By Erin Pittman
Here at Prince William Living, we talk a lot about content marketing and its success. For this article, we’re going back to the basics and explaining what content marketing is, why it’s successful and how you can start using it for your business.
What Is Content Marketing?
Odds are you’re familiar with regular marketing, finding creative ways to promote and sell your products or services to potential customers. Content marketing involves creative and successful marketing of your business through the creation of content,and not just any old content! This is content that provides value to your end users.
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are providing truly relevant and useful content to your prospects and customers to help them solve their issues. This approach sets you up as an expert in your field, a reliable, trustworthy source for information, and gives you plenty of information to share online and in person, putting your brand and products out there for your targeted audience to interact with.
Why Use Content Marketing?
More than 80% of B2B and B2C consumers use online sources to make purchasing decisions. Content marketing is the present and future of marketing. It’s efficient, compelling and subtly persuasive. It can also be less expensive than traditional methods of marketing. According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing and generates three times as many leads!
What Types of Products Can Be Used in Content Marketing?
The sky’s the limit when it comes to content marketing. The first place to start is your website and blog. Quality web content and informative blogs build trust and credibility. Perhaps you want to do a monthly or quarterly newsletter packed with helpful articles, product highlights, links to recent blogs and more. Put a subscribe button on your website, and maybe offer an e-book or infographic in return for signing up. And be sure to talk about it ALL on your social media accounts!
Other content marketing options include white papers, case studies, webinars, videos, flyers, brochures, postcards, direct emails and even print books.
Are you ready to build your credibility, reach your target audience and increase your sales? It’s time to start creating that content! If tackling it all yourself is a bit daunting, check out our content marketing division and let our experts help you get started!
“Your Words Mean Business” provides insights and tips to business owners, organizations and professionals seeking to better their performance and increase their bottom line through sharpening written and marketing communication skills.
