A Beginner’s Guide to Content Marketing

What is content marketing?

Imagine you have a problem you don’t know how to solve. The first thing you do is pull out your phone and type it into Google, right? Now you’re faced with lots of links to content on the subject. You discover some businesses you’ve never heard of before. Some are offering content that is useful to you, others not so much. 

Businesses offering valuable information or advice will stick in your mind. You may connect with these businesses on social media or sign up for their newsletters to receive more content. 

If one of these businesses successfully builds a relationship with you and wins your trust, you’re more likely to return to buy their product or service.

This is the power of content marketing.

Content marketing isn’t a quick win; it’s a long-term strategy focusing on building solid relationships, trust, and brand loyalty with your target audience.

Businesses use this technique by creating and distributing valuable and relevant content to attract their target audience. By becoming a valuable source of information for their target audience, businesses can gain authority within their industry, increase conversion rates, and boost revenue. 

Whilst some traditional marketing and advertising techniques can be pushy and disruptive, content marketing is about building awareness and trust by providing information and value in an organic way rather than directly promoting a product or service.

In this article, we’ll learn more about why your business should invest in creating content and explain how to create a content marketing strategy.

What are the different types of content?

When you think of content marketing, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Most people think of business blogs. Whilst blogs are undoubtedly one of the most valuable forms of content marketing, there are plenty of other formats to choose from.

Different content formats include:

• Blogging
• Video
• Whitepapers
• Newsletters
• Emails
• Infographics
• Social media posts
• Podcasts
• eBooks
• Case studies

The type of content that performs best for one business may be different for the next. When choosing which content to create, consider how your target audience likes to consume content and the content format your business or industry lends itself best to. For example, a beauty brand lends itself to creating video tutorials and demonstrations, whereas a law firm may be more suited to producing text content.

People have diverse preferences when it comes to accessing and consuming content, so creating content in various formats can help broaden your reach.

What are the benefits of content marketing?

In a crowded marketplace, content marketing is an essential strategy businesses use to reach and engage their target audience.

Content marketing is one of the most effective ways of developing brand awareness and growing an audience online. Let’s learn more about the benefits of consistently creating and distributing high-quality content.

Increase brand awareness and visibility 

You can increase your brand’s visibility online by creating high-quality content and distributing it through various channels. If your audience shares and engages with your content, this expands your reach even further. Optimising your content for search can improve your search engine rankings, driving more organic traffic to your website and increasing brand awareness and visibility.

Establish your business as an industry leader 

By consistently producing high-quality, relevant, and unique content, your business can establish itself as a thought leader. If your target audience sees your business as an expert in its field, it helps to build trust and credibility. They are then more likely to choose your business over competitors when making buying decisions.

Attract and engage your target audience 

Creating informative, insightful, and helpful content will help attract and engage your target audience.

Increase conversions and revenue 

Content marketing helps businesses to build strong relationships with their target audience based on trust and credibility, giving them an advantage over their competitors and helping to increase conversion rates and boost revenue. Businesses can use strategically placed calls-to-action within their content to guide their audience towards a specific action, such as signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase.

Encourage customer loyalty 

Content marketing is a powerful tool for building a loyal customer base and driving long-term business success. Providing your target audience with valuable information or advice that helps them shows that you’re an expert in your industry and care about delivering value to your audience. Consumers are more likely to buy from you again or recommend your business if they trust you or have had a good experience.

SEO 

Publishing high-quality, relevant content on your website gets a big thumbs up from Google, particularly if your content gains traction and you start earning natural inbound links. By consistently creating and distributing valuable content, you can establish your brand as an authority in its industry and improve its overall online visibility and search engine rankings.

How do I get started with content marketing?

Before you begin penning your first piece of content, you need a strategy to give your content direction and purpose. Your plan should outline whom you are creating content for, the type of content you will make, and how and when you will distribute the content.

To figure this out and get started, you should follow these four basic steps: 

• Identify and understand your target audience.
• Choose suitable content distribution channels.
• Create a content plan and calendar.
• Start creating content.

We’ll look at each of these steps in more detail below. Vacancies in digital marketing are currently in high demand. Anyone hoping to get into digital marketing should perfect their skills in these areas. 

Identify and understand your target audience

Knowing your target audience is critical to running a successful content marketing strategy. If you understand your audience, you can tailor your content to drive engagement and conversions.

Be prepared to put in the time to do your research and get to know your audience. Helpful information includes your audience’s demographics, needs, interests, pain points, the type of content they prefer, and which channels they are most active on.

There are several methods and tools you can use to identify your target audience and then learn more about them; these include:

• Google Analytics
• Social media analytics
• Customer surveys
• Competitor analysis

Choose suitable content distribution channels

Once you start creating content, simply posting it on your website may not be enough to get it seen. To ensure that your content reaches the right audience, you need a plan for distributing it effectively.

