Understanding Content Marketing
If you try to stay up-to-date about news on the branding and online promotion front, surely you have encountered the term “content marketing”.
Referring to the spheres of “content” and of “marketing” in such close proximity is not the most obvious thing in the world. So what is it about this theme that makes it so current?
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a marketing method that relies on the production, optimisation and curation of content for branding efforts. Unlike traditional advertising, which explicitly aims to sell something, content marketing is more about delivering information, establishing a presence and striking a strong impression. In other words, content marketing sets out to sell the idea of a product rather than the product itself.
The advantages of content marketing
The appeal of this technique, to large and small business alike, is that it is an effective way to communicate with customers in a day and age when people are highly desensitised to traditional marketing stimulus.
As customers face an evergrowing selection to choose from and better ways to compare products, companies need to adopt a more honest and straightforward approach in their promotion efforts, and content marketing is one way to achieve that.
Hence, content marketing helps brands with creating a reputation for being trustworthy and having the customer’s benefit in sight. This is not a cynical move aiming to confuse the target market. The underlying supposition here is that informed and satisfied customers are more loyal and therefore more profitable.
The challenges of content marketing
The biggest challenge that this marketing technique poses for small businesses is the difficulty to track its effectiveness. ROI (return on investment) is easy to notice when you know how many people saw your ad on Facebook, clicked on it and then completed a purchase. But how do you measure the impact of an informational blog post?
Another challenge that small businesses face when embracing content marketing is coming up with unique and effective ways to actually implement this method. This requires not only a deep understanding of your target audience, but also a familiarity with what other brands and companies are doing in the field of content marketing.
SOURCE: Wix
