What is content marketing? A detailed guide
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Abdul Wadood
Do you want to learn content marketing?
If YES, this guide will be very helpful to you.
As you all already know, nowadays, if you want to be successful on the internet, you must utilize content marketing effectively.
To learn this excellent marketing strategy, make sure to read this detailed guide to content marketing.
This detailed guide includes the following topics: (Feel free to skip to the part of the guide you want to learn)
Introduction to content marketing
“Content marketing is a long-term strategy of creating and providing highly relevant, consistent, and valuable content to people to convert them into customers.”
Do you want to know the difference between content marketing and traditional marketing?
Let’s go ahead.
Don’t be shocked! Content marketing costs about 62% less than traditional marketing but it generates about 3 times the leads.
Isn’t this awesome!
This is because content marketing provides better value and is more relevant to people. For example, in traditional marketing, a car detailing video might be shown to a person who doesn’t own a car. Now, this is completely irrelevant to him.
But, in content marketing, we target the right people and give them the content that they are looking for. Moreover, content marketing is a lot more cost-effective than traditional marketing.
Different forms of content marketing
The content provided can be in various forms. Some of them include:
- Blog posts
- Videos
- Guides (E-books, Lesson videos, etc.)
- Statistics
- Audio
Now, I will quickly take you through each of these content types.
Blog posts
Blogs are one of the best and cost-effective ways to deliver content to people.
The first step to writing blogs is choosing a niche. Be noted that blogging can be much easier if you choose a niche that you know about.
As you already know, for blogging, you will need a website. Nowadays, creating a website has become super simple and affordable. If you are a beginner, I would suggest you build your website using WordPress. For hosting, I would suggest you use HostGator.
Ok! Now it’s time for you to write content.
Note: For a blog to rank high on Google, it must be keyword optimized. Also, you should follow the right SEO strategies.
Videos
Videos are gaining a lot of popularity, and we can use this opportunity to deliver our content to people in the form of videos.
To be honest, as a blogger, I prefer watching videos rather than reading blog posts. The reason is because I can understand the content much quicker, and it also keeps me engaged.
I am pretty sure that I am not alone! Many of you prefer consuming content in the form of videos, correct?! Let me know in the comment section below.
But, this doesn’t mean we can ignore other forms of content marketing because there are situations in which the other forms can perform better than videos.
Now, talking about the video platforms, YouTube is the most popular. So, for video content, I would suggest you concentrate more on YouTube compared to Facebook and Instagram.
Guides (E-books, Lesson videos, etc.)
Guides are also a good form of content marketing.
Nowadays, many people prefer digital guides over physical ones. You can make use of this opportunity to deliver valuable content to people in the form of e-books, lessons, etc., and develop a strong and healthy relationship with them.
Trust me, doing so will benefit you a lot in the long run!
Statistics
You can provide content to people in the form of statistics too.
For example, say you are publishing statistics about ‘the number of smartphone users in the world’. Now, along with the data, you can share your opinion, and this can also be considered as content marketing.
Audio
Audio is also a good way to deliver content to people. Sure, it isn’t as effective as the previous methods, but you can still give them a try!
I hope that you have clearly understood the different forms of content.
Create awesome content
Now we have arrived at the topic of creating content.
For a content to become successful, it must provide value to people. There are lots of blogs, vides, etc., on the internet, and if you want your content to stand out from them, you should provide some extra value.
The data from WordPress shows that there are a lot of posts published each month from WordPress and its subsidiaries alone. So, if you want to be on the top, provide value to people.
For example, if you are writing a blog post about a smartphone, instead of just talking about that phone, you can also compare it with its competitors. By doing so, you are providing additional value to people, and because of this, people don’t have to visit other websites to see the comparison between the two phones.
This will help in increasing your sales too!
Here is an example from my blog post. The blog post is about creating a website using WordPress. In this post, I have provided a lot of additional information like tips to choose a domain name, creating an e-commerce site using WordPress, etc. Sure, it took lots of time and effort to publish the blog, but the effort was worth it!
Always keep in mind that quality matters, not quantity. So, the quality of the content matters more than the number of content.
Original research content
As the name suggests, in the original research content, you will be the person to conduct the research. Sure, it can be very difficult, but it is worth it! They can help to boost your content by a pretty big margin.
If you are a beginner, I would suggest you focus on publishing content that is already performing well for others. Because, to publish original research content, you will need to perform a lot of research, and a well knowledgeable team will be essential for it.
Also, for your original research content to become successful, you should first gain people’s trust. To gain people’s trust, you need to put out consistent high-quality content.
