Content creation and content marketing are two vague terms. They can refer to a number of different things. This article will help give you the definition of content marketing. 

What exactly is content marketing? And how vital is it for a digital marketing campaign’s success? One of the focuses of content marketing is matching content to your customer’s needs. Whichever stage your customer is in the buying cycle, they need specific content to help push them forward to the next stage.

Unlike Television advertisements where the commercials push messages to a captive audience, engaging content actually speaks to your customers to help them feel more valued. 

In able to do this, marketers and advertisers must think of themselves as publishers. A publisher’s main goal is to attract an audience, and not necessarily sell to them directly. Fortunately, through the power of social media and the Internet, it is now easier for brands and companies to connect with their audience on different platforms. 

Content Marketing Components

There are different components or areas of a content marketing strategy. The following will discuss these areas in depth. All of these are vital to the success of your marketing campaign. Check them out below.

Content

These refer to the different areas a content should cover. 

  • Substance: This refers to the people you are trying to reach. To make it easier, it is always ideal to write down a list of audiences and the reason why they are chosen.
  • Structure: this refers to a number of different things. For instance, marketers should always ask themselves where the content will be placed. Additionally, the question of how content is organized is also important. Lastly, marketers should also list down the number of ways people can find the content. Will it be online? Will it be spread through text messages, social media, etc.?

People

Cover two parts, the workflow, and governance which will be discussed below:

  • Workflow: start strategizing and think about how does the content happen?
  • Governance: this refers to the politics, guidelines, and standards that are needed to be set in able to create the content. 

In the end, content creation and content marketing are not just about putting a product out there for the world to see. It covers a lot of different areas that should be considered before finishing the marketing campaign and turning it into a profitable one. That should already be presented with a planned outcome in mind.

Strategic Building Blocks

With the basics of content marketing covered, we will move on to the strategic building blocks you need to know before creating a campaign. These building blocks will help you and your marketers strategize and execute.

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Translating Your Brand Essence

Every brand has its own brand essence. This refers to the sentence which ultimately sums up the unique attributes of a brand. It is also the sentence that comes to an audience’s mind when they think of your brand. In short, it is the basis of the brand’s emotional connection with its customers. 

The brand essence helps any company define the tone of voice for their brand. But it should be done in a manner in which it engages with its customers. A brand essence might only be just a sentence long, but it can be used as a great guide for every content you make. This helps ensure marketers that the content they create represents the brand accordingly. 

Market Research and Consumer Personas

Another strategic building block for a marketing campaign is a market research and creating consumer personas. This is also known as the sweet spot for content marketing. Therein lies an intercept between the marketing goals of the brand and differentiating that brand in the marketplace.

It also includes the desire of the customers to pay any attention to a brand. A great strategy to address your consumer needs is through developing a consumer persona. 

User identity is a profile that a writer develops to reflect the attributes of the target audience for which they write to. The profile will be based on the research conducted on the readers of your content.

Bear in mind that creating a personal profile is about looking into and knowing all the attributes of your reader. This includes their needs and desires from your brand.

Therefore, it is also important to focus on the person’s motives that you or your author may build. It means that instead of concentrating on the outside, a stereotype is made. 

All in all, the persona helps a brand create segments and understand your target market. It is a solid framework that marketers can use as a guide to creating any content in the future. 

Creating Content Pillars

Another brilliant strategic building block is creating content pillars. These content pillars are linked still linked to the brand’s identity. Those apply to the focus areas that enable content creation that suits the needs of a customer Additionally, these content pillars should also speak to the interest of the audience to keep them as loyal customers or readers. 

With all of the distractions our modern world can offer, it can be challenging to keep a customer interested in one specific brand. They have all the means to look into your competitors and choose to go a different route. Creating content pillars will help keep marketers cater to every audience’s interests and desires while still creating a profitable marketing campaign.

In the next article, we will discuss in detail the importance of creating content that will keep your customers interested. We will also talk about how crucial it is to establish a relationship with your audience. Additionally, we will delve deeper into how to justify the cost of all the market research we have discussed in previous articles. 

© Image credits to Steve Johnson

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