If you asked me what I would do to grow my online business, my answer would be effective content marketing. In a world driven by e-commerce, I honestly believe in the phrase ‘content is king.’ Today, content marketing accounts for a considerable portion of the budget of all types of businesses, whether large or small, with brick-and-mortar or online outlets. There is no doubt about the fact that establishing an online presence is necessary for every entrepreneur and business firm. But what makes their online profile more impactful is the content they are sharing online.
As a consumer, I can say that today, most of us discover new companies and brands online via social media and search engines. If I am familiar with a brand, then also I check out their collection or deals on their websites or Instagram profiles. As more and more businesses are going online, the competition has grown, with each company pushing hard to reach their target customers first. In such a scenario, content is unquestionably the most crucial factor that can assist a company in reaching its target audience and converting them into paying clients.
However, digital marketing for businesses consumes a lot of time, money, and other resources. That is why online businesses prefer to outsource their content marketing tasks to a content marketing agency. These agencies specialize in the field and can perform the tasks more effectively and efficiently. Before I head on to how partnering with a digital marketing agency can benefit your business, I would first discuss what content marketing is all about.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a digital strategy centered on developing and disseminating all types of content that we see on the internet. When I mention “content,” I am referring to photographs, videos, words, and any other readable or consumable information. If you are wondering why internet businesses should spend a significant amount of time and money on content marketing, it is because content marketing helps companies in achieving various objectives like:
- Drive traffic to store or website
- Convert target audience into paying customers
- Build consumer trust
- Attract new customers
- Inform customers about the brand, its products, and deals
- Maintain relationships with existing customers.
While content marketing is critical for a company’s success, it is also crucial to realize that different organizations require different content marketing strategies to achieve their objectives. Since each organization has a unique aim and target audience, a single content marketing strategy cannot be applied to all of them. As the term”content” refers to a wide range of items, organizations must determine which content marketing services will be most beneficial to them. Content marketing or digital marketing agencies can help them with this. These firms not only offer a wide range of content marketing services but also help businesses build the ideal plan for their marketing campaigns.
As building a digital marketing strategy is a lengthy process, a variety of criteria must be examined before making a final decision. When working with a content marketing agency, there are a few questions you must bear in mind:
- What goals do you seek to achieve via content marketing?
- What is your content marketing budget?
- What platforms would you be using for content marketing?
Once you know the answers to these questions, your content marketing agency can help you better distribute content that meets all your goals and objectives.
What services do content marketing agencies offer?
There are a plethora of services that come under content marketing. Some of them are:
- Blogging
Blogging is a content marketing strategy that has been around here for a long time. Even today, most businesses consider it to be a top marketing approach for their enterprises. It is commonly used to provide customers with information about the company, its offers, customer reviews, press releases, and so on. Some people use blogs to share company insights as well as to keep up with current industry developments.
Companies use blogging to increase traffic to their stores by informing the public about new products and how they can help them. It also enables companies to keep their current audience engaged and position themselves as thought leaders of the industry. Online firms can also provide a detailed product description through blogging, which increases client trust and loyalty. In addition to these benefits, blogging helps with SEO (search engine optimization). By incorporating relevant keywords in a blog post, content marketing helps customers discover the exact products they are looking for.
- Social Media Marketing
Despite the fact that social media marketing is considered a different field of marketing, it is also a part of content marketing. As the number of people using social media continues to rise, thousands of businesses are establishing their presence on these platforms to reach these millions of people. As a result, seamless integration of content marketing and social media is essential. Every social media post, whether it is an image, a caption, or a video, is a piece of content designed to attract people and compel them to take action. Through social media, users can discover your business, check out your posts, view your offerings, share them with others, or follow your page to remain updated. The possibilities of how audiences can engage with your company on social media are endless.
However, it must be noted that social media marketing does not just involve creating and sharing content. A lot of things go behind designing and posting social media content. Further, the engagement levels need to be analyzed to determine future actions. All these activities are guaranteed to generate a better result when there is a whole team specifically working on social media marketing. In my view, having a qualified content and copywriter along with other content marketing experts is a must in order to take advantage of the benefits that social media may provide.
