The deal with content marketing!?

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By G+ Author: KJ Mason.

1) What is the purpose of marketing via engaging content?

In layman’s terms Content Marketing is the act of acquiring customers or customer leads via the creation and sharing of media or content. How does sharing content influence potential customers?

The basis of content marketing is getting prospective customers to trust and like you and your business. This being said, content marketing takes time, it is a method or series of actions, and it will not be effective overnight. The blatant and aggressive nature of advertising works on some but for others it simply makes them question and mistrust the morality of your business.

Advertising is more in-your-face than ever. Many marketers argue that we see so many advertisments that we don’t see any advertisements! In other words, we have become immune to conventional marketing. Coming full circle; marketers or business owners are trained to want to figure out the most aggressive and overwhelming way to get what he/she can offer in front of the faces of as many people as possible. Content marketing, on the other hand, relies on the slow and steady process of getting one’s valuable information (product or service) in front of dedicated, interested, and important customers.

Content_Marketing2) What are examples of engaging content? (They are always changing.)

“In today’s content-driven world, it is imperative that brands and publishers identify the most engaging content for their consumers using the most applicable KPI’s. The shift back to quality over quantity has been rapid, given the power of consumer sharing through social media and mobile.  Defining your consumer is step #1 to determining an effective content strategy for your brand” Travis Tillotson, Founder of Surgo Group.

A simple and telling example of content marketing is an infographic. Infographics are a hit with viewers because they present content in a simple, visual and often entertaining way. For example, one could market his/her hotel via an infographic. Create a graphic that depicts the area, next list some of the most popular hotels in the area (his/her’s included of course,) lastly depict the different things they have offer. He/she can then, of course place the infographic on the business’s blog, but also submit it to different hospitality or travel blogs. It may sounds a little strange that he/she will be giving free exposure to a few other hotels but thats just the idea; he/she is supplying the reader with helpful information opposed to screaming at them PICK THIS HOTEL!!! Additionally,  at the same time he/she are able to highlight a few of the business’s cool offerings as well as gain a lot of exposure.

Another less unsettling way of going about an infographic would be to create an infographic titled “How to Pick Your Perfect Vacation Destination”  In this case, the hotel does not have to be mentioned, rather, post the infographic on the business’s site and other sites will pick up on it–think its relative to their readers–and then direct them back the original business’s site. Voila!

Content can be broken down into 4 types:

Educational: An example would be a “How to” video or a DIY.
Entertaining: This could be cool pictures or videos, responding to happenings in popular culture or funny comments from some of your customers, etc
Customer Experience: Any kind of story that sheds a positive light on your company. It is best if written with the intent to entertain not to sell.
Community Focus: Promoting some sort of cause or charity for the sake of promoting the cause NOT your company; customers appreciate this.

3) Monitoring engaging content:

Content_Marketing_Call_To_Action

Before seeing much action on the created content one will have to promote it. This can be done via guest blogging/posting, social media, article/directory submissions, and of course paid content placement. Once this is done and the content is getting exposure, creating a “call to action” is the best way to measure if your content is effective.

Calls to action” are integral in creating a link between your content and conversion. They should be core to your content marketing strategy and exist in different forms throughout your site, as well as across its external properties, such as social media accounts.

You’ve likely examined the different ways you can incorporate best practices for calls to action within your site, but did you know that every single piece of content you publish can — and should — contain a call to action? Without bombarding your audience with “Buy Nows!” and “Click Heres!” you can easily capture attention, drive action, engage audiences, and keep them coming back for more. “ Megan Brown of the Content Marketing Institute

Examples of less flashy calls to action include giving the viewer the option to, download free booklet, leave a comment, view a demo, subscribe to a blog, subscribe for customer promotions, or partake in a short survey.

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