Published: August 25 2015
No, you aren't imagining it; marketing your business keeps getting harder.
It almost doesn't make sense. After all, there are more marketing and advertising channels than ever before and it's never been easier to get in front of consumers.
Here's the thing: simply being in front of consumers isn't enough anymore.
You need to entertain them. You need to engage them. You need to educate them.
You need a strong content marketing strategy.
Content marketing is a large catch-all for a variety of marketing techniques that revolve around one common denominator: writing, creating, sharing, and promoting original, creative and interesting content.
This isn't a new strategy. We have been talking about it for a couple of years now.
The high-level view of what it looks like is:
At this point, it is important to note that no one step above is more important than the others.
Content marketing is not about pushing out "content" for the sake of pushing it out.
It is not:
Great content marketing strategies are based on content that:
Todd Martin is a great local Kelowna realtor that has been helping buyers and sellers for over 10 years. He just released his very first content piece that will be part of an ongoing campaign that will generate brand awareness in his market.
His first post is titled "9 Reasons Why Kelowna is the Best Place to Live (summer edition)". It highlights what is really great about Kelowna with great photography, vibrant video, and enjoyable copy.
Todd's content hits all the checkboxes for good content marketing.
You can check out the full piece at Todd's website, Kelowna-Homes.com.
Consumers are beginning to tune out advertising as we traditionally know it. I'm talking about the ads we are all familiar with; Online Banner ads, Magazine ads, TV Commercials, Billboards, Buses, Apps on our smart phones... The list goes on.
For example, the engagement level on banner ads (ads you see on websites) has gone down from 9% to under 0.2% since 2000. That means 15 years ago that every 1000 times your ad shows up on a site, it would get clicked around 90 times on average. Now they are under 2 on average. At the same time, advertising rates on sites have gone up.
A well planned and executed content marketing strategy allows businesses to connect and provide value to consumers. This helps build a relationship with a consumer because their "guard" is down when they are entertained and interested in the content. Everyone likes an ad that entertains them. That's why millions of viewers flock to television sets for the Superbowl to watch the great, creative commercials that were created. Then they flock to the internet to watch them again, and share with friends. Content marketing is no different. The more entertaining and interesting the piece, the higher the engagement will be with consumers.
This is why companies are heavily investing in content marketing. In fact, B2B marketers increased their budget by 58% in 2014, and B2C marketers increased their budgets by 60%. One study by Google's Hubspot found that brands that created 15 blog posts per month averaged 1,200 new leads per month.
Maybe it is time for you to invest in content marketing as well.
We can help.
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