Content marketing

Content marketing is a form of marketing focused on creating, publishing and distributing content for a targeted audience online. It is often used by businesses in order to:

• Attract attention and generate leads
• Expand their customer base
• Generate or Increase online sales
• Increase brand awareness or credibility
• Engage an online community of users

Unlike other forms of online marketing, content marketing relies on anticipating and meeting an existing customer need for information, as opposed to creating demand for a new need. As James O'Brien of Contently wrote on Mashable, "The idea central to content marketing is that a brand must give something valuable to get something valuable in return. Instead of the commercial, be the show. Instead of the banner ad, be the feature story."

When businesses pursue content marketing, the main focus should be the needs of the prospect or customer. Once a business has identified the customer's need, information can be presented in a variety of formats, including news, video, white papers, e-books, infographics, email newsletters, case studies, podcasts, how-to guides, question and answer articles, photos, blogs, etc.

History

Traditional marketers have long used content to disseminate information about a brand and build a brand's reputation.Business owners started to apply content marketing techniques in the late 19th century due to the technological advances in transportation and communication. They also wanted to build connections with their customers. For example:

• In 1732,Benjamin Franklin issued the Poor Richard’s Almanack. Franklin wanted to promote his printing business.

• In 1888, Johnson & Johnson introduced a publication called “Modern Methods of Antiseptic Wound Treatment” that was targeted to doctors that used bandages. They also released two publications that contained tips for the medical community.

• In 1895, John Deere launched the magazine The Furrow, providing information to farmers on how to become more profitable. The magazine, considered the first custom publication, is still in circulation, reaching 1.5 million readers in 40 countries in 12 different languages.

• In 1900, Michelin developed the Michelin Guide, offering drivers information on auto maintenance, accommodations, and other travel tips. 35,000 copies were distributed for free in this first edition.

• In 1904, Jell-O salesmen went door-to-door, distributing their cookbook for free. Touting the dessert as a versatile food, the company saw its sales rise to over $1 million by 1906.

• In 1933, Procter & Gamble started to broadcast a radio serial drama sponsored by their Oxydol soap powder. The owners wanted to build brand loyalty by aiming to adult women. They could intermix their marketing messages into the serial drama. The term soap opera was born in this year, and they marked a precedent for native ads. Engagement with the audience was a key element with the creation of this content.

Between 1940s and 1950s, TV was in their golden age, and advertising took over the media. Companies focused on sales rather than connecting with the public. There were few ventures into content marketing, and no very prominent campaigns.

During the baby boom era, Kellogg’s began selling sugary cereal to children. With this change in business model came sociable animal mascots, lively animated commercials and the back of the cereal box as a form of targeted content marketing. Infographics were born in this era. This represented a new approach to make a brand memorable with the audience.

In the 1990s, everything changed for marketers. The arrival of computers and the Internet made websites and blogs flourish, and corporations found content marketing opportunities through email.

E-commerce adaptations and digital distribution became the foundation of marketing strategy.

Internet also helped content marketing become a mainstream form of marketing. Traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, radio and TV started to lose their power in the marketplace. Companies started to promote and sell their products digitally.

The phrase "content marketing" was used as early as 1996, when John F. Oppedahl led a roundtable for journalists at the American Society for Newspaper Editors.

• In 1998, Jerrell Jimerson held the title of "director of online and content marketing" at Netscape.

• In 1999, author Jeff Cannon wrote,“In content marketing, content is created to provide consumers with the information they seek.”

By the late 2000s, when social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube were born, online content marketing was accessible, shareable and on-demand anytime worldwide.

By 2014, Forbes Magazine's website had written about the seven most popular ways companies use content marketing. In it, the columnist points out that by 2013, use of content marketing had jumped across corporations from 60% a year or so before, to 93% as part of their overall marketing strategy. Despite the fact that 70% of organizations are creating more content, only 21% of marketers think they are successful at tracking return on investment.

Today, content marketing has become a powerful model for marketers. Storytelling is part of it, and they must convey the companies’ messages or goal to their desired audience without pushing them to just buy the product or service.

