Content marketing
No matter how you slice the marketing pie or the channels you use to advertise and market your business, you need content.
In some ways, as long as you are engaged in some sort of marketing activity, you are engaged in content marketing.
Of course, content marketing is its own beast.
Content Hype is here to help whether you are just getting started in content marketing or whether you need support in keeping your existing content marketing operations and production running.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is the creation and consistent distribution of valuable and relevant content to acquire a defined audience, with the aim of driving profitable consumer action.
This involves the creation of a wide variety of content, which can be anything from articles and newsletters to photos, infographics and videos, which are targeted at a specific audience with the specific aim of having members of that audience engage with your brand and/or products.
HOW IS CONTENT MARKETING DONE?
Broadly speaking, content marketing is about achieving:
- An increase in a brand or business’ audience
- Creating brand loyalty with that audience
- Increasing visibility in the marketplace
- Establishing a person, brand or business as a figure of authority within their given field
- Driving profitable customer actions
Content marketing can be a very complex beast, depending on the size of the audience you are looking to acquire and the amount of content you need for the various distribution channels you intend to use.
Alternatively, it can be a much more simple exercise if you are only going to employ one distribution channel.
Whatever the scale of content marketing a business or brand employs, however, it can effectively be broken up into four key phases.
Phase 1 – Content Planning: Carving out a content marketing strategy
This is perhaps the most crucial part of content marketing, but more often than not amongst the most overlooked.
One of the biggest reasons businesses and brands fail when it comes to content marketing is because they do not do enough research and planning before they start creating content.
By launching into content creation without properly conducting content planning – or a content marketing strategy – businesses and brands run the risk of:
- Failure to properly understand the audience they are trying to attract
- Failing to consistently create relevant and engaging content
- Running out of ideas for new content
- Failure to adequately resource for content creation
A good content marketing strategy should achieve the following:
- Provide a clear picture of the audience you are creating content for
- Understanding the wants, needs and pain points of the people that make up this audience
- A clear understanding of the various channels your content will be distributed from
- Provide a clear list of topics to create content about
- Demonstrate the types of content to be created about each topic
- Key dates withing your business or industry
- A schedule with clear deadlines for the creation of each piece of content and its distribution
Ideally, a content marketing strategy will set out your content requirements for the next 12 months as much as possible.
Of course, you should also allow for unexpected content creation opportunities.
For example, if there is a major breaking story in the media that affects your industry or customers, you should be agile enough to capitalise on that opportunity and create relevant, engaging content around that event.
The research and planning at this stage are vital to ensuring your content marketing efforts are not a mere flash in the plan and consistently deliver value to your intended audience.
Phase 2 – Content creation: Creating a lasting impression with value-driven content
With a solid strategy in place, the second phase of content marketing is creating the content you are going to distribute.
A good content marketing strategy will create a wide variety of content which can be distributed via different marketing channels.
Examples of different types content include:
- Articles/blogs
- Webpages
- Newsletters
- Photos
- Videos
- Infographics
- Podcasts
- Graphic design
- Press releases
- Webinars
- Presentations
- Social media posts
It is often true that one piece of content can be adapted into various other pieces of content.
So, for example, a well-written and executed article on a website, could be adapted into a short video, an infographic and several social media posts.
Alternatively, if you have a podcast, you can create articles from your podcast by either publishing a transcript of your podcast, or by summing up key discussion points from your episodes.
With so many different types of content that can be created, the next question is what should each piece of content achieve?
When answering this question you should consider:
- The intended audience for the content
- The channels you will use to distribute the content
- The action you want someone to take after consuming the content
A good piece of content should do one or more, but ideally all three, of the following:
- Provide value
- Educate
- Entertain and, most importantly…
- Engage
Phase 3 – Distribution: Getting your content marketing where it needs to go
With your content created and ready to go, the next step is distributing it.
Choosing your distribution channels is important because you want to ensure that the content you have created is going to have the best chance of reaching the audience it is intended for.
Some of the common channels for distribution include:
- Website
- SEO
- Influencers
- Media/Journalists
Of course, you can also advertise on many of these channels to help your content reach a wider audience as well.
Much of your channel planning should occur in Phase One, as part of your Content Marketing Strategy.
You want to ensure that the audience you are seeking can be found on the channels you use and that the content you are creating is suitable for each channel you are using to distribute your content.
Phase 4 – Analysis: Keeping your content marketing efforts honest
Whilst it is essential to have a content marketing strategy before you get busy creating and distributing content, it is equally important to consistently analyse the performance of that content.
Content marketing won’t always deliver immediate results in terms of sales, but it should be creating opportunities relatively quickly.
The simplest way to check-in on the effectiveness of your content marketing is to analyse how your content is being engaged with.
