What is Content Marketing?

By definition, Content Marketing is, "a form of marketing focused on creating, publishing, and distributing content for a targeted audience online," (Wikipedia). But what does that really mean? Allow us to explain...

In this day and age marketing is changing and progressing at an accelerating rate -we can thank social media for that- it has moved from this sort of one way communication vertical line to a true conversation between producers and consumers. This is why content marketing has become so crucial for the field of advertising today, moving everything online engages consumers and allows companies to meet more needs, more quickly.

So again, what is content marketing? It's anything you want it to be, pictures, videos, vlogs, blogs, or even company ambassadors. Content marketing is just creating new ways to advertise products or services and doing so on the internet.The Content Marketing Institute wrote in an article on their page that being a forward-thinking marketer means, "Instead of pitching your products or services, you are providing truly relevant and useful content to your prospects and customers to help them solve their issues." This is why you see an increase in “Instagram Models” or “Influencers”, people are more likely to buy products they know other people are using, especially when they can see how others are loving it.

Why does it matter?

NewBreedMarketing.com says, “You've heard it before and we'll say it again: to achieve success in today's competitive climate, you can't afford to ignore the power of content marketing. Your competitors have already climbed aboard the content train; in 2016, nearly 90 percent of B2B companies had already incorporated content into their marketing strategy — a number that has since only increased. If you're not already leveraging content in your inbound strategy, or not giving it the time and attention, it deserves, then you're quickly becoming a relic.”

Truly! Content Marketing matters because it is the thing that is going to take your company to the next level and New Breed Marketing says it is for these reasons:

1. It Helps Build your Brand

When you have a company Instagram, twitter, Facebook or any other social media it gives your company a better persona that people can see, understand and feel as though it relates to them. This then provokes them to follow the brand, get up to date with what you are doing and be more inclined to support you through thick and thin.

2. It Increases Quality Traffic

Social Media allows you to target specific types of people in specific places at specific times. For example, if I’m in competition with other brands I can use geotargeting to get the attention of other companies’ consumers. On top of that, I can set my social media pages to advertise to a specific gender, in a certain area and do so during hours they are likely to be online. I can hone in on the exact consumer I desire to, easier now than ever!

3. It Nurtures Customers

What we mean by nurture is the same thing we talked about earlier, two way communication. It is the key to building your business and consumer loyalty. When you have social media pages where you are constantly sharing content, people WILL comment and engage. Here they have a voice to tell you if they love what you are doing or maybe even hate it, but as the company you can then go in and reply telling the consumer that you not only want to fix the problem and improve the products but that you care about how they feel! That goes a long way with people and a good experience is sure be talked about with others.All in all, content marketing is marketing done online but it has a voice and a personality that represents who you are, what you believe in and what you are selling. It matters because it is relevant, quick, easy and allows for two way communication. It can help build your brand and consumer loyalty because consumers will feel like they know you, are invested in what you are doing and because of that want to share you with all their friends and family.