- Videos
According to studies, video content accounted for more than 80% of global internet traffic in 2019. This presents quite a clear picture of the importance of videos in content marketing. The fundamental reason that video content is outperforming all other types of material is that it is more appealing, engaging, widely shareable, and easier to consume. Furthermore, it provides viewers with a very personal insight into your company. As a result, it is often thought to be more reliable and effective than other types of content. You can develop a number of videos depending on your business, goals, and target customers, such as:
- Educational videos
- How-to videos
- Experience videos
- Event videos
- Behind the scenes videos
- Product demonstrations
- Company culture videos
- Testimonials
- FAQ videos
- Video advertisements, etc.
No matter what kind of video you make, in order to ensure that it is effective, it has to be made properly. You must consider lighting, camera quality, storyline, and other factors. Poorly produced videos rarely appeal to viewers. If you cannot get their attention in the first few seconds, there is a slim chance they will stick around for the rest. In short, there are numerous factors to consider when creating a video. Video creation also requires a significant amount of resources, time, and money. For the majority of businesses, creating films in-house is too expensive, which is why they turn to content marketing agencies.
- Graphics and Images
Photographs, charts, graphs, infographics, and other images are highly attractive, shareable, and easy to consume. When compared to written content, any sort of visual content is bound to attract more individuals. Moreover, social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are largely visual platforms. Sharing high-quality photographs that provide some value in the form of knowledge or amusement can thus be lucrative.
According to various studies, around 65% of the world’s population are visual learners. The best practice to attract an audience is to combine images and written content. You will agree with me if you have read articles or images with words explaining what they are about. Such graphic designs tend to deliver more value than only images or only written content. Some kinds of visual content one can use is:
- Photographs
- Graphics
- Image quotes
- Animations
- Presentations
- GIFs
Now, if you want to post visual content, you have two options:
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- Share original graphics and images: If I want my enterprise to stand out from others, I will choose to create my own graphics and images by partnering with an internet marketing agency. This would help me in creating a brand identity.
- Share third-party graphics and images: Another alternative is to use photographs from a third-party source. When I don’t have enough time or money to generate unique photographs, I usually turn to this option. Many images, however, are protected by copyright restrictions. As a result, I either obtain permission from the creator or use free image sources to avoid future problems.
How can content marketing benefit your business?
Content marketing can provide numerous benefits to an organization. Some of them are:
- Expand the reach of your company
- Build customer loyalty and trust by providing the customer more opportunities to engage with the company
- Improve brand awareness by educating the users and reaching a wider audience
- Ensure that your content stays till the time you decide to delete it. This implies that people can check out your products and offerings later as well.
- Convert the audience into paying customers at a faster and cheaper rate.
- Maintain longer relationships with existing customers and build a strong community.
Why partner with a content marketing agency?
Over the recent years, I have seen how individuals become celebrities overnight. The same goes for businesses as well. What creates this sudden boom? After much research and thought, I concluded it is because they create and share quality and valuable content that appeals to the audience. Similarly, brands are also working towards establishing their brand identity in creative ways.
McDonald’s is one of my favorite corporations in this aspect. McDonald’s has been in business for decades. It is already a profitable business with a large customer base. Despite this, they spend a lot of money on content marketing. Their fun and thoughtfully created posts have only made their community stronger and loyal. This example, in my opinion, highlights my point about the importance of content marketing and how organizations are using it.
As I said before, mere creation and distribution of content are not enough. It must be useful and valuable to the readers and viewers. The process of content marketing requires thorough planning, resources, and unnecessary technical and creative capabilities. If you do not have a whole team dedicated to content marketing, the best option is to partner with a content marketing agency.
These marketing agencies can carry out all your content marketing tasks effectively and efficiently while you work on the other areas of your business. They also have the necessary experience to handle all your marketing efforts. By delegating content marketing to a qualified agency, you may take advantage of all the benefits that digital marketing has to offer, including:
- Instant expertise.
- Low cost.
- Sales support.
- New perspectives.
- Better allocation of time and resources.
To summarize, content marketing, when done effectively, can be a true game-changer for any online business. Instead of taking up all the activities that fall under content marketing on your shoulders, my advice is to collaborate with a content marketing agency. At every step, they can help you in creating and publishing content that speaks to your audience and provides value to them. They would also provide a high return on investment because they are specialists in the area with a wealth of knowledge and abilities.
Maggie Simmons writes insanely helpful marketing insights. Sharing marketing tips and secrets drive her crazy. She works as a Marketing Manager at Max Effect Marketing, a leading digital agency located in Denver, Colorado.