Some tell-tale signs include:
- Link clicks
- Social media shares
- Social media comments
- Video views
- Photo views
You can also use tools like Google Analytics and Facebook Insights to get a deeper understanding of how your content is performing.
Using the example of Google Analytics, which is typically used to analyse a websites performance over a period of time, some of the areas you would want to see improvement are:
- Website views
- Goal completions (this could, for example be a form submission on your website)
- A decline in bounce rate (meaning people are exploring your website beyond the page they landed on)
- Session duration (the amount of time people are spending on your website)
- A more diverse range of traffic channels (meaning people are coming to your website from the channels you are distributing your content on)
On social media you might want to see things like:
- An increase in followers
- An increase in engagement rates
- An increase in messages sent to your brand or your business
If you find certain types of content are performing better than others, then it might be worth tweaking your content strategy to allow for more of that type of content.
Similarly, if there is a particular topic you are creating content around that people are interested in, then it might be worthwhile spending more time on that topic.
Why is content marketing important in 2021?
Content marketing remains crucial in 2021, because it touches all four steps of the buying cycle, those being:
- Awareness
- Research
- Consideration
- Buy
Content marketing helps brands and businesses increase awareness of the value they can offer potential customers within their target audience of how they can help solve their problems.
By creating content that provides value and actively answers the questions of those who may be looking for their products or services, brands and business that engage in content marketing can actively help those potential customers with their research before they ultimately consider and buy.
Content Hype’s content marketing solutions
Content Hype can assist with a wide range of content marketing solutions.
From strategy to content creation, distribution and analysis, we have you covered across all four key phases of content marketing.
Whether you are starting from scratch, looking for assistance in executing a strategy, or just need help with creating all the content you need Content Hype is your specialist content consultant ready to assist with all your needs.
Content Marketing Strategy
Like most things in life, a failure to plan is planning to fail when it comes to content marketing.
Content Hype can work with the key people in your business to develop a content marketing strategy to set you up for content marketing success.
A content marketing strategy involves two rounds of consultation and will require the key people in your business to answer a range of questions to help formulate an individual strategy for success.
Amongst other things, a Content Hype content marketing strategy will help you identify:
- Your intended audience
- Content creation opportunities and topics
- Types of content
- Content marketing budget
- Content distribution channels
- Advertising budget
- Content schedule
Content Hype can also assist with the execution of your new strategy.
Alternatively you can take the strategy and execute on your own.
Webpage and Article Content
One of our core competencies at Content Hype is copywriting.
We are well placed to assist with all your website copywriting requirements, covering everything from service webpages to articles and blogs.
Webpages and articles are core to making your website more accessible and improving your website’s Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
Our team of experienced business winning copywriters will work with you to deliver top-notch written content for your website that will help you stand out from the crowd.
Social Media Content
From captions to direct sales copy to accompany your latest photo or video, finding the right mix of words and media can be hard.
Whether you have photos, videos, infographics or other media ready to post and just need help finding the right words to pair with them, or need assistance developing content specifically for your various social media platforms, Content Hype can help.
We specialise in creating social-first content for our clients that generates engagements and helps them grow their audience.
Video Content
Video content should be a key component in any content marketing strategy.
Video boasts higher engagement rates than social media posts with just text or images and are a great way for you to quickly create awareness and engagement with your key audience.
Content Hype can help you plan, shoot and produce budget video content for your social media feeds.
If your brand or business demands a more commercial-level video, we can assist with the interviewing and hiring of videographers to ensure you achieve the best possible results.
All-in-one Content Marketing Solutions
If you’re just starting out with content marketing, or your content marketing strategy involves creating and distributing content for a large audience across a wide range of channels, then a custom-built content marketing solution might be what you need.
Content Hype can provide a tailored monthly package ensuring you get the content you require when you need it.
This provides greater certainty around costs for your brand or business and helps to ensure your content marketing efforts remains consistent.
Why work with Content Hype – your content generation expert
Imagine having someone within your business whose sole focus is creating fantastic and exciting content around your business, its industry and the fantastic work you produce for your clients and customers.
Content Hype can be your news and content hound. Not only will we help you create and execute a content marketing strategy, we are constantly on the look out for new and exciting content creation opportunities that will further your content marketing efforts.
We specialise in unlocking the expertise that exists within your business to help you put your best foot forward when it comes to your content marketing efforts.
Content Hype can look after your written, visual and audio content needs, whether starting from scratch or working with a pre-existing bank of content.
We also help you optimise your content to ensure you extract maximum value from all your business content.
Book your free Content Marketing consultation
Ready to get started with or scale your content marketing plans?
Content Hype offers a complementary 30-minute content marketing consultation, to better understand you, your brand and your business and your content marketing needs.
Interested in starting the conversation?
Simply fill out the form below to book in your obligation free content marketing consultation.
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