What Is Content Marketing In Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing primarily focuses on how you can connect with audiences on the internet, and one of the best ways that online marketers do that is through content marketing.
Although content marketing should be a part of the overall digital marketing strategy you’ve built, content is a beast on its own and requires careful planning. So what is content marketing in digital marketing?
Let’s do an in-depth analysis and see how it fits into the digital arena.
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What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a means of offering information to audiences and customers. It serves many purposes within the larger scheme of internet advertising. Typically, content marketing involves the creation of informational materials and the distribution of those materials through various digital channels.
Above all, content marketing is intended to move the consumer to take some type of action. A call-to-action or CTA is often found at the end of every type of content. If your content meets your customer's expectations or needs, then ideally customers will do what you ask, whether it’s reading another article or signing up to your email list.
Good content marketing needs a ton of things.
First, the content must be informative and relevant to the target audience you’re serving it to. You want your target audience to interact with your content, be engaged by it, and find your content valuable.
Your content must solve your target readers’ problems. So, for an effective content marketing strategy, you must create content that means something to your potential clients.
Second, content marketing must serve a certain goal. Often, businesses use content to raise awareness about their brand. Other online marketers use content marketing to establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry by sharing insights they’ve learned from their personal experience.
Or maybe you’re trying to rank high on search engine result pages (SERPs) and show up when your ideal clients are looking for help. You must define the goal you’re trying to achieve with the content you create. It’s a trial-and-error process, but effective content marketing will push you forward.
Third, it’s essential to create entertaining content. You’re asking your ideal customers to engage with the content you’re creating, and we all love to be entertained. If you can educate your target audience while entertaining them, it’s even better. So, make sure your content is something people will love to read and watch, and you’ll find that your content marketing strategy will yield the results you’re looking for.
Types Of Content Marketing In Digital Marketing
There are multiple types of content marketing that fall under the term “digital marketing”, including:
Blogging
Podcasting
Video
Infographics
Visual content
Email
Ebooks
Whitepapers
Lead magnets
Quizzes
Slideshow presentations
Webinars
Courses
Checklists
Free apps
Social media posts
Slide decks
And more.
No matter the type of content you choose to create, you must ensure it’s informative, entertaining, and it must meet your business goals and needs. For instance, here are five goals that most businesses want to achieve with their content marketing efforts:
Drive traffic to their websites and key landing pages.
Increase brand awareness.
Build strong relationships with their ideal audience.
Generate more revenue.
Generate more social shares and backlinks.
Why Should I Leverage Different Types Of Content Marketing?
When most people hear about content marketing they often think about blogging.
Blogging is great; however, there are other forms of content marketing strategies that can help your brand grow quickly.
In the last few years, the realm of podcasting has grown from 18.5 million podcast episodes to over 30 million - and that rate doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
Also, people watch one billion hours of videos on YouTube every day.
Plus, when you publish content in different formats, you can tap into those expanding audiences. Also, publishing multiple types of content enables you to be everywhere your target customers spend time online.
For instance, a potential customer might not see your latest blog post when you share it on social media. But maybe they’ll watch your video on YouTube on their way home from work.
Best Content Marketing Practices
Choose Your Primary Content Format
The first step in developing an effective content marketing strategy is figuring the type of content marketing you want to focus on.
However, “focus on” doesn’t mean you’ll only create content in that one format. It means this will be the content type you’ll put most of your energy, time, and budget behind.
Use Content Formats Your Ideal Customers Already Consume
Does your target audience spend most of their time on YouTube? If so, get a camera and shoot some videos.
For B2B businesses, LinkedIn posts make more sense than Facebook Live.
Thankfully, you need not guess the type of content your ideal audience loves. Check Facebook Groups, Reddit threads, or other platforms your target audience spends time with online to see what they’re saying.
Leverage Your Strengths
Perhaps you’re debating a few types of content marketing to focus on.
So if you’re still unsure about which content format to go with, choose a format that works perfectly for you and your team.
For instance, if you have years of experience as a freelance writer and you know how to create content for the web, then you should focus more on blog posts.
Because blog posts play to your strengths, the content you publish is likely to be good.
Focus On Channels That Your Target Customers Love
Once you’ve figured out what content type to focus on, it’s time to think about where you’ll publish your content.
If, for instance, you decide to focus on written content, then you can publish your content on your blog, other people’s blogs through guest posting, or on platforms such as Medium.
However, if you choose to focus on videos, then YouTube will be your go-to platform. And if you’re publishing workout videos, for instance, then you should also post your videos on Instagram.
The bottom line is that you must share your content where your target customers already hang out.
Final Thoughts
The primary goal of content marketing in digital marketing, just like in any other marketing strategy, is to attract qualified leads and generate sales. To succeed in content marketing, you must create valuable and relevant content that engages and keeps your ideal audience entertained. Also, you must choose the right content type that your audience will love, and you must publish your content on platforms that your target customers engage with.