We hear the term “content marketing” thrown around a lot! But, have you ever stopped to think about what it is, what it means, and how it can help your business? Content marketing is one of the best ways to attract your ideal customer and target market. Ready to learn how? Keep reading!
Before we get started, I want to do a special shout out to Alex at Organize BHAM for requesting information on content marketing. Alex is a professional organizer who has a killer Instagram account. If you love the satisfaction of an organized cabinet, playroom, pantry, office, bathroom – you name it, she is your gal! Check her out on Instagram at OrganizeBHAM.
If you want a shout out like Alex’s, request for me to do a blog post or podcast episode about a certain topic. If I use your idea, you may get a special shout out for you and your business!
Content Marketing Defined
First let’s define what content marketing is. In a nutshell, it is the delivery of high-value information that your target market is searching for to help them solve whatever their pain point may be. This information can be delivered in the form of:
- An email newsletter
- A blog post
- A social media post
- YouTube Video
- Podcast
- Instagram stories
- Any vehicle you use to communicate with your audience
Chances are if you and your business are active on any of the platforms I just mentioned, you have the opportunity to market to your audience via content marketing.
Content marketing is extremely popular and powerful because it is one of the most cost effective and efficient ways to market to your target audience. Not only that, it helps you build know, like and trust very quickly. But, to do so, you must create content that is valuable and will truly serve your ideal customer and address the pain points they have. That being said, you must really know your customer and know their struggles.
What Does Content Marketing Look Like?
Assuming you know all of the above, your next question may be, “what does content marketing look like?” The cool thing is it can take many forms and you can get as creative as you want with it. Some of the most popular ways to use content marketing is through things like:
- Tips
- Trainings
- Worksheets
- Reports
- Checklists
- Webinars
Basically anything someone can easily consume, execute, and then experience quick wins. Once your audience experiences those quick wins and you begin to make an impact, you have a fan for life! I promise.
At first glance, it may look like you are giving your time, services, and even products away for free. But what you have to remember is, you are giving away snippets of information, not the entire roadmap to create the complete transformation your ideal customer is looking for. You are only giving them a “portion” of the how. ALSO, something to remember – many people don’t have the discipline to follow through on their own. That’s where you come in – you are the key ingredient they need to be successful.
It is true there will be some people who will only show up for the free information only and never buy from you. That’s OK! Because, they probably are not your ideal customer and no matter how hard you try to get them to purchase, they probably would have never purchased from you in the first place anyway – no matter what!
The ROI of Content Marketing
The ROI or the return on investment for using content marketing so is priceless. Let me explain…
I love explaining through examples so let’s use Alex’s business as an example. As I said in the beginning, she is a professional organizer who will come into your home and reorganize the areas in your home that you just want to hide by closing a door. We all have a room, cupboard or space like that am I right???
For Alex to build trust with her potential clients she may want to consider designing content like:
- The Organized Kitchen Checklist
- 7 Tools You Need to Keep Your Garage Clean and Organized
- 9 Strategies to keep your kids playroom neat, tidy, and decluttered
Ok, I think I just got excited about all of those LOL!
Now here’s where it gets cool…Alex has 3 really good ideas that catch the eye of her target market. So how does she get this to work for her?
Alex would create a plan and here’s how it might look…
- She picks one of the above topics – let’s pick The Organized Kitchen Checklist example
- Starts talking about this amazing checklist she has available to anyone who wants it on social media, in a blog post, on stories, wherever she shows up she starts talking about it
- People are interested and they ask where they can get the list
- Alex directs them to a link on her website – when they arrive there they can fill out a form that asks for their name and email address
- Once the form is completed they are redirected to a page where they can download the checklist
- Now Alex has their email and can continue marketing to the people who downloaded the checklist
- It ends up being a win-win for everyone – the people downloading the checklist get a quick wins from the checklist and Alex now has started a relationship with people who downloaded the checklist
That’s what content marketing looks like and it works – I promise. Besides organized networking, content marketing is the only way I have grown my business. I have been using content marketing for myself since 2007 and I know it works! The juicier your content marketing pieces are, the more you are elevated as an authority in your space.
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