This article is about innovative Content marketing ideas and tips that your business can follow when creating content. For this, it is crucial to understand what content marketing stands for. The purpose of content marketing is for your brand to create and share the content of any kind (written or visual) to inform and interact with your target audience.
According to a recent Hubspot study, 70% of marketers invest in content marketing. As such, content marketing is critical to the success of businesses, from startups to those with hundreds of employees. In this article, we will highlight the key differences between content and content marketing, as well as the key elements that make up a great content marketing strategy.
By the end of this 5-minute read, you’ll know all about the best marketing ideas and tips to follow.
Content vs Content Marketing: Key differences
The main difference between content marketing and any other form of content is consistency. With content marketing, your brand needs to be consistent. Sharing marketing content is critical to increasing your brand awareness and generating leads. Likewise, content marketing is also about engaging with your target audience.
This is where content marketing differs from advertising. Advertising is about selling a product or service. In contrast, content marketing is about building a solid relationship with your customers by providing valuable information (content). So let’s explore what makes a good content marketing strategy.
What is a Great Content Marketing Strategy?
For your content marketing to be successful, it has to integrate some valuable criteria. Apart from following the basic SEO rules and strategies, your content should always:
- be relevant to your brand;
- provide valuable information;
- be consistent (you should publish regularly);
- be unique: try to cover a variety of topics related to your field;
- be optimized for your target audience: this is important for increasing the number of your followers or subscribers;
- be adjusted to what your audience needs or asks for.
Thus, although creating SEO-friendly meta-descriptions, for example, is essential, your content marketing campaign should aim for consistency and value.
Top 10 Content Marketing Ideas for your Business
Now that we’ve analyzed what brilliant content marketing means, let’s look at some creative solutions that can help you differentiate your brand from the competition. The ideas we found can be adapted in almost any type of content (blog, social media, etc.).
- Create engaging and informative written content. Even though visual content is crucial these days, your written content should be of high quality. Hiring professional writers to augment your marketing team is a brilliant solution if you want to stand out and increase engagement with your clients.
- Prove your expertise. Using different examples and providing fascinating information to your audience is vital to prove your expertise and gain their trust.
- Combine physical and digital experience. No matter if you own a small business or a vast company, it is important to have a strong physical and digital presence at the same time.
- Invest in high-quality video content. Videos are critical to increasing brand awareness and interaction with your clients. You can either hire professional video creators or use online video editors like Fastreel or Kapwing.
- Create ebooks. Ebooks are a great way to showcase your brand’s deep understanding of a topic and an intelligent way to interact with your audience (by asking for their email).
- Spread a relevant message. Find something strong and relevant to your company’s identity. Spreading a strong message can boost up interaction with your clients.
- Boost your brand identity. You can do that in numerous ways. A smart thing to do is include your branding elements (logo, colors, fonts) in your content. There are numerous online photo editor apps and platforms like Canva that can help you do that.
- Use your Social Media for interaction. Social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter allow you to interact with your audience in different ways. For example, you can create Q&A posts and start an exciting discussion.
- Provide relevant tips and hacks. Although this doesn’t apply in all industries, it is a smart way to boost your brand awareness. This type of content can be created as a video, image, or blog post.
- Create valuable infographics. Infographics have become more and more popular for good reasons. They provide valuable information in a visual form. This makes infographics less boring and one of the most engaging types of content.
Tips to Keep in Mind When Creating Your Content Marketing Strategy
For any of those tactics to be successful for your business, you have to follow some essential tips. The following tips are crucial to make captivating content that will keep your clients engaging:
- Know and analyze your audience. This is a crucial parameter. Understanding your audience is very important for your content to be relevant and adjusted to their needs.
- Ask your audience. This is smart to do if you want to find alternative content options. With promotion and discussion of your content with your audience, you can make sure that it is always on the spot.
- Examine your analytics. All professional content marketers build their strategies based on the company’s analytics. From your website to your social media, your analytics will help you understand your target audience, preferences, and the best ways to move forward.
- Utilize content creation software and research tools. As mentioned earlier, there are numerous tools that you can use to boost your content efficiency. All you have to do is choose the best ones for your needs.
- Follow other successful content marketing examples. There’s nothing wrong with following the example of other successful businesses. Yet, try to be unique and promote your company’s special identity.
Wrap Up
This article analyzed why content marketing is very different from random content creation and advertising. In content marketing, you should aim for consistency, value, and engagement with your target audience. Optimizing your content to meet the needs of your clients is the first step to success.
There are numerous solutions and tips to help you increase your brand awareness. Once you’ve identified your target audience and researched your analytics, all you have to do is choose which of the ideas provided you will follow.
From creating exciting blog posts and ebooks to infographics and videos, content marketing is an endless source of innovative ideas.