Content Marketing: What it is and how to Start it

Sooner rather than later, to work on SEO effectively, you must have a good content marketing strategy behind it. You want to know why? I will tell you about it in this article, where I will also explain what content marketing is , what are the advantages of applying content marketing to your strategy and how to do it . Shall we start?

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a marketing technique that is based on creating , publishing and sharing content of interest to your buyer person .

If you are wondering about the main requirements to launch a valid content strategy, you can take note of these two:

1. Have a well-defined buyer persona that you want to target.
2. Layout the knowledge you want to convey to your target audience in different formats: blog articles, downloadable guides, video tutorials, podcasts, infographics, etc.
   

Thanks to this marketing technique you will be able to work throughout the user’s purchase cycle . That is, the process that a person goes through from when he realizes that he has a need until he decides to buy a product / service to solve it.

Key  to this process  is to arouse their interest with the right information at the right time. Therefore, you will need different content to answer the questions of your buyer person in any of its phases in the purchase cycle.

Do you need examples? I propose some to apply in the different phases:

• With your blog you can help them get informed and create an opinion on a given topic.
• With your ebooks and whitepapers you can offer comparative information on different solutions to your problem or need.
• On the prices or services page you can show why you are their best option.
• Through videos with interviews with testimonials, you can convey how positive the experiences of other customers with the brand have been.

Always keep in mind that the content will have to respond to the needs and problems of your ideal client , only then can you build a successful strategy. If you are interested in reviewing the details about creating your buyer persona, I recommend this post with a step-by-step guide to creating one . Check it out!

Next, I want to explain the advantages of using a content strategy for your company. If you are not already applying for it!

What Advantages does Content Marketing have?

Reducing the cost of acquiring customers, making your brand more relevant or increasing lifetime value are just some of the benefits enjoyed by those who know what content marketing is . In addition, successfully implementing a content marketing strategy provides advantages such as the following four:

1.   Increase the notoriety and brand awareness of your brand . Your content consolidates you as an authority on the subject. You become a reference in the sector and that makes your brand name familiar to potential customers. When deciding to buy a product or hire a service, they are more likely to turn to who they know best.
2.   Increase organic traffic to your page / blog. It’s something you get when the value of your audience’s content is recognized by Google, which places you on the first page of search results. From there, you make it easy to find someone who accesses the internet looking for answers.
3.   Increase engagement with your audience and help educate your visitors. Your continuous publications get users to visit your page / blog more often. While you are educating them with your content, you gain in closeness with them. In the end, they become advocates for your brand, evangelizers, at best.
4. Increase your database and your page conversion. Quality content attracts visitors who will leave you their data in exchange for being able to download ebooks, infographics or tests. In this way, as your traffic grows, the number of conversions also increases, making you also earn leads for your database.

Why should you start working on content marketing?

You have probably already heard or read about content marketing on more than one occasion. And, indeed, in recent years this technique has been gaining more and more followers due to its user-friendly nature , but, above all, because it meets a series of conditions that Google likes:

• Fresh content due to the constant renewal of articles on the blog.
• Information relevant to the user, which he shares through social networks.
• The user is the center and the text is oriented to their understanding of a topic, not to the placement of keywords.

This does not imply that when launching a content marketing campaign you will have to forget about working at the SEO level. In fact, there is a very close relationship between one thing and another because content marketing allows you to work on many different keywords . And this translates into an increase in the chances of appearing in the search results.

If this already seems like an interesting point for your business, keep reading! Surely you will be able to get more out of your content marketing strategy.

As I mentioned a little above, one of the great advantages of content marketing is that it allows you to work with multiple keywords. Moreover, there are ways to work it that can be very effective. I keep telling you!

At Challenging Voice, for example, we have seen that SEO becomes much more useful when approached from a long-tail perspective . Instead of trying to position an article or web page for a very competitive keyword, the results are more profitable if you search for the long-tail of this keyword and write articles related to it.

What advantages are obtained in practice? Working your keywords in this way entails:

• Less competition to be placed in the first positions of the search engines.
• Good rankings for the long-tail of the keyword that you consider main.
• Multiple results that, if relevant, will also rank for the most important keyword.

The purpose of content marketing is to attract potential customers through relevant and quality content that can retain them, and later make them end up converting to a customer.

I propose a practical case that we have worked on in Challenging Voice so that you understand to what extent it can bring you benefits to use a content marketing strategy based on long-tails. This is a company whose target keyword was very competitive. Using the long-tail derived from this, with about 30 exact searches per month, they have managed to capture more than 2,000 monthly visits. It all adds up! 😉

Before you Start: what to Consider?

The first step is to prepare a good content plan and schedule in advance the content that you will upload day by day. It will help you plan in the long term, to have a greater perspective and visibility, and to be able to differentiate audiences to create specific content for each of your buyer personas.

The key to success is delivering the right content at the right time. That is, offer your buyer person the information they need according to the phase of the purchase process in which they are. Also, remember to do it with the most appropriate format, because not only the quality of the information matters, but also its presentation. In addition, it can be a useful tool to get to know your client better. Never miss this opportunity!

These are some types of content that you can use in your content marketing strategy :

• Images.
• Infographics.
• Videos.
• Guides/tutorials.
• Journals.
• Ebooks.
• free PowerPoint templates
• Whitepapers.
• Presentations.
• Applications.
• Games.
• Webinars.

I recommend you take advantage of each one without losing sight of the objectives of the campaign.

Also, remember that listening to your users and collecting their feedback to find out what they need and what interests them can help you identify what topics are of interest to them and thus generate content that adds value to them. Therein lies one of its secrets!

What are the Main Difficulties you May Encounter?

