Content Marketing: A Complete Beginner's Guide

There is such a concept of “inbound marketing”, when you take a potential client and use useful material to turn him into your buyer, and then into a brand advocate.

The states have a great expression for this - grab your reader by the eyeballs and make them buy from you.

It perfectly describes the concept of content marketing, albeit in a very long term, but understandable.

WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING

I admit that you have not heard about content marketing. But I hope that you heard the word content? Although there are so many terms in the 21st century now, so let's talk about everything in order.

Content is a collective word that includes information of various types (pictures, text, video, infographics). To put it quite simply and exaggeratedly, content = information.

Content marketing is a technology / ways / methods / approach (choose what you like) of creating and posting content in order to attract your target audience.

But here it is important to understand that content marketing is not just about creating some interesting article to make the reader happy and satisfied. The main thing is that he studies and performs the action we need: ordered a price list, a free consultation, or even bought.

The main task of content marketing is to create content that your potential buyer is looking for, which he will see in a convenient place (social networks, website, forum, etc.), and it will encourage him to take the action you need.

KISS ON THE SHOULDER

Remember the joke about the “kiss on the shoulder”? Content marketing is that long kiss on the shoulder of your potential client before you voice what you want from him.

The beauty is that properly created content heats up the desire in the client to purchase a product or service.

One of the simplest examples: after reading an article about promotion on Instagram (about 3 years ago), I became interested in mass following and wanted to implement it in my company.

For the classics of the genre, at the end of the article, I saw a link to a service that provided this opportunity. As a result, I clicked, got a trial, and stayed there for a few years. The obvious idea is that this article was prepared by the creators of "the best service for mass following."

They are actively distributing it. Everything is simple and ingenious. This is pure content marketing.

An important point.  Don't make your service / company / store the best and the best. The eyeliner should be very smooth. Otherwise it will look like a custom article.

METHODS OF SUBMISSION

For many, this attraction of new buyers to the company is perceived through the promotion of information in an article on a blog.

But in fact, there are a huge number of ways and channels for delivering information. So let's figure it out. And let's start with methods that can be roughly divided into three types:

Method 1. Text

Actually what you are reading now on this page. And although according to statistics, people began to read less and less, all the same, from the point of view of SEO-optimization, this is the most profitable way of delivering information.

Most importantly, it does not require additional skills and equipment, which cannot be said about the next two points.

And in order for the content to be consumed by the reader better, as you have already noticed, you have to be sophisticated: make paragraphs, lists, highlights, headings of different sizes.

This is not just that, because earlier, before we began to bother with such tasks, we wrote the text in a continuous manner. But in the end, we saw that a very large number of people leave the page pretty quickly.

I also want to immediately destroy the myth that people do not like to read long articles. Although, a myth is not a myth. I mean, people really don't like reading long articles, but that doesn't mean they don't.

You just need to write in the correct structure. To do this, I recommend reading our articles.

Method 2. Video

Another kind of message delivery that will set you apart from the competition, but you have to sweat.

Since to create it you need a camera, light, microphone, room and public speaking skills.

And if you think that now you can shoot everything on an old phone and people will watch, then I will disappoint you. Gone are the days when this was new.

Now the market demands quality, and if there is none, in most cases, your video will be closed. As an example, our recent interview with Igor Mann:

There is also a myth that video content is the future and is used better than text.

And here, again, from our practice, the case, we launched advertising through video and article to attract customers and saw that the article gave more efficiency.

And all because people hardly watched the video, due to the fact that at that time they were either at the workplace or on the road. Which, as you know, led to certain difficulties and they just scored on him.

Method 3. Infographics

At the moment, this direction of content has a great future. There are very few good infographics in USA, and it spreads just instantly.

The picture itself attracts more attention than the bare text, and if this picture still contains a squeeze of useful and interesting information, then they will be very willing to share it.

Hint. You can find infographics on your topic in English (fortunately, there are a lot of them).

This is how 98% of all other companies operate. We are personally not yet ready for such tasks, because it takes even more time than it does on video. And time is money.

