Content Marketing: How High-Value Content Can Improve Sales
Content marketing is an approach to marketing that focuses on the creation of valuable and relevant content. The aim of content marketing is to attract — and retain — a target audience to increase sales, which it achieves by making and sharing informative, educational, and useful content. Traditional marketing focuses on pitching a product or service to the target audience, whereas content marketing seeks to offer valuable information, sharing solutions to a particular problem or demand.
Content marketing has proven to be a highly effective form of marketing. As a result, companies of all sizes — from the largest brands in the world to small local businesses — are implementing its strategies and techniques. Industry experts, including Chief Creative Officer Ajab Samrai, have noticed the advantages and benefits of content marketing, such as lower costs, higher sales, and a better quality of customer. These benefits are the result of offering content that is truly valuable to customers, sharing useful information that makes a company stand out.
Many different platforms can be used for content marketing, and there are also a number of different approaches and methods. Social media is an important element of most content marketing strategies, as well as search engine optimisation, pay-per-click advertising, inbound marketing, and public relations. No matter the platform, successful content marketing relies on consistency, with a strong focus on long-term goals and achievements.
A recent survey has shown that 75% of B2B purchasers rely on content marketing to help with their buying decisions, which is a great motivation for businesses to invest time and resources into a well-formed content marketing strategy. The huge demand for quality content is another compelling reason for businesses and brands to put a strong focus on their content marketing.
The main aim of content marketing is, of course, to produce and share quality content. However, this can also be part of a larger, more holistic approach that looks to attract and engage the right audience. Content marketing can be divided into four parts: brand positioning, value proposition, analysis, and strategic planning; for further information on brand positioning, please refer to the embedded infographic.
By completing each of these four steps, businesses will have a fully formed content marketing strategy that should lead to greater success and higher sales.
