Nobody reads any longer, creating content is labour intensive, content doesn’t sell – these are probably key myths related to undertaking content marketing activities. Content creation and its distribution can bring tangible benefits, if we set feasible goals, simultaneously reaching for appropriate means. Content is not only articles, but also other forms of communication with customers. Should every company invest in content marketing? How to make such activities bring effects?
Content marketing is not only a company blog
Content marketing focuses on content creation and its distribution. These are not only articles, but also graphics, infographics, videos or audio recordings. These forms can be mixed, made available interchangeably and experimented with, while searching the content that will be best to reach our recipients. When planning a content marketing strategy, one should take into consideration content distribution channels. One of the most effective ones include email marketing and push notifications. Customised communications are not only effective, but also they do not generate high costs. It is worth distributing content e.g. via social media. Content marketing brings better effects when various distribution channels and creative forms are used.
Content marketing benefits
Content plays many roles in marketing activities. Content marketing as a strategy is not aimed at direct sales of products or services. Owing to the content we have a chance to build a relation with recipients, as well as to obtain and maintain their loyalty. In the long run, this translates into sales results.
One should not forget about content creation with search engines in mind. Key words included in the text are very helpful in optimisation. Current Google algorithms take this factor into account along with the text length and merits.
Moreover, content marketing allows to create consumer trust – as revealed by research it has the best impact on the generation of millennials, i.e. internet users born between 1982 and 2000. It turns out that they are resistant to classic forms of advertising. Personalised content translates into higher engagement rate, allowing a customer to remember a given brand and even identify with it.
Content marketing effectiveness measurement
In order to make content marketing effective, we should first of all define a target group. First and foremost, content must be useful for recipients. As it is true for every marketing division, analytics is the basis for further activities. When creating a campaign, it’s worth checking which content attracts most users and generates the highest number of views.
The content marketing strategy should cover a direction of actions and a goal that we want to achieve in the long term. One should remember that content marketing is a long-lasting activity; hence, we cannot expect to see effects in no time. Nevertheless, effectiveness of activities can be assessed through a broad range of rates describing e.g. the content reach or interaction level. On that basis we will be able to define the return on investment (ROI) incurred on content.