Once you set up the basics correctly, then I would suggest you create original research content.
Good video intros
If you use videos to deliver your content, you must make sure that the intro is good. You should try grabbing people’s attention within the first 15 seconds of the video.
It can be difficult, but to make people watch the video, you have to do so!
Many people start their video with a story. To be honest, people did not click on your video to hear your story. Instead, they want a solution to their problem. So, instead of telling people a story, just get into the content.
For example, if your video is about “creating a website”, the intro of your video can be as follows:
“Do you want to create a website? If yes, you have arrived at the right place. In this video, I have demonstrated the process of creating a website step-by-step. And, towards the end of this video, I will be giving you some tips that can help you rank your website higher on Google. Now, does this sound interesting to you?!! Let’s get into the video!”
Perform excellent keyword research
If blogs are your primary form of content, you must make it keyword optimized so that it can rank high on Google.
As you might know, to attain good keyword optimization, performing good keyword research is essential.
Don’t worry! There are various keyword research tools that can help you with keyword research. Some tools are free, whereas others are paid.
Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, and SEMrush are some of the best premium keyword research tools. These tools are feature-rich, but being honest, they are pretty expensive for beginners to afford.
So, as an alternative, you can opt for free tools like Keyword Surfer. Keyword Surfer is a chrome extension, but it does a pretty good job!
As you can see, the tool gives pretty good information about keywords.
Once you start making some money, I highly recommend you invest some money in premium keyword research tools like Wordtracker, as they can be very helpful in your life as a blogger.
Note: I secured a 25% discount to my readers on the keyword research tool, Wordtracker. Click here to see your discount.
Tips to succeed in content marketing
I hope that you have clearly understood the basics of content marketing. Now, let’s see the tips to succeed in content marketing.
1. Know your audience
If you want to become successful in content marketing, you must provide the content that your audience is looking for.
Now, you might wonder how to know about the audience?
Good question!
You can know about your audience by researching the content provided by other websites in your niche, the questions asked in forums like Quora, Reddit, etc. Also, you can take suggestions from Google.
If your niche is about ‘websites’, you can use the following suggestions to gather information that can help you to frame your content.
Similarly, if you scroll down the page, in the ‘related searches’ section, you can find more suggestions.
So, by performing similar research, you can get an idea about the content that your audience is looking for.
2. Publish consistent, high-quality content
If you are a beginner to content marketing, it is ideal to publish 2 content per week.
I know that it can be quite hard to create high-quality content frequently, especially if you are the only person in your team.
Unfortunately, there is no other way around! To succeed in content marketing, you must provide valuable, relevant, and consistent content to your audience. This is a MUST!
If you are a single person or a small team, I suggest you spend 1 day a week planning for the content, 3 days a week creating and editing the content, and 2 days a week marketing it. You can take a day off for relaxation!
If videos are your primary form of content, publishing 1 content per week would be ideal, as there is more effort involved in creating a video.
Once your team gets bigger, you can start publishing more videos. But, keep in mind that quality and consistency matters more than quantity.
If sources like blogging, e-books, guides, etc., are your primary form of content marketing, I highly suggest you make sure that the text is free from spelling and grammatical errors. I suggest using a tool called Grammarly, which is the most popular writing assistant software, to assist you in your writing.
3. Market your content
Content Marketing = Content + Marketing.
Once you have published the content, the next step is to market it. You can market your content through the following channels:
- Email marketing
- Social media
- Forums
- Word-of-mouth
- Paid advertising, etc.
Email marketing
The emails you send for marketing, advertising, promotions, etc., comes under the heading of email marketing.
The first step in email marketing is to plan what people will receive after they subscribe. You can send them guides, blog posts, videos, etc. But, make sure that it is relevant and informative to them.
Now, some might wonder whether they have to send the email manually?
Don’t worry! There are various email marketing tools like GetResponse that can help you with this. All you need to do is draft the email and create the workflow. GetResponse will take care of the mailing process. So, the effort you put into drafting the email and creating the workflow is one time, which is awesome!
Social media
Social media is one of the best places to make content go viral!
You can share your content on social pages, groups, etc. This will increase your brand awareness, and if people are interested, they may go through your future content too!
Also, you can share your content with friends and family members. This will help in increasing the traffic to your content.
As you can see in the image, I have created a valuable post that is relatable to my recent content.
I have provided a good amount of value in the caption too! Because of providing value, people won’t consider this as a promotional post.
Ok!
