaluate the level of interest among your existing clients.
However, in order to accomplish this, it is necessary to generate content that continues to draw in individuals who are interested in your products.
For example, eBooks are exceptionally effective in establishing trust during the contemplation phase. What is the reason for the exceptional performance of an eBook at this juncture?
Nevertheless, individuals must have confidence in you prior to making a purchase. You comprehend this as a consumer. Would you make a purchase from a brand that you are unfamiliar with? Also, you would not purchase from a company that had a reputation for providing substandard products or inadequate customer service.
Research substantiates the importance of customer trust for all businesses. For instance, a study conducted by Adobe indicates that 70% of the respondents purchased more from brands they trusted than from those they did not.
It is evident that trust drives consumer spending, which is particularly critical in the context of e-commerce’s dominance of the retail industry, as it prevents many purchasers from engaging with sellers in person.
Your prospect must become acquainted with your brand image, your position on specific topics, and the tone of your business’s voice in order to establish trust.
It is only at that point that an individual can determine whether or not they have faith in you.
This is the reason why an eBook provides individuals with a tangible object to grasp onto. They can read about your perspective on specific subjects, as well as your manner of presenting information and the tone of your voice.
For instance, is the information credible? If this is the case, individuals may also have confidence in the reliability of your organization.
If it is not, they will attribute the same level of negligence to your organization.
Additionally, a newsletter is an effective method for establishing trust during the consideration phase of the buyer’s voyage.
A newsletter that is consistently published establishes a dialogue with your prospective clients.
Although they may not be prepared to make a purchase at this time, they are likely to be contemplating it if they subscribe to your email list.
By maintaining communication with prospects during the contemplation phase, you increase your likelihood of successfully converting them.
A newsletter accomplishes this with elegance.
Newsletters are employed by a variety of enterprises and businesspeople to maintain consistent communication with their prospects.
This ensures that their business is at the forefront of the individual’s consciousness when they come to make a purchase.
Calgary SEO is also effective during the contemplation phase; however, it is a distinct type of SEO.
Long-tail keywords, in particular, concentrate on individuals who are in the contemplation phase more than their shorter counterparts.
Consider the matter.
If you are truly intrigued by a product from a particular business, you will conduct a search for “buy shoes from Adidas” rather than “shoes for sale.”
Additionally, those long-tail keywords are less competitive, which increases the likelihood of rating for them.
Concentrate on long-tail keywords during the deliberation phase.
In order to summarize for the deliberation phase, prioritize eBooks, newsletters, and long-tail SEO keywords.
Additionally, you may implement blog posts, infographics, case studies, or videos.
By employing these, you can assist individuals in the contemplation phase, rather than allowing them to proceed independently.
Ultimately, the objective is to generate content that fosters trust and strengthens the prospect’s relationship with your business, without being overly salesy.
Until those individuals reach the decision stage of the purchasing process, that is, at least, your strategy.
Podcast Content Marketing
By 2025, experts estimate that over 71 million individuals will be podcasts listeners.
That is ten million more than the present Spotify and Apple Podcast listeners count. Many companies and media sources thus develop and publish their own podcasts.
Since podcasts can cover any area of interest, they let a lot of imagination possible.
You also chose other elements connected to the podcast. These elements comprise the length of every episode, podcast guests, where you promote the podcast, and the tempo of the episodes.
Content Marketing and SEO
A good place to start when writing blog posts is by making them useful.
But “helpful content” alone won’t get you noticed online. About 96.55 percent of material does not receive any organic search traffic from Google, according to a study by Ahrefs in 2023.
It is possible that investing in SEO is necessary to join the winning 3.45%. SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of enhancing a website’s visibility in relation to search engines such as Google and Bing.
Since 85.19% of blog traffic originates from organic search, optimizing your content for SEO is a good idea. According to our State of Marketing report, the two channels that generate the highest return on investment are search engine optimization (16%) and content marketing (14%).
I suggest you study up on SEO if you want people to find your site through natural search results. With that said, here are a few broad strokes for improving your content marketing with search engine optimization.
