Digital Content Marketing: A Comprehensive Business Guide

There would be no digital marketing without content marketing. If you intend to launch any sort of digital marketing campaign, you will need to place a great amount of emphasis on producing exceptional content that draws in consumers. Unfortunately, when it comes to content marketing, many small businesses and marketers simply don’t know where to start.

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If you don’t have quality content, your marketing campaign probably won’t succeed. If you have ever doubted the power and allure of digital content marketing, there are reasons you may want to reconsider.

What Is Digital Content Marketing?

Digital content marketing is one of the most important elements of any marketing strategy. Content marketing is everywhere and used by almost every industry to reach customers, nurture leads, expand brand awareness, and convince individuals to purchase products or services.

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When a company employs blogs, emails, newsletters, YouTube videos, or podcasts, they are utilizing content marketing. Content marketing is the distribution and creation of marketing content to attract and retain customers.

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Content marketing is strategic, and for your campaign to be effective, you must know what steps to take. Many of these steps are relatively simple and affordable.

Digital Content Marketing vs Traditional Marketing Methods

Historically, marketing professionals were forced to reach customers using traditional advertising methods, such as display advertisements on websites, marketing emails, and booths at trade shows. These methods were not always effective and they had the potential to consume a large amount of energy and effort.

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For example, to reach potential consumers, brands were often forced to rent television time to display their advertisements. In other words, they went to customers.

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On the other hand, digital marketing content has the potential to bring customers to you. Utilizing your company’s website, you can showcase your products or services via content. Using an effective content marketing strategy, you can essentially become a publisher who attracts attention and builds audiences. This increases brand awareness by establishing trust between a company and its customers.

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Content marketing is also less expensive than other, more traditional marketing approaches.

How Can Digital Content Marketing Help Your Business?

If you are like most business owners, you may be wondering how digital content marketing can help your business. This is normal, but you may be shocked by how essential content marketing is to your overall marketing approach.

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Content marketing is an important component of marketing for the following reasons:

• Content can be used to educate potential leads about the services or products your company offers.
• Companies that utilize quality content are significantly more likely to convert prospects.
• Excellent content can build relationships between your company and customers while increasing loyalty to your brand.
• You can use content to show how your product or service is a solution to a problem.

In short, you can use content to establish your brand, stand out from others, and foster meaningful relationships with prospective customers and current ones.

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There are many different types of content in digital marketing, including:

• Online content marketing is any material you publish on the internet, specifically on your company’s web pages. A powerful content marketing strategy will help your site rank higher in search engine results and ensure your site can be reached by users.
• Infographic content marketing displays information, data, and content, in a clear, concise graphic format. It uses relatively simple wording, clear images, short statements, and infographics to communicate a point. Infographic content marketing is a great way to reach customers by simplifying a complicated topic so everyone can comprehend it.
• Social media content marketing, as its name suggests, uses social media platforms to reach and convert prospective customers. Each day, billions of users log onto social media platforms for various reasons. Sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter can be extremely useful marketing tools and you can use them to share various types of content, such as videos, stories, live videos, and photographs.
• Blog content marketing is an excellent type of inbound content marketing you can use to showcase your creativity and provide prospective customers with relevant information. Using a blog, you can promote other external and internal content and articles via share buttons and links while promoting your products or services.
• Video content marketing refers to the promotion of a brand, product, or service using a video. Video marketing can help your company improve its return on investment (ROI), boost conversions, and establish relationships with your audience. Videos can be shared either on your website or social media platforms.
• Millions of people around the world are avid podcast listeners, so podcast content marketing can be an effective way to reach them. You can address any issue you want. Just be sure to feature interesting people on your podcast, and be sure it is adequately advertised.
• Paid advertisement content marketing puts you in places where you want to be seen. Paid advertisements can be extremely useful when they are paired with inbound marketing tactics. You can use landing pages, social media, sponsored content, or banners.

