“How do I get new customers?” This age-old question is never an easy one to answer. With a plethora of options available – digital, print, referral, etc. it can be challenging for any business to develop an effective and scalable strategy.
Over the past few years, a new channel emerged and has taken the online world by storm: content marketing.
Exactly as it sounds, content marketing enables businesses to market through the use of content rather than traditional display or search ads. The ability to leverage content as a form of advertising is incredibly powerful. Here’s a few reasons why and how to best capitalize on this opportunity:
Why Content Marketing Is Powerful
1. It Tells Your Story
Unlike display or search ads, content marketing is a unique and powerful opportunity to share you story with the world. Whether it’s press about your company, a powerful mention, or your own content, content marketing allows you to leverage the asset by putting marketing dollars behind it. This enables far more people to see your content than was ever previously possible.
2. It Doesn’t Seem Like an Ad
Lets face it – people are sick of ads. From billboards to banner ads, the average consumer is bombarded with brands trying to sell. The ingeniousness of content marketing is that it does not feel like an ad. Instead, your prospective customers feel like they’re discovering news that just happens to be about your company.
On social media, content marketing can be leveraged via promoted posts, which appear as a normal update you’re sending to the world. On content or media sites, these ads usually display as recommended or sponsored links at the bottom of an article. This is also exactly the place where your potential customer is looking for new things to explore.
3. It’s Scalable
Content marketing makes PR and content initiatives far more scalable. It allows your content to generate virtually unlimited impressions and incredible click-through rates, enabling new brands to achieve far greater brand awareness than ever possible. Brand awareness isn’t just scalable – it’s powerful.
Reading an article about your company is far more memorable than seeing a display ad, which drives not just awareness, but revenue. If your business is viable and presented correctly, promoting your content will attract new paying customers in droves. They will arrive to your site better informed than they would be through any other channel.
Tools to Use
To Get Content
PR agencies, internal PR, and developing your own content all contribute to your content marketing pool. Fortunately, many innovative companies are changing the way in which we create or find our content. For example, Top Content Writers connects businesses with skilled writers who can help write blog content, articles, and get press in leading media outlets. This helps businesses get any type of content they would need to pursue these marketing strategies at affordable rates.
To Promote Content
There are two critical channels for promoting content. The first of which is content marketing companies such as Outbrain, Taboola, and Triplelift. These provide businesses with massive reach through expansive media publisher networks. While the bigger brands have a larger reach, many networks maintain exclusive relationships with publishers so it’s advantageous to use more than one.
Another channel for promoting content are social networks including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. I’ve found all to be effective, but primarily use Facebook because of its unparalleled targeting, scale, and cost-effectiveness.
