What is content marketing?

Useful, relevant, non-advertising content at the heart of your marketing strategy Have you noticed that traditional marketing, commonly called outbound marketing, is less and less effective? Of course a TV spot at 9pm. on an important channel it always makes an impact, but who can really afford it? As a marketer, you know there has to be a better way.

Enter the era of content marketing:

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain clearly defined audiences and ultimately drive customers to take profitable actions.

Definition of Content Marketing

Instead of showing off your products or services, provide truly relevant and useful content to your prospects and customers to help them solve their problems.

Content marketing is used by big brands

Content marketing is used by many leading brands around the world. Colgate, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Xerox, Cisco and many others have developed effective and highly profitable content strategies.

Colgate, for example, has an oral and dental health site that compiles video resources, interactive guides, and several hundred articles. This is the perfect example of a brand developing editorial content and using their expertise to provide quality information to their potential customers, which is the key to success in Content Marketing.

But what is more interesting is that Content Marketing is also used by small businesses and even small boutiques all over the world. For that? Because it works!

In fact, even a very small business can format and share its experience and expertise by creating blog articles, videos, newsletters and ebooks in an organized and efficient way to reach new potential customers. By reducing content and distribution channels, this becomes possible for as many people as possible.

Here’s just one example of content marketing in action:

We also note that Content Marketing is not only aimed at B2B as we too often believe. This popular belief is sometimes deeply rooted in the minds of marketers. Many brands have been able to use Content Marketing to bounce back in the face of aging or distrust in advertising (PMU, Durex, etc.). If you have time, check out the lesson below which presents and details some interesting cases.

Content Marketing is good for your profits and your customers

More specifically, there are three main reasons – and three benefits – why companies use content marketing:

• Increase in sales
• Cost reduction
• Better customers, more loyal customers

Content is the present – ​​and future – of marketing

What makes the profound difference between content marketing and advertising is this part of the definition of content marketing: “valuable, relevant and consistent content”.

This is where many brands fail. They publish content focused on their product that no one is interested in. We just want to sell you stuff.

We continually receive low-quality content from all kinds of brands, they constantly spam our televisions, our smartphone screens, our news feeds, and hope to gain consumer recognition for this reason alone.

The challenge of Content Marketing is to make yourself visible when the consumer feels the need. For example, I’m not one of those DIY guys who is passionate about their drill and has a workbench in their garage. When Leroy Merlin releases a commercial at 8.30pm, it doesn’t move me for a second.

On the other hand, on the day I need to hang wallpaper, repaint a wall or fill a hole, I’m happy that tutorials from the brand appear in my Google search results with suggestions on suitable products available on their shelves.

No form of marketing is possible without quality content

No matter what type of marketing strategy you implement, content marketing should be part of your process, not something separate. Furthermore, it is essential to realize that there is no magic procedure; To deliver relevant results, it is important to have a holistic view of your strategy and integrate Content Marketing into an overall strategy.

The quality of the content you offer your audience is the source of all forms of marketing:

• Social networks : Content marketing strategy comes before social media strategy, these represent a content distribution channel and the opportunity to gather and communicate with your community.
• SEO : Search engines reward companies that publish consistent, quality content. The more relevant content you offer, the more quality entry points you will benefit from on search engines.
• RP : Effective PR strategies focus on issues that readers care about, not the brand’s business. I receive a lot of press releases and I am surprised by their superficiality and how they miss the mark by being self-centered.
• PPC : If you are investing financially in pay per click campaigns, the last thing you want is for internet users to land on poorly optimized and poorly written pages. To achieve great results, your content must also be exceptional.
• Inbound marketing : Content is key to attracting inbound traffic, generating leads and triggering sales.

To go further

What if there was an entire audience ready to discover your brand and your services? What if your potential customers are eagerly waiting to receive your content?

If this thought seems strange to you, you don’t realize the power of content marketing and the value of your experience.

What if your content was so enticing that people interacted with you, providing you with their contact details, to receive it directly in their inbox? What if these people went through the different stages of the purchase funnel to become ambassadors for your products?

Here are some articles for further information:

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If you have any questions about content marketing, don’t hesitate to ask us in the comments.