Does content marketing REALLY work?

Have you ever considered content marketing as a worthwhile endeavour? Feeling overwhelmed with how the online world operates and where you fit in, leading to a reluctance to even start? Don’t stress it! Allow me to walk you through what content marketing actually is and how to start your own plan of action which utilises your brand effectively.

What even is content marketing?

Content marketing is effectively a marketing strategy whose goals are to attract, engage, and retain an audience by creating and sharing relevant articles, videos, podcasts, and other forms of digestible media. When you hear the term 'content marketing' most are referring to an online strategy to establish a strong brand identity and better understand your audience.

Is content marketing worth my time? What are the benefits?

A resounding yes, provided it is done correctly and some of the many benefits include;

Building brand authority within your space. People will instantly recognise your brand based on the content they see, leading to more trust with customers

Increased online brand awareness. Offering educational and informative content that an audience finds engaging can help your online visibility increase through your website or social media accounts.

Increased customer loyalty. Loyalty is essential in marketing and business because the more loyal your customers are, the more repeat purchases they’ll make.

It can build brand trust. Offering content that answers a consumer's question it can help build trust with your brand and see you as more authoritative within the space.

It provides a competitive advantage. Businesses with blogs get 67% more leads than other companies.

72% of business to business (B2B) marketers say content marketing increases engagement alongside the number of leads they generate, lastly 88% of people credit branded videos for convincing them to purchase a product or service.

Where do I start? And how?

The first steps to creating a cohesive and effective content marketing strategy are to understand your audience to the best of your ability, ask yourself questions like; “what are they interested in” “what are the questions they are asking” “what adjacent things are they consuming” Understanding these questions is key to putting together a sound content marketing strategy as they are informants for what your content should revolve around, you need to answer these questions with your content. Once you understand your audience you should then look to focus your content. This means you need to ensure that your content reflects your brands identity in all areas; any aesthetic and copywriting styles need to be consistent across the board and on brand.

Craft your copy to fit the channel.

Each social media channel has a level of professionalism versus fun, an accepted voice, and other details all its own. Before you write posts for a channel, spend some time reviewing posts to familiarise yourself with these details. Then, give your posts some of your own company spirit. Test and modify your approach, a winning social media promotion effort involves trial and error. Track responses from the various channels for quantity and quality. Fewer high-potential engagements may mean a channel is a good fit, as opposed to a slew of clicks that never turn into an audience.

Summit we can help with!

We provide a variety of different products for your brand to use, these are always a great way to promote your brand by having them as a focus point of certain content posts, we also provide design for multiple mediums from graphic design for online content to web design. If you need a hand with the creative processes that content marketing requires, get in touch and we can discuss the opportunities we can provide!