What is content marketing?

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Content marketing involves creating and distributing relevant content to the right target group. The ultimate goal is to grow your business. Setting up a content strategy may seem like a difficult undertaking, but it can provide positive results for your company, because content marketing is a very smart method to attract and retain more potential customers. There are two main reasons for this:

Firstly, it is nowadays the norm that social media channels are full of advertisements that all want the customer's attention.
Also, competing on Google remains a difficult process as there are so many companies offering the same product. Every company, of course, wants to have the most sales to its name.

By setting up a content marketing campaign, for example in the form of a blog post or infographics, you have a unique opportunity to attract visitors. However, it is important to consider the production of valuable, relevant content that teaches or inspires your target audience. There is a lot involved in the process of creating relevant content. There is a focus on the wishes of the target group instead of selling a product or service. This ensures that a blog post has a less commercial look compared to, for example, a banner ad. The starting point of content marketing is to provide information.

Benefits of content marketing

Have you got a better idea of what content marketing is all about, but are you still not convinced that you should apply it in your business? Here are some of the benefits that content marketing can bring along:

A well-written blog post, an interesting video, or an educational webinar can lead to more traffic on your website. Did you really inspire or help these visitors? Then there is a good chance that they will browse other pages on your website. In this way, you have attracted potential customers and you can retain them with the help of a well-functioning website and relevant content.
Content marketing comes in all shapes and sizes. This also means that you can offer your content in the form that your target group prefers. Think of blog posts, vlogs, e-books and even influencer marketing.
Make sure that your content contains the right keywords and that it is SEO-friendly. This will make your website easier to find in Google. It is important that the content is unique. Duplicated content has a negative influence on the Google Ranking.
Nowadays, every company tries to get higher in Google by means of, for instance, banner advertisements on social media. However, due to an abundance of these, the average internet user has become less susceptible to this form of advertising. In contrast, content marketing, provided it contains qualitative information, offers the chance to strike the right chord with your target group.
Content marketing is less expensive than, for example, TV advertising.

Analyses to set up a successful content marketing campaign

If you really want to understand content marketing, you can think of the following: the ideal situation for a content marketer is the coming together of relevant content, which is offered to the right target group, at the right time, and on the right channel. This may seem a difficult, or even an impossible task. Proper research and analysis can help your company get a better idea of what the following four concepts mean.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO, or search engine optimization, is a method of improving the findability of your website. This means that the findability of your website will be improved. As the online findability improves, the number of visitors will also increase, which eventually leads to higher sales of your product or service. SEO, also known as search engine optimisation, is divided into three different types.

However, before you start any of them, you can prepare yourself by answering the following questions: What is the purpose of the content marketing campaign(s)? What USPs does this particular product or service have? What is the current status of the website and social media channels? If you know the answers to these questions, you already have a good idea of which points are already clear, and which points still need to be worked on during the following analyses.

Target group analysis

Creating good content is not self-evident. Mapping out the target group is done using a Customer Buyer Journey. During this research, it is important that you gain insight into, among other things, which content is most effective for your target group and when your target group is online. With this information, you will understand your customers better, which is an essential starting point of the target group analysis.

But how exactly do you get this information? Market research! This research can take two different forms. You can choose to do online research to find out what information can be found about which customer is most suitable for your industry. However, the ideal customer is different for each company. Therefore, it can also be a good idea to use other research methods, such as surveys and interviews. Of course, you can also combine these methods. For example, conduct interviews with existing customers and distribute online surveys via social media to reach potential customers. A combination of the two can provide valuable information.

After you have conducted the surveys, you will (hopefully) have a large data set. From this, you can then create buyer personas: this is a representation of the ideal customer, or customers, for your business. A buyer persona can consist of demographic information, online behaviour, and hobbies. Depending on the size of your company, you can create a few to twenty buyer personas. Besides potential customers, you can also create "negative" buyer personas. These are the customers that your company does not want to attract, for instance because they do not have the intention to buy your products or services on a regular basis.

Furthermore, you can create different types of content for different moments in the buyer's journey. This is about the path a potential customer takes to finally make a good choice.

The first stage is called Awareness. In this stage, the customer becomes aware of a certain problem. You can capitalise on this by offering rich information in the form of blog posts or videos.
The next stage is called Consideration. The customer is considering different options, for example with the help of a cost-benefit analysis. In this phase, offer textual content in the form of an e-book, or visual information during a webinar.
The final stop is the Decision phase. The customer is ready to make a well-considered choice. Win over your potential customer with examples of successful case studies and possibly testimonials from other customers or influencers.

Content analysis

It is not only important to take a good look at the current customer base, it is also worth taking a critical look at the website. Is the layout a good match with the image your company wants to project? Are the texts legible and of good quality? Is it easy to navigate the website and find new information? Also pay attention to the social media channels: What are the posts that reach the most people? Does the content correspond to the marketing objective? And so on.

Sit down and keep track of what still needs attention. You can go a step further and focus on the back end of the website, also called the backend. Here you look at the loading time of the website, whether the website is mobile friendly, and whether the navigation menu works as it should. Are there things in these or other areas that hinder the achievement of the marketing objective? Then it might be a good idea to start working on technical SEO. Tips on how to improve the performance of your website can be found on our page on digital marketing.

Competitive analysis

Finally, carrying out a competitor analysis can provide valuable information. During this analysis you will take a critical look at the online activities of your competitors. Visit the websites of your competitors and note their pluses and minuses. You might even get some inspiration for your own website! Next, you can take a close look at the social media channels. Are your competitors' followers more engaged and do they leave comments often? And does this rarely happen on your social media channels? Look closely at what your competitors are doing and try to implement these strategies in your own content!

What problems can content marketing be used for?

As mentioned before, setting up a content marketing strategy has numerous advantages. But it may be that you are not yet fully assured that content marketing is the next step for your business. Here are some common problems for which content marketing is the solution.

More website traffic. Producing and distributing clear and information-rich content on various online channels can help your company generate more traffic.
Current strategy isn't working. Have you set up a marketing campaign on social media that has not delivered the expected results? Perform the above analysis to find out what content could be effective.
A small budget. Unlike many other marketing methods, you can make content marketing as cheap as possible. Think for example of writing and placing a number of blog posts that contain good keywords.

Have you become enthusiastic about content marketing but do not have the time or resources to create content yourself? Then you can turn to the experts at Digital Newsgroup! We have experienced writers who can write quality blogs for your website, but also, for example, set up a good linkbuilding strategy.

Outsource content marketing?

For many entrepreneurs and marketers, it is a complicated and time-consuming process to set up a successful content marketing campaign. Therefore, it is definitely a good idea to think about outsourcing content marketing. You can confidently leave it to the experts at Digital newsgroup. Content marketing can be important for any business, regardless of how big or small it is. he aim is ultimately to ensure a better position in the most famous search engine, Google.

Looking for a content marketing agency?

Are you completely convinced that your company needs content marketing? That is good to hear! At our digital marketing agency in Tilburg, you are in the right place. We have several specialists who will help your company. Besides content marketing, we are also experienced in several forms of modern marketing techniques, including SEO marketing and content. Curious about the content marketing rates for your company? Then contact us by e-mail or phone, or go to our contact page.