Towards the end of the caption, include sentences like, “Do you want to further improve your SEO knowledge for FREE? Click on the link in bio”, “click on the link in bio to further improve your SEO knowledge”, “DM me to learn more about SEO”, etc.
Depending on the method you used, you can share the link of your content on your bio, or you can share the link of your content to people through chats.
Forums
You can promote your content by answering questions on forums. But, be sure to provide value to people in the answer.
Also, don’t choose to answer a question in which there are already promotional answers. Instead, go for a question in which there are regular answers.
To make your answer stand out, provide additional value to the readers, and place the link to your content in a relevant place.
This method works pretty well to increase traffic to your website!
Word-of-mouth
How many times have you bought a product from others’ direct recommendations?
Uncountable times, right?
Similarly, word-of-mouth is a powerful strategy for content marketing, especially when you are a beginner. You can say your friends and family members about your content. No matter whether they are interested in that niche, if the content is good, there is a high chance for them to say about the content to their friends, colleagues, etc.
Also, if you are just starting, trust me, this strategy can help in bringing some traffic to your content.
4. Update your content regularly
In this digital world, things get updated swiftly. Similarly, if you want your content to be on the top, you must update it frequently.
If you are a beginner, I would suggest you go through all your content at least once every six months and check whether they need to be updated.
This illustration from Moz shows how a fresher content results in a better quality score compared to stale content.
The idea behind updating the content is to increase the Click Through Rate (CTR), social shares, backlinks, and user engagement.
5. Design your content well
A good content design can make your content stand out from others.
Here is an example of content from Backlinko:
As you can see, the content looks super professional.
Another example of well-designed content is the guide that you are reading right now.
I would like to ask you a question!
If this guide was filled up with text…text…and…text without images, statistics, etc., would you have stayed in this content till now though the context is good? Probably no, right?!
This proves that, in addition to good context, design also plays an important role.
Tips to increase Click Through Rate (CTR)
Everyone wants people to read their content. Who doesn’t?!
Now, think about this. You have created excellent content but people aren’t clicking on it! How would you feel? Frustrated, right?
Don’t worry! Below I have mentioned some tips that can help in boosting your Click Through Rate (CTR).
1. Evoking curiosity
Trust me, bringing a sense of curiosity can increase the clicks to your content pretty drastically.
Here is an example of a title that evokes curiosity. “Do you use a case for your phone?: Here are the 5 reasons why you are wrong!”
To be honest, this title is very attractive, and there is a high chance for people to click on it.
For a title like this, in the content, you can include things like, phone case will reduce the appearance of your phone, a phone case without a screen protector will not prevent a phone’s screen from breaking, etc.
2. Power words
First, I would like to give a few examples of headings with power words.
1st example: “10 extraordinary skills to master in SEO”
2nd example: “15 life-changing tips to achieve success”
According to ClickFlow, power words can increase the Click Through Rate (CTR) by 13.9%, which is great!
The use of power words varies with the situation. Here is a list of power words for a few situations along with an example:
1. Content with facts, strategies, etc.
Power words: Trustworthy, reliable, proven, facts
Example: “5 SEO strategies that are proven to work”
2. Content with surprise, reviews, etc.
Power words: Remarkable, surprise, mind-blowing
Example: Porsche 911 Turbo S Review: Mind-Blowing Performance
I hope that you have clearly understood power words and their usage in the title.
3. Meta description
Having a dedicated meta description for your content is a lot better than Google putting in their meta description.
Many people spend hours or even days writing a blog, but they are lazy to spend few minutes writing a meta description.
Guys, come on! Don’t reduce the potential of your amazing content because of your laziness.
Here is an example of a good meta description.
As you can see, this meta description is keyword-rich, and it also looks attractive.
4. Make the title concise
Trust me; some people frame titles like a paragraph!
First of all, Google displays around 50-60 characters of the title tag. According to research by Moz, if the title is under 60 characters, we can expect about 90% of the titles to display properly.
So, an attractive and concise title can help in increasing the Click Through Rate (CTR).
Conclusion
Content marketing is one of the best forms of marketing, and to become successful on the internet, we should use it effectively.
According to Neil Patel, content marketing is all about storytelling. That’s true to some extent!
In content marketing, we tell stories to people in a way that can make them stick to the entire story.
So, no matter how difficult the topic is, a good content marketer has to make people feel comfortable with the topic.
I hope this guide was beneficial to you, and I hope that you have clearly understood the concept of content marketing.
If you have any doubts regarding content marketing, let’s discuss it in the comments section below.