DISTRIBUTION OPTIONS

Now that we have decided on the types of content, let's figure out in what places and how we can distribute it so that our audience can hear it.

And looking ahead, I want to say that there is no need to rush everywhere at once. This is quite bulky and costly.

Option 1. Blog

How could I start with something else? You are on it now, and this is a great example.

In our case, if a manager wants to understand marketing, he goes to a page on a topic of interest to him and gets acquainted with us, our expertise and our services.

Moreover, we attract readers to the blog mainly through SEO marketing , and we have a content plan that tells us which topics are better to create material on, so that the client is more likely to visit it and order our services.

Because we always try to write only practical and useful things. People don't just come and go, they come back, and thus become loyal customers or, as we like to call, brand advocates.

And for this to happen for sure, we have different calls in different parts of the page. Who can find them all? AND?

Option 2. Email marketing

Yes, good old email marketing . Don't trust people who say it doesn't work. Remember, as in that ad: “That's why I don't like cats! You just don't know how to cook them. "

Yes, mindless mailings that constantly shout “Buy! Buy it! Buy it! " no longer work. The time of the dashing nineties has passed.

Therefore, it is necessary at least to give usefulness, as a maximum to give individual usefulness. That is, to make sure that the client receives what will be interesting and relevant to him, and not to all target audiences.

Remember. After agreeing to the subscription, you need to send the subscriber extremely useful information, becoming familiar with which he will get to know you better. And only then send him special offers.

Of course, everything is individual, but here is the most primitive example of how to make an email funnel for a classic business “no fuss”:

Letter 1 - the client subscribes to some utility and in this letter it is given to him;

Letter 2 - a story about the company or the benefits of working with you;

Letter 3 - spec. sentence;

Letter 4 - pressure on the spec. sentence.

By the way. If you are planning to do mailing, I recommend the following services : UniSender, MailiGen, SendPuls. This is, perhaps, the most TOP, besides, they have been tested from personal experience.

Option 3. Social networks

For all people, social networks are a separate area, which is called SMM. But if you look at it, the placement of useful posts on social networks is the very content-miracle-marketing, where you can convey information both through large and small materials.

The biggest plus of promoting your business on social media is that your audience is touched more often than anywhere else.

By the way, here's a nice bonus for you in the form of a mechanic of how a person looks at posts in social networks:

- Evaluates the picture. If he is attracted to it, he goes to view the title;

- Evaluates the title. If he is also attractive, then the further action is even more interesting;

- He evaluates the volume of the text and decides whether he will read it or not. Therefore, it is not recommended to post on social networks with a sheet that is too long;

- Reads the text. And he makes a decision - to like or share the news.

An additional feature that will help make your content on social networks go viral and gain more likes and reposts is adding a song to a post, if, for example, we are talking about promotion in a contact .

By the way. Delayed posting programs will help you to simplify your life. And in my opinion, the most convenient ones are Tooligram, SmmPlanner, Parasite and Smmbox.

Option 4 media or ezines

Remember when I wrote that content marketing is cheap, but long? In case you want to make it “quick”, you will need to pay.

Typically, media articles are expensive because they are purchased advertising. But there are workarounds.

For example, if you are an expert in some field, then you may be published by quite authoritative publications or portals. And at the same time to do it completely free of charge, for example, as in all our cases. 

Option 5. YouTube channel and analogues

We have already talked about the fact that people are now more willing to absorb information through video than through text.

Take even Instagram, which was originally the realm of photo content. Now video clips are actively watched there, and this direction is capturing more and more percent of the active audience.

YouTube for this to help you. At the moment, it is the most popular site, where millions of people visit every day to find the material they are interested in.

Therefore, the simplest advice is to shoot a series of short training videos and bring them to the top youtube.

Option 6. Marketing kit, landing page and other materials

Definitely, this item cannot be attributed 100% to content marketing, but at the same time it cannot be completely removed from this zone.