The first step is to identify the right distribution channels for your content. Start by considering where your target audience hangs out online. Are they active on social media? If so, which platforms – Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram? Do they regularly visit online forums or participate in online communities? You will also need to consider your target audience’s preferred content format. Do they like to read blog posts, watch videos, or listen to podcasts? Once you’ve got answers, you will have a clearer idea about which channels will be most effective for distributing your content.

Create a content plan and calendar

Content marketing can go in countless directions, so it can be overwhelming to work out where to start. However, having a content plan and calendar can help you focus on your goals.

Before you begin creating your content plan, you should identify your goals. Your goals should align with your overall business objective and focus on what you want to achieve through content marketing. Once you have identified your goals, you can create a content plan tailored to your audience’s needs.

One way to do this is by using content mapping, which involves creating content that guides your audience through each stage of the buying cycle. This approach helps you to create content that addresses your audience’s specific pain points and questions and leads them towards a purchase decision.

You will also need to create a content calendar to help you to stay organised and maintain a consistent content creation schedule. Your content calendar should outline the following information for each piece: content type, topic, channel, and publishing and distribution dates.

Start creating content

Once you have a clear strategy, it’s time to start creating content.

How you do this depends on whether you have the required skills in-house. You can start publishing your content immediately if you or members of your team have the time and necessary skills. 

However, if you could do with some help, using a professional content writing service can be an excellent option. At Create8, we provide expert advice and direction to businesses as they embark on their content marketing journey. Our team of content specialists deliver top-notch content writing services, crafting bespoke and targeted content that adheres to best practices to help you get your content strategy off the ground.

Measure and audit the success of your content

Once you’ve started pushing content into the world, don’t forget to check back regularly to see how it’s performing.

Analytics tools can help you discover plenty of invaluable data and insights about which pieces of content are popular, how they are being discovered, who your audience is, how engaged they are, and more.

By delving deep into analytics, you can enhance the effectiveness of future content by investing your time and resources into creating the types of content that have proven to produce results.

How you measure the success of content depends on its format and where it was shared. Most platforms provide back-end analytics or insights for you to review.

You can review the performance of blogs and website content on Google Analytics. Social media and paid advertising platforms offer insights and analytics directly within their interfaces.

Content marketing metrics to pay close attention to include:

• Unique users and page views
• Click-through rates
• Average time on page
• Bounce rates
• Social shares and mentions
• Comments
• Conversions

Common content marketing pitfalls to avoid

From failing to understand your target audience to neglecting to measure the effectiveness of your content, we’ve taken a closer look at some of the most common content marketing pitfalls and how you can avoid them.

Not understanding your target audience

One of the most common content marketing mistakes is creating content without a clear idea of the target audience. For your content to succeed, you need to know who your audience is, what they care about, and what problems they need to solve. Without the answers to these questions, you may find that your content has low engagement rates and poor return on investment. To avoid this pitfall, research your audience and develop buyer personas that represent their needs, interests, and behaviours. This will help you to create content that speaks directly to their pain points and drives engagement.

Creating content aimlessly

Another common mistake is creating content without a clear strategy or purpose. This mistake can cause your content to lack consistency and direction, making it challenging to build a cohesive brand identity or drive conversions. Businesses should take the time to develop a content strategy that aligns with their goals and target audience’s needs. The content strategy should include information about brand voice, content formats, content topics, and distribution channels.

Not distributing content effectively

Creating content is only half the battle – you must also ensure it reaches your target audience. Without a clear plan for content distribution, your content will have a limited reach and low engagement rates. Common content distribution channels include social media, email newsletters, paid ads, and influencer posts. Once you have identified the most effective channels for your content and audience, you can optimise your content for each channel.

Being inconsistent

Consistency is key in content marketing. Failing to maintain a consistent publishing schedule can lead to audience disengagement. Developing a content calendar helps to create a framework for organising and promoting your business’s content. 

Creating content without value

Every piece of content you create should have a clear purpose and provide value to your audience. Focus on creating content that is useful, informative, or entertaining. Your content could solve your audience’s problems or answer their questions and may come in the format of how-to guides, industry insights, or thought leadership articles.

Not listening to analytics

Finally, you will not know how your content performs if you don’t regularly review your analytics data. This will make it difficult to make informed decisions about your strategy or optimise your content for better results. Periodically reviewing and analysing engagement rates, traffic sources, and conversion rates will help you to make informed decisions that improve the performance of your content strategy. 

Create8 content marketing services

If you need help creating content that informs, engages, and converts, contact our team of content writers and branding specialists.

Whether you need help creating a content strategy, building a brand, discovering your brand voice, or writing consistent blog posts for your website, our team has the expertise to help you achieve your content marketing goals. Get in touch to start your project today.