Launch a weblog. If you want to rank higher on Google, adding a blog to your site will boost the number of indexed pages.
Perform research on keywords. Figure out what your ideal customer would type into a search engine to find your product or service.
Make content of a high standard. Content that is valuable to users is given priority by Google. The content in question also has to address the user’s original query. What do I think? Try to write things that people will rave about. The next step to increase your chances of ranking is to execute on-page SEO and strategically use related keywords.
Create inbound links. The term “backlink” describes when other websites link to yours. They have long been thought of as a crucial component in Google’s ranking system. According to recent claims, Google is no longer using backlinks as a ranking component. But new research from Backlinko shows that, even now, pages with more backlinks score higher than pages with less.
How content marketing works
Content marketing is a useful tool for businesses as it may help with lead generation, product or service advocacy, and sales closing.
You must provide the appropriate content at every point of the sales cycle, from awareness through consideration to purchase, in order to use it effectively. Don’t worry if this seems difficult; using this approach to content actually makes the process easier.
Here’s how businesses utilize content marketing to engage and close deals at every level of the sales cycle.
How to get started with content marketing
Content marketing can be overwhelming, but it does not have to be. A content marketing campaign that is successful should be sustainable and manageable.
Identify your audience
Having a good understanding of the reader’s goals, difficulties, and preferences is crucial when crafting material for a specific audience. Pick one or two segments to write for if you have extensive descriptions of them. If that isn’t possible, then you should first create profiles of your target demographic and potential customers.
Focus on a few high-impact channels
There are more than a dozen social media platforms available, ranging from text-based platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook to video-based platforms like YouTube and TikTok.
Additionally, it is alluring to concentrate on each one. However, this method will be ineffectual unless you have a substantial budget and a team.
Alternatively, conduct research on the social media platforms that your target audience utilizes on a regular basis. Subsequently, concentrate on approximately three of them.
Determine the right formats
The correct structure matches the stage of the sales cycle you are producing material for. Another crucial factor is which formats would best allow you to present value. This will be a video for some, a checklist for others.
Your material will be judged by an audience on its quality, and they should. Decide which internal or outside source best fits your needs for doing this task. Hire a professional proofreader to check everything before it leaves the door regardless of who generates it.
Online Content Marketing
Online content marketing refers to any material you publish online, but it focuses on your web pages.
A solid online content marketing strategy will help you rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). What’s the outcome? You get in front of the appropriate people at the right moment.
Webney’s homepage is an example. This page immediately engages visitors with relevant content about our services.
Determine how you’ll distribute
Are you going to put the information on your website, email it to people, or print it out for an event? Choose forms that make sense based on “where” you know your audience will be. An article is a good thing to send via email, a schedule or worksheet is something you can share on social media, and a buyer’s guide is something you should send after a pitch.
Infographic Content Marketing
Infographics display content, information, and data in an easy-to-understand graphic format. With a mix of simple wording, short statements, and clear images, infographics are a great way to communicate your content effectively. They work well if you’re trying to simplify an educational or complex topic so all audience members can understand it.
Blog Content Marketing
Blogs are a potent form of inbound content that enables you to be innovative in your selection of topic and writing.
By utilizing a blog, you can incorporate product information, add social share icons, and promote your related content through the use of links.
Choose a sustainable schedule
Create a short-term (3-6 months) plan after determining your target readers and the optimal formats for each stage of the sales cycle. It’s simple to create an excessively ambitious content marketing plan. However, the strategy you construct should include content aspects that you can actually create given your budget and resources. Keep track of how long it takes you to develop each piece of content so you can factor it into your timetable.
Put content to work for your business
Let your expertise and unique value shine through by creating content that attracts, engages, and sells. With some planning and systematic content marketing, you can reach the right people and drive brand loyalty.
Webney can help you take your online content marketing strategy to the next level by allowing you to create optimized content for social media, your website, and your email marketing campaigns. Use our tools to make branded content, including landing pages and paid ads, that can inform your customers about your offerings and business. With your own brand style guide, you can begin to build a brand identity and let your business show customers its remarkable personality.
