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Recently we’ve been sharing our tips on content marketing, but today, let’s forget all the more technical marketing agency jargon, and take it back to basics. What exactly is content marketing?
A simple definition of content marketing:
the creation of content intended to entertain an audience (rather than directly sell).
For instance, while social media posts are part of content marketing, if all a company did were write Facebook posts with the price of their product, this would not be content marketing. However, if they shared videos of people using their products this would be content marketing.
UK movie theatre chain, Picturehouse, provide a perfect example of content marketing with their Inside Picturehouse videos. Their videos talk about upcoming movies and movie related events which will entertain their film-fanatic audience and will also promote Picturehouse as a brand. They can share these videos on their website, in their emails and across their social media channels.
Social Media
Social media channels are key for almost any content marketing strategy as they provide a way for your audience to interact with you.
The important thing to note with social media is that people are there for fun. They want to be entertained, not talked at. Any social media post you share should engage your fans, while also being relevant to your business goals.
Three Foragers Bee Co.’s, a Saskatchewan based honey company, share trivia questions with their Facebook page fans. The questions are related to beekeeping and honey and are therefore relevant but they are also highly engaging. Each Tuesday a new trivia post is shared. Their fans know that a new question is coming, much like how TV fans know that their favourite show is on at a certain time each week. These posts don’t talk about the honey they sell, but they do present their brand as nature focused.
It’s not just cards you can share on social media. You could share live videos, pre-recorded videos and even podcasts. Provided the content is high quality, they will likely not only get viewed and enjoyed by your page fans but also shared, thus extending the reach of your content marketing.
Working with social media influencers is another option. People with a significant following on Facebook, YouTube or Instagram could create sponsored content that promotes your brand to their followers. Influencer marketing is a huge topic within itself and one that we could talk about for hours.
There are some handy content marketing tools out there that can help you easily create content to share on social media.
Blogs
Whenever we build a new website, we (almost) always recommend having a blog page. Blogs are both great for SEO, and content marketing.
Blog pages provide a space for engaged customers, or potential customers, to read about information relevant to your industry, product or service. The blogs don’t have to remain hidden away on your website though, you could link to them on social media, in emails, on ads or even share them with press.
While blogs are good marketing tools, they must be well written. We recently shared tips on the importance of telling a story within your writing. If you are going to spend time writing blogs, you don’t want the reader to get to the end of the first sentence and click away from boredom. If you don’t feel confident in your writing, speak to us about about our content marketing and copywriting services. Marketing agencies know what it takes to write a blog post that is both interesting and good for SEO.
Infographics are great to include in blogs for both SEO purposes and content marketing. Infographics can provide information in a more digestible way which makes it far more likely that it’ll get shared.
Adding quizzes and polls to your blogs also makes them more engaging (and helps with SEO). They could be interactive with the help of a web development expert, or just written up like this What’s Your Superhero Name page on Halloween store, Halloween Alley’s, website.
By the way, if you looked at the Halloween Alley superhero name quiz, let us know what you got. My superhero name is Snow Ruler, and I love it!
You don’t have to stop at blogs either. If you have lots of information, advice or technical information to share, why not create ebooks or white papers? Any piece of writing that would be enjoyed by your customer, is perfect for scheduling into a content marketing strategy.
Whatever content you end up creating, share it with your email subscribers. If you’re not yet sending out emails, there are numerous ways to create and send emails for free, or you can work with a marketing agency to get the most out of your email campaigns.
If you are ready to create a content marketing strategy and would like a bit of support, give us a call or stop by our marketing agency in Vancouver – we always have chocolate!