Since through all our advertising materials, especially those that have a large amount of information, we train the client in one way or another. This is the pro level. I would even say super-duper-duper-pro.

And here the question arises. Are there only sales on your pages or is there useful content, thanks to which the client receives new information that is useful and interesting to him?

Think about it. We strive for this constantly and try to make some psychological and selling triggers of trust that cling to the living and provide a positive benefit.

PROS AND CONS

Everything seems to sound great and understandable. But like any tool, content marketing has pros and cons that you need to know about before diving headlong into it.

And we talk about them not on the basis of information from textbooks, but on the basis of our experience, for which we paid a lot of money.

Pros :

- Usefulness for potential clients. Especially if you are not greedy and share truly valuable information;

- One of the types of native advertising . It is considered the most unobtrusive, and most importantly, such advertising does not cause irritation;

- Low-budget way of advertising. In part, a controversial plus, but still you must remember that saving money will have to pay with a waste of time;

- High status. You provide extremely useful information, which means you are an expert in the eyes of the client, proving the full depth of your competence;

- Virality. With the proper approach, content can start spreading like a virus, and this guarantees you a huge coverage (flow) of people without additional investments;

- It works for a long time. Also a controversial plus, but I know a case when a person brought his video to the top of the Youtube channel and radically changed his field of activity;

- Fame. In addition to showing yourself as an expert, your popularity grows, as your face and name are everywhere, wherever the person goes;

- Growth in SEO. Well, and quite a trifle - a lot of high-quality content directly affects your site in search results.

Cons :

- Long story. Content marketing is not overnight. This is a long, constant, painstaking work. And far from one specialist (with a qualitative approach). As the saying goes, “tested on my own skin”; 

- Lots of tasks. Writing an article is one thing, optimizing it for SEO is another, and buying links to it is another. That is, either you will be making content slowly, or you will have to contact an organization that specializes in this;

- Permanent job. The flip side of the long-term work of CM is that with strong competition every day the content should become better and better, right up to perfection. Otherwise, the loss of positions is guaranteed to you;

- Deferred clients.  Of course, this is not always the case, but more often than not. For example, it may take 3-6 months from launching a blog and articles written on it to receiving the first applications (or a large budget for fast promotion).

WHO NEEDS CONTENT PROMOTION

I would like to say that any business needs this tool. But if you really look at the situation, that is, there are niches where it fits perfectly, and there are areas where it is better to refrain and think about another way of promoting.

Now you will see questions in front of you, answering which you will pass an express test for disposition to KM.

If the answer is yes, you can put yourself a plus and consider that it was created for you. If the answer is negative, it is worth thinking once again or even abandoning this idea.

1. Do your potential customers have questions about your product?

2. Are there many such questions and are they all different?

3. Are they not only in the client's head, they are also searched for in search engines?

4. Do you have enough expertise to prepare useful information?

5. Do you have the time and resources for continuous (no tear-off) content production?

6. Do your customers need to “mature” before buying?

7. Can you easily and publicly share your work?

Well? Yes or no? In some cases, it will be yes and no. In this case, I would first think about getting customers from more understandable and faster ways. And only then, when you have raked everything out, you can proceed to this approach.

Important. Get the most out of your business with our “fish strategy” guide. It is the juice of hundreds of training and books on marketing and sales. And also a concentrate of successful actions.

BRIEFLY ABOUT THE MAIN

I can say with confidence that this type of promotion works. Because it is he who allows us to get clients on autopilot.

But, as I said, all this is not fast. We started getting more or less tangible results only after 6 months of work. I do not deny that we did something wrong, but I can definitely say that we did better than many.

And if you think that the client in your content will simply find the answer to his question and leave, then I will tell you - the one who wants to get a solution for free will still receive it and will never pay money for it.

And those who value their time and who have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the material will definitely buy from you.

Once again, the scheme: you are looking for problems (tasks) of customers -> prepare material for this need (not forgetting to mention yourself) -> promote it (paid or free) -> get customers. Everything is simple and complex at the same time. Good luck in battle.