The type of content marketing you select should be based on your company’s overall marketing goals and your personal preferences. For example, if you enjoy speaking with or interviewing others, you may want to start a podcast.

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Conversely, if you want to offer important information creatively, a blog may be a better choice.

Digital Content Marketing & the Buying Cycle

In today’s society, providing customers with a positive experience is paramount. This is largely because companies that provide a flawless customer service experience can directly influence a potential customer’s buying decision.

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By using content marketing to personalize your customers’ experiences, you can influence them at every stage of the buying cycle. Personalizing customer experiences doesn't just mean targeting a specific demographic, it means creating suitable content that convinces customers to make a purchase and remain loyal to your brand.

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The buying cycle is composed of three important elements – awareness, consideration, and decision. When a prospective customer first encounters your content, they will become aware of the products or services you are offering. Once they are aware of your products or services, they will consider making a purchase based on a variety of factors, including usefulness and cost.

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Finally, they will decide whether to purchase your goods or services. If your customers are drawn in when they first make contact with your content, they will be more likely to complete the buying cycle.

How Digital Content Marketing Solves Problems

Even after launching a comprehensive marketing campaign, it can be hard to reach your marketing goals – here is where content marketing comes into play. If you have ever asked yourself any of the following questions, you may want to place more emphasis on content marketing:

How Do You Increase the Volume of Organic Searches?

You can use content marketing to increase the volume of your organic searches. The vast majority of online customer experiences begin with the use of a popular search engine, primarily Google.

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When you produce and publish quality content people want to see, you are not only building your brand, but you will rank higher in search engine results as well.

How Do Companies Establish Themselves as Trusted Authorities?

Producing engaging content can not only establish you as a thought leader in your particular industry, but it can also prove you are a trusted source of information. When a customer trusts your content, they are more likely to make a purchase.

How Does Content Marketing Help Customers?

Many people assume content marketing exists only to sell to customers, not to help them – this is the wrong approach. When you freely provide potential customers with something they value, such as relevant and engaging information, they are more likely to trust you and pay for your products or services.

Is it Possible to Launch a Low-Cost Content Marketing Campaign?

As previously mentioned, content marketing is a relatively low-cost, but highly effective digital marketing strategy. You don’t have to spend much to get started, and the payoff can last for years and years.

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As long as you provide content that addresses an audience’s behaviors and interests, you can build your brand’s story over time as your content library expands.

Building a Brand Using Digital Content Marketing

Brand awareness is simply the degree to which customers and potential customers are familiar with your company and its offerings. Content marketing is often overlooked by companies hoping to make the public more aware of their brand, but it can be a powerful tool.

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Whether you are a technology firm or you sell handcrafted jewelry, you can use content marketing to reach a broader audience and generate a higher conversion rate. By using content to build your brand, you can stand out from your competitors and highlight your company’s values and goals. This will make consumers more likely to purchase your products or services.

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To build your brand using content marketing as a tactic, use one or more of the following tips:

Define & Understand Your Target Audience

To create an effective content marketing strategy, you must understand the type of customers you want to reach and orient your content toward them:

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First, define your target audience. Is it stay-at-home parents or business executives? Is it college students or people over the age of 55? Whatever audience you are trying to target, make sure they are heard.

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Secondly, appeal to their values and interests to show you are committed to providing them with a great experience or product. In other words, address their needs and wants and provide them with a reason to keep visiting your website.

Analyze Audience Data

You can analyze your audience data using Google Search Console and Google Analytics – both of which are free and capable of helping you track web traffic and collect data on metrics. These tools allow you to view data regarding the number of visitors to your website, revenues, transactions, and more.

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Businesses can also use them to optimize their content for brand awareness by utilizing the to view information regarding search traffic, time on site, and CTR (click-through rate).

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Once you utilize the previously mentioned features, the Analytics Landing Pages report can tell you how much traffic your website gets using segments such as search engines and paid advertisements. The platform also allows marketers to view audience info with interests, geographical location, demographics, and the devices they are using.

