Content Marketing: What, Why and How to Make the Best of It

What is Content Marketing?

Content Marketing, put quite simply, is about just that – content. But more so, it’s about providing ongoing and consistent value to your audience – the right message, in the right format, through the right channel, at the right time.

A decade or two ago, Content Marketing might have looked a little different, but its key components have stayed the same. It’s about providing niche audiences relevant, valuable and consistent information and experiences, to drive profitable customer action. They may not purchase anything, but they begin to relate to, trust and appreciate your brand.

Why Content Marketing?

Content Marketing drives two things: sales and loyalty. Marketing and content go hand in hand…which means great marketing can’t happen without great content. Spanning beyond just emails and surveys, it’s come to encompass forms like social media marketing, public relations, search engine optimisation (SEO) and even content strategy.

When it comes to reaching a broader target audience across something as vast as the internet, Content Marketing makes things a little bit easier. Smartphones have taken the place of newspapers, with nearly half of all customers from ages 18-49 getting their news sources from the internet. As such, this efficient and exceptional form of marketing, has evolved to help businesses keep up-to-date with the latest marketing strategies, that reach the most people. It allows you to connect with new customers that traditional means to marketing may not have.

Best practices from brands engaged in content marketing

NTWRK’s approach to Content Marketing is a holistic one. We engage in a start-to-finish relationship when creating and executing our Content Marketing strategies. We’ve narrowed down our processes to four key steps — identification, creation, amplification and evaluation.

Identification. The first step to content marketing is figuring out which market works best for your brand. Doing this takes into account your defined audience and the most accessible content platform your brand needs in order to connect on a more personable level. Businesses that thrive on Content Marketing focus more on informing rather than selling. By doing this, your outreach becomes more accessible and intimate with your audience.

Creation. Again, Content Marketing isn’t about selling your product or idea, it’s about creating and delivering value. Whether it’s blog content, client testimonials, or Twitter posts, you’re providing value, which in turn creates loyalty and engagement.

Amplification. When content is ready to go, amplification gets the message out to the right audience so it can be heard loud and clear. In this case, audience engagement drives Content Marketing outreach. Take MoonPie’s Twitter, for example. An amalgamation of memes and random posts with little to do with MoonPie itself, but still maintaining an impressive number of followers. Wendy’s does it even better, with relevant content and a twist of humour.

Evaluation. Once everything is said and done, taking the time to look back and reflect on the qualitative and quantitative data helps key in your business’ focus on which strategies worked best and which to improve. NTWRK evaluates results and analytics with a dedication to transparency to get your business the clearest evidence through data.

These are just some of the practices you can use to optimise your Content Marketing strategy. If these don’t quite strike your fancy, don’t worry. We can help you figure out what strategies best suit your marketing needs.