We throw around the terms “content” and “content marketing” so often these days that they sometimes get used interchangeably. They’re very different, however, and when you understand the difference, you might just approach your content marketing differently.
For several years now, we’ve accepted as fact the mantra that digital marketing is imperative to a company’s success. With more and more people turning to Google for their purchasing research, you’ve just got to bet there when people are looking for what you have to offer.
Content is necessary for people to find you online, and content marketing is the strategy that helps you attract them.
Definitions:
Content: The blog posts, social media posts, and website text you publish in order to attract traffic.
Content Marketing: The strategies and business processes you use for distributing the content you publish.
Your Audience
You need to be publishing high-quality, steady content in order to attract visitors to your site, so companies often come up with an editorial schedule and then ask their employees or their contracted writers to come up with content that can be posted on the business blog and then shared on your social media channels.
The challange is always the audience….
Be honest: is your content written for your customers or for the boss? If your content is written to please the owner or CEO of the company, it may completely miss the point. The point is to reach the customers.
How do you know if you’re reaching your customers? One clue is to see if they are engaging in the conversation you’re starting. When you post something on social media, does anyone comment? When you publish a blog post, do people continue with the conversation in the comments section? If not, you might need to reevaluate your audience and see what you can do to reach them more effectively.
Your Strategy
What is the purpose of your content marketing? Are you hoping to make sales on your website? Get more people to come into your bakery? Are you trying to make our brand more recognizable in a certain industry?
Defining your content strategy will help to determine how you develop your content, what topics you cover, and how you lay it out on the page. For example, if your main goal is to get visitors to sign up for a free quote, you’ll want to feature your call to action prominently with everything you publish. You’ll want to steer your writing and your social media posts toward that goal. A content marketing strategy will help you to focus, and that focus will lead you to success.
If you’re struggling with your content marketing or inbound marketing strategy, we can help. Call us at Park Slope Softworks, an inbound marketing company in Brooklyn, to discuss your company’s content marketing, and we’ll help you to develop a program that works best for your unique organization.