Draft an Effective Content Strategy

Once you understand your target audiences and their intricacies, you can draft a content strategy to reach them. Begin by telling your company and brand’s story. Create an “Our Story” or “About” page on your site that tells audiences about your history, what you do, and what you stand for.

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Explain how you got started and what your professional values are. By telling your story, you can reach your customers better and form a bond with them that goes beyond your services or products.

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There are numerous other ways to use content marketing in your favor. You can aim to produce the following types of content:

• Blogs and inbound marketing material can help you better reach audiences who are already interested in your services or products.
• How-to content, guides, and informational pages that assist readers in navigating their shopping journey. This will also give more authority to your brand.
• Multimedia elements and videos can help increase customers’ exposure to your brand. Try posting your videos on YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms.

You don’t only have to include information about your brand’s story or history on your page. You can also include information about your mission and the environment you provide for your employees.

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These pages can help audiences better understand your uniqueness and why they should buy from you.

Use Your Company Blog

Your blogs will be one of the most important components of your content marketing campaign. Blogs have the potential to drive search traffic to your site and are some of the best channels for marketing. They can also help you stand out from the crowd, share your knowledge, and become a trusted authority on certain subjects.

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Guides can also be helpful if you have services or products that can be hard to understand. You can even offer a return product or assembly guide. You can offer these downloadable forms on your website.

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When producing content, try to do it regularly. It can be every week or month, just be sure to add something fresh. For your content strategy to work, be sure to be frequent and consistent.

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You must write excellent blogs if you want your content strategy to help increase awareness surrounding your brand. Although posting blogs regularly can be somewhat time-consuming and difficult, even posting a new blog every two or four weeks can be instrumental in your success. Consumers are always on the lookout for new information, so keeping them up-to-date on industry trends.

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When drafting your blogs, don’t be afraid to take new angles and address new topics. Find a different way to discuss a certain topic and create an easy-to-read listicle. Avoid copying your competitors, and always seek out new information.

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In addition to creating unique and compelling blog content, you must be accurate and aware of your blog’s length. The typical blog post is between 1,000 and 2,000 words in length, and longer blogs tend to be more successful because they provide the most information.

Take Advantage of Social Media Platforms

As you’ve probably learned by now, social media platforms can help you establish your brand and promote your content in a myriad of ways. When you utilize a social media platform, you are not only sharing relevant information with your followers, but you are also sharing it with their friends. Posting your videos, blogs, and photographs on your social accounts allows your followers to share them with their friends.

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Social media is also a wonderful avenue for becoming more involved with your followers via messages and comments. This aspect of social media use is a key element of inbound marketing and an effective way to garner high-value leads among audience members who are already interested in your services, products, or content.

Digital Content Marketing & PPC

If you want to improve your PPC (pay-per-click) performance, having a solid content marketing strategy is the way to go. You can use creative content to create a seamless customer service experience that nurtures and captures leads while optimizing your advertising budget.

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Content marketing can help you maximize your PPC performance in the following ways:

Improved Quality Scores

• If your paid advertisements are linked to your content, you will have a better chance of aligning the content on your website to the content of your advertisements. This will result in higher PPC quality scores, which will result in lower costs per click. In addition to these benefits, the greater volume of traffic generated by these pieces will improve your organic rank.

Optimized Landing Pages

• A person who clicks an advertisement is highly likely to further investigate your website before converting. You can generate awareness using lead magnets such as offers of newsletters and email signups. In these emails and newsletters, you can add links to articles, case studies, demo videos, and testimonials on your landing page.

Digital Content Marketing & SEO

Both content marketing and SEO (search engine optimization) has shaken up the marketing world. Using SEO in combination with a stellar content marketing strategy, you can increase website traffic and brand awareness, and improve PPC and lead generation. At its core, SEO is the process of increasing the quality of web traffic and driving more visitors to your site.

