Content Marketing as the Pathway to Business Growth (A Simple Guide)
Your business offerings are unique; that’s great. No one else in your industry offers what you offer – fantastic! But you must capture the minds of your target audience so that they become restlessly patriotic to your brand if you want to scale your business rapidly. And there’s no better way – yet – to do this except with content marketing.
Therefore, if you are familiar with content marketing but do not know how it translates to growth for your startup, this article will show you how. And if you are completely new to it, you will be sold on the necessity of content marketing to scale your business in only a few minutes from now.
First, let’s define what content marketing is in the most simple way to give you a perfect idea of what you are getting into.
What is Content Marketing and Why Should You Care?
No single industry has only one brand but all industries have one brand that seems to stand out from the rest, almost like a unicorn. Think of noodles. What brand just flashed through your mind? Carbonated soft drink, anyone? That’s the point. Now it’s even okay to not be the leading brand (yet) but who says you can’t steal a huge chunk of their market share for yourself?
It is beyond having the best unique selling point and managing to convince investors well enough to raise funding; if you do not prioritize content marketing as much as you do improving your products and services to compete globally, you will not only remain stagnant but also stand the chance of experiencing a financial decline.
In a nutshell, content marketing is that seasoning you add to a soup to switch things up from meh, bland to exceptionally good! The soup in this case is your business.
Hubspot describes it in a simple way: “the process of planning, creating, distributing, sharing, and publishing content via channels such as social media, blogs, websites, podcasts, apps, press releases, print publications, and more.”
If Your Desire is to Scale Your Business, Content Marketing is For You
Through content marketing, you can:
- Position your brand as reliable and trustworthy to your target audience
- Grow a community of loyal followers for your brand or business
- Build a relationship with your audience/target consumers
- Improve your business conversions
- Enlighten your target audience on the uses and benefits of your products and/or services
What Kinds of Content Marketing Can You Invest In?
You can decide to invest in any of the following kinds of content marketing to attract and retain customers for your business:
Social Media Content Marketing
Maybe you wouldn’t care about social media as a channel for content marketing five years ago. But now? There is no reason you should doubt the leverage it can offer your brand. Through social media, you can create and share images, videos, live videos, stories and more that can compel your target audience to take action.
Blog Content Marketing
More and more businesses are exploring the benefits of starting and promoting a blog to showcase the unique strengths of their products and services. A blog allows you to promote your own content as well as that of other blogs and websites, add social sharing buttons, and include details about your products.
Podcast Content Marketing
Over sixty million people use Spotify and Apple Podcasts to listen to podcasts. This is why a lot of corporations and news networks have started producing and distributing their own podcasts.
There’s a lot of room for innovation in podcasting because shows can be made about whatever interests the host. Other aspects of the podcast are also up to your discretion, including the length and frequency of episodes, the guests featured, and the venues in which they are promoted.
Your business can, without a doubt, grow from podcast marketing.
How to Determine the Perfect Content Marketing Strategy for Your Business
To execute a successful content marketing strategy, you need to understand your audience first.
Know who your audience is
Delineate your audience based on age, location, gender, interests and other psychographic segmentation.
Outline your goals
What would you like to achieve with your content marketing? More followers, more signups? Website traffic? Have a clear outline of what you expect to achieve at the end of each quarter or campaign.
Choose your channels
It is important to choose your channels carefully. This will help you get the right resources and tools that will aid you in the creation and distribution of your content.
Consider your budget
Your budget should take your production and distribution processes into account. Will you need a Canva subscription? A good camera for videos and pictures? All of these must be considered when drafting and preparing your budget.
By now, you should be ready to launch a content marketing campaign capable of driving new leads and positioning you as an industry thought leader. You might need some help and we‘d be glad to work with you to create a memorable and captivating campaign. Let’s talk here.
