What Is Content Marketing

Useful, value adding content should be at the core of all your marketing.

Smart marketers realise that the effectiveness of traditional marketing is decreasing by the minute and that there has to be a better way to raise awareness, engage prospects, nurture and convert them.

This is where content marketing comes in.

So, what is content marketing?

Content marketing is a marketing technique which involves the creation and targeted distribution of relevant and valuable content. The aim is to attract, acquire and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience with the prime objective of driving profitable new business activity.

The purpose of content marketing is to attract and retain clients by consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content, with the intention of changing or enhancing buyer behaviour. It is an ongoing process that works best when it is integrated into your overall marketing strategy and it focuses on originality and owning media, not borrowing from or copying others.

Content marketing is the art of communicating with and engaging your prospects and clients without selling and yet still with the same final goal. It is non-interruption marketing. Instead of pitching your services and products through needy, pushy sales emails and cold calls, or via blatant sales ads, you are delivering information that makes your buyers more intelligent. The essence of this content strategy is the belief that if we, as companies, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers as part of a demand generation or lead nurturing campaign, they will ultimately respond by awarding us with new business and loyalty.

Content marketing is being used successfully by many of the world’s leading companies, such as Microsoft, DELL, Cisco, P&G and many more, such as Anthony Robbins. And why? Because it is effective and delivers results with an attractive ROI.

To be effective at content marketing, as part of a content marketing strategy, it is important that you have a documented content marketing strategy.

According to a recent study, 80% of business decision makers prefer to get information from companies through a series of articles rather than an advert. 70% say content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company through familiarity, increase trust and belief in credibility, while 60% say that content from companies helps them make better product and services decisions.

So, what if your prospects looked forward to receiving your marketing communications and calls? What if, when they received it, via email or website for example, they were to spend 15, 30 to 45 minutes reading it?

In B2B businesses, leads are generally a company’s lifeline. Unlike B2C purchases, most B2B products and services require thought, research and consideration before a buying decision is made. As a result, generating well qualified leads is a key focus area of marketing teams, across many industries. Whilst there are a number of new business acquisition strategies businesses can use to generate and nurture leads, 91% of B2B marketers are using content marketing, making it a top priority for many leading organisations.