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Without SEO, it is nearly impossible to launch a successful content marketing program. Every marketing strategy must take substance, keywords, article length, and word choice into consideration at some point.

The Importance of Keywords

One of the key elements of SEO is finding and researching important keywords and utilizing them throughout your content so it ranks higher in search engine results. Finding relevant keywords isn’t too difficult, but you will need to be sure to use your keywords appropriately and use a strategic approach. Never keyword stuff or over-optimize to improve page ranking.

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To use SEO and content marketing in tandem, you must seek out top websites in your industry and identify important words that are frequently searched for by users. You can take advantage of Google’s Keyword Planner, which is a useful analysis tool that allows you to analyze popular keyword competition and volume.

Quality Content & Consistency

Both content marketing and SEO require a high degree of consistency. Unique, fresh, and creative content is quickly indexed and ranks higher than low-quality content with few keywords and repetitive content. You can use content to attract customers and offer them a solution to a particular issue. You can write exceptional content by targeting visitors and utilizing important keywords.

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These are the two most important factors through which Google will rank content and determine the relevance of a page. Try brainstorming creative ideas and integrating the most relevant keywords to get started.

User Experience

SEO optimization ensures your website appeals to search engines and ensures your site doesn’t have any error codes or broken links. If your website content does have broken links or error codes, it won’t rank very high. In other words, having a “clean” website is one of the key elements of a successful SEO campaign.

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A good sitemap will help users find your content easily and quickly, and optimization will ensure viewers can access your content. Having the appropriate tag results in superior indexing and more authentic search results. Be sure your title and header tags are beneficial to users by positioning your content in a manner that is useful and easy for search engines to understand.

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Effective title tags help provide a positive user experience because they help users recognize page information before they click on the page. Header tags within content ensure it is well-organized and easy to read.

Link Building

You can use content to build inbound links, which is another essential component of SEO. By connecting the links in your web content to high-domain authority websites, you can significantly increase traffic.

Choosing the Right Call-to-Action

Another key element of an effective content marketing strategy is choosing the right call to action. The following types of call-to-actions may help you hook in customers:

The Non-Sales Pitch

Unlike other forms of marketing, content marketing doesn’t really aim to sell anything directly. You don’t immediately try to convert members of your audience or ask them to contact you, email you, or make a purchase.

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You simply aim to produce content that interests others and provides them with something of value. Ideally, if your audience finds your content useful and informative, they will be enticed to learn more about your product or service.

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In other words, an effective content strategy aims to influence consumers to decide on their own.

The Soft Call-to-Action

Although your content doesn’t make a sales pitch right away, it is responsible for nudging them in the right direction. Some content pieces direct potential consumers to another piece of content that requires them to engage more. This is a rather subtle call to action that promotes readers to get in touch with you or learn more.

The Hard Call-to-Action

Using a forceful call to action can be the most effective content marketing strategy at times. By ending your piece with a macro call to action to make a purchase, register for a class, or sign up for an email or newsletter, you can entice customers to take action.

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For example, you can say something to the effect of “now that you know how digital content marketing works, click here to find out how it can benefit your company.”

Which Call-to-Action Should You Choose?

The type of call to action you choose should depend on:

• Your content’s tone and topic.
• The type of content piece.
• The goal of your content piece.
• Your brand’s approach to interacting with customers.

Simply put, your company’s choice of call to action should depend on its goals.

Learn the Definition of Content Marketing

Your digital marketing strategy is immensely important to your company. Here at elk marketing, we can help you craft a strong and comprehensive content strategy that will help you reach customers and grow your business.

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Contact Us today to learn how content marketing can take your business to the next level.

Sources

• Radd Interactive Content Marketing to Increase Brand Awareness
• Adobe Experience Cloud Blog Content Marketing
• Forbes SEO & Content Marketing