Insanely Clever Marketing

Content Marketing – Do You Need It?

Image · Posted by Penelope Herbert on February 2, 2016 · 1 Comment 

As a small business, can you create powerful content marketing to raise the on-line profile and following of your brand?

FACT* Over 50% of consumers are swayed to purchase products and services from companies that publish relevant digital content

FACT* Over 65% of consumers use the content they find on websites and social media to make purchase decisions

FACT** Brands that publish more content attract more sales leads

FACT Indexed pages are a valuable sales tool to generate leads

What do terms such as ‘Citizen Journalism’ and ‘Keyboard Warrior’ mean for serious brands? They mean that you have a challenge to ‘cut through’ the whims, thoughts, mutterings and content currently in the digital space in order to sell your wares. Which is why you need content marketing.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram have created currency in the form of social media followers. Recently, one tweet from Oprah resulted in a $150million impact on the stock market. Kim Kardashian is reputedly paid $10,000 PER tweet for brands she endorses. These are examples of content marketing on social media.

In this highly competitive environment, how do businesses become genuine digital content publishers? Should you even try? Will there be any benefits to you if you work to create fresh and relevant content for your website and social media platforms? Here are some content marketing tips to help you.

Traditional promotional avenues include radio, print and television;

• Can be expensive
• May have a geographically scattered audience
• May not be specifically directed to your customers
• Will require great repetition to cut-through
• Will last only while someone is listening or watching
• Aren’t generally ‘searchable’

Your website and social media;

• Are easily accessible
• Are open 24/7
• Are flexible
• Do reflect your brand
• Have the ability to attract return visitors for free
• Can be manipulated regularly
• Should reflect your brand personality and messaging
• Responds very well to content marketing

James O’Brien is the journalist behind a Mashable published Case Study on Red Bull and it’s command of the digital content marketing space. With a huge body of on-line content including articles, videos and images, all this digital content has been used to effectively and widely build the brand and market share of Red Bull. James O’Brien says,

“Content marketing is not an ad on a billboard or a one-page spread in a magazine. It doesn’t have to be a commercial on cable television or the 28 annoying seconds before the start of that next YouTube hit. The idea central to content marketing is that a brand must have something valuable to get something valuable in return. Instead of the commercial… be the show. Instead of the banner ad… be the feature story. The value returned is often that people associate good things with – and return to engage with – the brand”

Google loves fresh content so an excellent way to build your Google ranking, and be found, is by being active in the digital space. Creating content is a powerful sales and profiling tool for almost any business. Your on-line strategy will depend on the size, type and direction of your business but should be part of your marketing planning. However, there are some variables and points to keep in mind.

Content Mix : unique vs recycled content

Most reputable blogs, websites and social media will have a mix of new, fresh content and recycled or ‘viral’ content. However, if Google thinks you are plagiarizing content you will be penalized, and you might not even know it. Even if you own material that has been published on one website, if you publish on another ‘re-purpose’ or re-write the material to avoid penalty.

Digital Strategist, Chris Woods, says most brands can’t create enough daily content that’s fresh and relevant because they have a business to run. So in order to be considered a genuine content publisher, 50% of your published material should be unique to your brand. 25% can then be made up of recycled or viral content from other sources and 25% re-purposed from your existing content.

“This is why brands that want to push themselves as an authority on-line are seeking out quality content marketing partners as part of their on-line business strategies”, says Chris Woods.

Frequency of publishing

Unlike news brands such as CNN, you don’t have to publish multiple articles every day. However, a high frequency is required if your aim is to be viewed as a leader in your field. Publishing on a daily basis, or even every second day, on a website supplemented with several social media posts per day will get you ahead of the crowd.

This is where engaging a content marketing professional will be a good investment. You will benefit from increased traffic, increased social media presence, improved organic search results, increased sales leads and increased profile as an authority in your industry.

A professional content marketer will;

• Create unique content
• Create high-quality articles
• Effectively re-purpose existing content
• Identify influencers who resonate with your target
• Manage your social media
• Tap into your existing resources
• Collaborate with other writers to produce enhanced cross-promotions
• Raise your profile as an authority
• Identify public relations opportunities

Insanely Clever Marketing has expertise in social media management, content creation and digital marketing that will benefit your business. Please contact Penelope on 0421 043 505  or ph(dot)marketingmaven@gmail(dot)com to discuss how we can raise your business profile, create unique content and develop an on-line strategy increase your social media presence and provide you with improved organic search results.

*Source: Custom Content Council

**Source: Hubspot

Additional Source: Rebecca. Wordtracker lead writer and Managing Director of Dakota Digital, a marketing and PR agency.