Content Marketing FAQs

What’s content marketing?

Content marketing is a way to educate and build relationships with your target audience. Usually, this involves producing educational or entertaining content designed to provide your target customer with value. Planning, creating, and distributing content requires engaging and establishing trust. It can be a highly cost-effective way of achieving long-term marketing and business goals.

How does content marketing work?

Traditional advertising has typically been about interrupting someone as they go about their day. You’re shown a commercial while you’re watching TV, you see an advertisement as you turn the page of the magazine, or your bus has a large banner on it that draws your attention. You don’t choose to consume any of this content. You are forced to digest it because it steals your attention.

Content marketing is less intrusive than traditional advertising. It operates by educating and providing value. Rather than forced upon the consumer, it’s often sought out by prospective clients. For example, if you type in google “best way to brush your teeth,” you may find any of the following: a blog article explaining different brushing methods, a video showing you various techniques, a podcast explaining the health benefits, or a before-and-after photo of someone’s teeth posted to social media. All of these are examples of content marketing. They educate the audience, and the viewer starts to form a mental association between the company and the solution they need.

Why is content marketing important?

Content marketing’s value lies in its need for consent. If you choose to consume content or seek out specific knowledge, you will give it a different level of attention than you would an intrusive advertisement. You’ll be highly engaged, and if the content provides the information you are looking for, you’ll see the provider of that content as a trustworthy ally. This strategy creates a comfortable bridge for the user to cross that changes their view of the company from content supplier to service provider.

As the viewer consumes the knowledge provided, they develop trust in your brand and are nurtured further along the buyer’s journey to being a customer. You can learn more about how content marketing can lead the customer down the buyer’s journey here. Content marketing is also essential because it can establish you as a thought leader, opening many avenues for business growth. It will help your search rankings, and it will put more eyes on your brand.

Why is content marketing important for B2B?

Content marketing for business-to-business, or B2B, is essential because it allows you to position yourself as an expert in your field to your specific clientele. If you’re an architect who designs hospitals, then you can produce engaging content about cutting-edge healthcare facilities. Then, when it’s time to build the new hospital wing, your firm can be top-of-mind.

If you’re an accounting firm that serves social service organizations and you produce an article about a federal tax break for charities, you’ll be seen as someone who can positively impact their bottom line. It can be highly ineffective to sell these types of services with traditional advertising. But content marketing opens doors that were previously closed.

When to use content marketing?

You should use content marketing if you have a well-defined business goal and a strategy to achieve it. Often, companies start a blog because ‘that’s what you’re supposed to do,’ with no real purpose. Without clear goals and a road map, you’re just wasting your time and energy.

If you have a target customer, a way to provide value to them through engaging content, and a clear path to successful business outcomes, then content marketing can be an effective strategy. Some studies indicate that content marketing can generate 3x as many leads and cost 62% less than traditional advertising.

How content marketing helps SEO?

The Philosophy of SEO

If someone searches “best pizza near me,” Google’s mandate is to provide the user with the most valuable search result—meaning if they click the top link, they will find ‘good pizza near them.’If Google produces a search result from the town over, it won’t be the top search engine for long. Therefore, Google spends an enormous amount of resources scanning web pages looking for specific elements that signify the user will find what they are looking for if they click this link in the search engine results page (SERP). Successful search engine optimization (SEO) strategies align with Google’s mandate to provide a good experience for those searching for information on the web. You must deliver the type of information your prospective customers seek.

Content Marketing as Strategy for SEO

When ranking web pages in search results, Google will look at many signals, and nearly all of them can be produced or enhanced by content marketing. Common ways Google ranks pages are:

• Keywords – does the page have the same search terms the user typed?
• Time on page – when someone lands on your page, do they stay, or do they leave right away?
• Length of content – is the answer you’re providing thorough enough?
• Backlinks – do other areas on the web link to this content?

If you produce good content, you can fulfill all these mandates, and then Google will see you as an expert in that category. This perceived expertise is called “domain authority.” If you have high domain authority, your content will be ranked higher than your competition’s because Google considers you a trustworthy source. When you have high domain authority, you will appear at the top of search results, and content marketing is the most reliable way to get there.

How do I get people to view my content?

It all comes down to strategy. You must define your goals, choose your delivery methods, produce good content, set a budget, and then measure and analyze. Content marketing is not something you begin on a whim. It is helpful to hire someone to assist you in formulating a strategy and defining your key metrics before you start.

How can a consultant help me create a content strategy?

A skilled marketing consultant will help you formulate a plan with clearly defined goals and tactics to achieve them. They will have experience running similar campaigns, and they will take the time to understand the nuances of your organization and your customer’s pain points. They will work with you to select the appropriate channels, such as blogging, video, podcasts, or social media and then create a content calendar where each release is pre-planned. They will then either produce the content or show you how to create your own. An experienced consultant should set you up with systems and processes where you can measure results and course-correct when strategies need adjusting. Over time, the content marketing campaign they implement with you will help position your firm as a leading expert in your field.