Why Invest In Content Marketing?

When it comes to effectively marketing a business online, it is becoming increasingly more important to adapt with the times…

We are now living in an era of on-demand content and social networking, where virtually anything a consumer wants can be instantly accessed and shared – as a result of this increased exposure to web content and improved convenience, consumers have become used to ignoring anything online that is not useful, informative or entertaining (in their eyes).

Today’s savvy consumer expect to:

Quickly and easily locate relevant, valuable information on services and products of interest.

Assess a brand’s products and services with the assistance of independent reviews.

Interact with and stay connected to a brand via social media.

Is there a place for traditional marketing techniques anymore?

Whilst there is still a use for more traditional online marketing techniques, the digital marketplace is changing…

Consumers these days are used to being bombarded with flashy banner adverts and direct sales pitches everywhere they go in the digital world, so, rather than grabbing their attention, using such techniques can often prove to be a pointless exercise, with phenomenon such as ‘banner blindness’ (users of websites ignoring banner-ad type information on a conscious or subconscious level) making these more traditional methods of online marketing much less effective if they are not used in combination with a strong content marketing campaign.

With easier access to relevant, impartial information on the web, consumers have higher expectations from businesses that possess an online presence as far as content is concerned: As such, negative perceptions of a brand can start to form if its marketing strategy involves peddling their wares using ‘spammy’ adverts or vacuous sales pitches which are not backed up with solid, helpful information.

Build up your brand image – with effective content marketing

The secret to an effective online content marketing campaign lies in providing your target audience with relevant, useful information (that isn’t explicitly sales-oriented) so that they can be influenced to build positive associations with your brand.

The key ingredients to a successful content marketing campaign are:

High-quality, accurate information or entertaining content which will be considered to be of some value to a target audience.

Effective distribution of said content across multiple relevant channels, so that it can reach its target audience: search engine optimisation, social media exposure, the use of content discovery platforms and a variety of other techniques can be utilised here.

An in-depth analysis of results is essential to help determine how effectively a campaign is running, as well as to provide insights that can pave the way for future improvements.