The Breakdown of Content Marketing

What is content marketing and why do we need to worry about it? 

Content marketing is the information that we choose to broadcast on the internet. This broadcast can be viewed on web platforms, such as (but not limited to) social media pages or company websites. Content marketing is not only the substance that we project out to the world, but also the strategy that goes behind it. If you have no aim, you will not be able to hit your target. It is important to have a strategic goal associated with the meaty content you post. 

Say you are a small business that would like to create more awareness for your brand on social media. So you decide to do a “give away” on your company Facebook page. Your content will be a photo/video post of the product that you are giving away. Your strategy is a call to action such as “like and share this post to be entered.” NOTE: your strategy does not end after you have selected a winner. Good content marketing calls for you to go a step further, keep the bulk of your substance rolling. Take a photo/video of the winner getting the item and give them a congratulatory shout out on your page; then give a hint as to when you will be doing your next give away or having your next sale.

This example is a very basic form of content marketing. It is important to have a plan of action or a process associated with what you are putting out on the web. Evaluate what your goals are and then think of different ways you can get there. Content marketing is creating your own content and strategically placing it out on the internet to get consumers to invest into your desired action.

The next time you go to post as a company, or even as an individual, think about what your content is and what you want it to do. Although everything you publish out there is content, content marketing pushes you to think of how you can make your internet content valuable. 

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References 

Strauss, J., & Frost, R. (2009). E-Marketing (7th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education.