Any effective strategy must anticipate the possible complications that it will have to face, the bottlenecks or the limitations that could affect the expected results. Planning is key to being able to avoid problems that everyone who knows what content marketing is has suffered, like these three:

1. Know how to generate relevant content for the buyer person . Without relevance, the audience’s interest is lost, the prospect’s attention declines and the brand’s desire to gain authority and visits deflates in view of the results.
2. Produce enough content . Although it is an issue that affects the long-term strategy, it requires an investment of resources (time and dedication) from the beginning that must be planned.
3. Generate content that covers the entire user purchase process and its different cases . The buyer persona at the center and their purchase journey, each of the brand’s interactions, as a roadmap to avoid missing important moments in their transit through the funnel.

How to Start your Content Marketing Strategy?

The first step is to establish where you want to start. To launch your content marketing strategy, you have these channels available:

1. Your company blog: This is considered one of the main channels of content marketing and the one I recommend you bet on. Writing a blog has many advantages from a marketing point of view and can help you:
   
   • Position yourself for a topic organically . We have seen in the previous paragraphs how working with keywords in a structured way can help you achieve better positioning even if your business belongs to a very crowded sector.
   • Create valuable content for your readers . You will have your own channel to offer solutions to the pains of your buyer persona.
   • Be known as an expert in your sector . If you work with the content well, you will be able to create user engagement and make them return to your blog when they are looking for information related to your sector. In other words, they will see you as a reference.
   • Opportunity to capture records to create your own database . By applying strategies such as the offer of more elaborate content in exchange for data in forms, for example, you will be able to develop other points of your marketing strategy such as lead nurturing and lead score to accompany your buyer personas throughout the purchase cycle.
   • Make your brand, product or service known . A blog with quality content and a good SEO strategy will help improve the positioning of your brand, increase traffic to your company’s website and make more and more people know about you.
     
2. The social networks: Through the social networks of your company you can spread specific content. The most common is to complement this channel with your blog. Thus, on the one hand, you will give greater visibility to your articles and, on the other, you will be able to take advantage of already generated content to adapt it and share it through the networks. You can get a lot out of your blog posts to:
   
   • Create attractive infographics and images.
   • Produce videos.
   • Personalize messages for each of your target audiences or according to the social network where you publish it.
   • Crear tests.
     
3. Paid Advertising: To give your strategy more momentum, especially at the beginning, you can opt for online paid advertising on Google or on social networks (Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads…). You will be able to position yourself in search engines and spread your content on social networks. If you want to know more, I suggest you download our Guide: Inbound marketing and online advertising .
   
4. Offline Events and Actions: Keep in mind that the content you produce (no matter what broadcast channel you use) will also be a very useful listening tool. Comments, likes, follower profiles or collaborations with influencers can offer you a lot of information about how your strategy is working and help you improve it, if that is the case. Traditional advertising like create event flyers and hand them out in your community & other offline actions that you undertake will also serve to spread your message, while acting as an indicator of the popularity of your brand and the alignment of your strategy with the expectations of the buyer persona.
   
5. Meetings Between the Sales team and Customer Opportunities: Word of mouth continues to work and the connection with the person in front of us can be a determining factor for the success of the strategy . Knowing what content marketing is is as important as knowing how to explain the characteristics of the product or service to the customer or being available to satisfactorily answer any questions or concerns that may arise during the purchase process.

Once you have decided to bet on starting to create content marketing, you will see that it will only bring you benefits!

Content marketing and Inbound Marketing

As you have seen, content marketing is based on creating content and then spreading it and adding value to our target audience.

But how does this fit in with other marketing techniques? Content marketing can be considered as a first part of inbound marketing. However, inbound marketing is much more extensive and takes care of other areas such as the conversion of the captured registrations into clients of the company.

Without a doubt, working on your content within the framework of an inbound strategy will bring many benefits to your business :

• More traffic to your blog and more visibility for your brand.
• Increase in records.
• Increase in qualified leads.
• Educate your audience and make you a benchmark in your sector.
• It is more profitable in the long run.
• Improve your relationship with your customers and increase engagement.

This is a very attractive scenario that is supported by the foundation of a good content marketing strategy. Additionally, suppose you are experiencing difficulties with your content marketing for starting your business. In that case, you can always look up to this website to learn more about how to start your business effectively and effortlessly.

Examples of Brands Using Content Creation

Some of the success stories of Challenging Voice can serve to illustrate the advantages of launching a content marketing initiative . I would like to share with you the stories of three of them:

• EAE Business School (Planeta group). It is one of the most reputable business schools in Spain and Europe . They have different blogs depending on the verticals they target, including The Management Challenges Blog and The Logistics Operations Blog . In addition to the content they generate out there, they stand out for the offline events they organize, the open days and the amount of specific material they create to support their commercial team so that they can boost the closing of sales of master’s degrees and university courses.

• Lekue. It is one of the ecommerce that has grown the most in recent years . They don’t just focus on boosting their sales channel, but have also created a blog full of recipes, tips and tricks  for all the foodies who follow the brand, both those who have and use their products and those who don’t. Its content strategy is extrapolated to product packaging, stands and even at its points of sale.
  
• Australis. This company is dedicated to making cruises through Patagonia. It has been one of the most advanced in terms of inbound marketing and content marketing within its sector . It has several blogs in most of the languages ​​in which they operate (English, Spanish, German and French) . And, in addition, they have opted to make their cruises an experience, creating content around all of it. From videos showing the routes , the landscapes to recordings of the ship itself inside. The result is that, if you go to their YouTube channel, you feel teleported to those spectacular places, almost savoring what it’s like to live a vacation aboard one of their cruise ships.

Now that you know what content marketing is, how a content marketing strategy fits into an inbound marketing project and what its results can be, how about starting your own?

Still thinking about implementing your global marketing strategy with a content marketing plan ? There are plenty of reasons!