Implications

The rise of content marketing has turned traditional businesses into media publishing companies.

For example:

• Red Bull, which sells a high-energy beverage, has published YouTube videos, hosted experiences, and sponsored events around extreme sports and activities like mountain biking, BMX, motocross, snowboarding, skateboarding, cliff-diving, freestyle motocross, and Formula 1 racing. Red Bull Media House is a unit of Red Bull that "produces full-length feature films for cinema and downstream channels (DVD, VOD, TV)." The Red Bulletin is an international monthly magazine Red Bull publishes with a focus on men's sports, culture, and lifestyle.
• The personal finance site Mint.com used content marketing, specifically their personal finance blog MintLife, to build an audience for a product they planned to sell. According to entrepreneur Sachin Rekhi, Mint.com concentrated on building the audience for MintLife "independent of the eventual Mint.com product." Content on the blog included how to guides on paying for college, saving for a house, and getting out of debt. Other popular content included in-depth interview and a series on financial disasters called "Trainwreck Tuesdays." Popularity of the site surged as did demand for the product. "Mint grew quickly enough to sell to Intuit for $170 million after three years in business. By 2013, the tool reached 10 million users, many of whom trusted Mint to handle their sensitive banking information because of the blog’s smart, helpful content."

The rise of content marketing has also accelerated the growth of online platforms, such as YouTube, Yelp, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pinterest, and more.

For example:

• YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, is an online video platform driving (and benefiting from) the surge to content marketing. As of 2016, YouTube had over 1 billion users, representing 1/3 of all internet users and reaching more 18-34 yr olds than any cable provider in the U.S.
• Yelp, an online business directory, has seen 30% year over growth in the number of reviews, ending the second quarter of 2016 with 108 million reviews for over 3 million businesses.

Businesses actively curate their content on these platforms with hopes to expand their reach to new audiences.

Content creation

When creating content, businesses will typically go through three preliminary steps:

Define a target audience and their needs

The first step in creating a successful content marketing campaign is to define a target audience, commonly known as user segmentation. Successful content marketers deeply understand their customers' needs and desires, beyond just their sole interest in their products or service. For example, somebody marketing a food truck, may define their target customer as young millennials who work within a 5-minute walk of downtown San Francisco and who enjoy trying fresh, healthy foods. The more narrowly the customer can be defined, the easier it is to define content for that target audience.

Determine the types of content

The most commonly used type of content is blog posts, though other types of content can resonate with your customer as well. Content includes:

• White-papers and ebooks
• Videos
• Infographics
• Quizzes
• Lists
• How-to guides
• Webinars
• Q&A
• Surveys
• Interviews
• Editorials/ Op-eds
• Podcasts

The appropriate type of content for any business will depend on the business' goals and target customer. For example, an architect provider targeting real estate developers of large residential complexes may benefit from creating a list outlining all the considerations that a real estate developer should consider before entering a deal. Conversely, a local catering service targeting busy families may benefit from a video showcasing the warmth and convenience of a home-made, freshly-cooked meal.

Establish a content management system

To get started, businesses will need to find a content management system (CMS). Though there are many CMS and they each offer a slightly different value proposition, most include functions to help with content creation, publication, and analytics to track the success of posts.

Common Metrics

Metrics to determine the success of a content marketing are often tied to the original goals of the campaign.

For example, for each of these goals, a content marketer may measure different engagement and conversion metrics:

Brand awareness and visibility

Businesses focused on expanding their reach to more customers will want to pay attention to the increase in volume of visitors, as well as the quality of those interactions. Traditional measures of volume include number of visitors to a page and number of emails collected, while time spent on page and click-through to other pages/ photos are good indicators for engagement.

• Number of visitors to a page
• Time spent on the page
• Click-through across pages/ photos
• Number of emails collected

Brand Health Metrics

Businesses want to measure the impact that their messages have on consumers. Brand health refers to the positive or negative feedback that a company gets. It also measures how important a brand is for consumers. With this companies want to find out if brand reputation influences their customers to make a purchase.

Measures in this part comprise

• Share of voice (SOV) is the amount of times a brand has been talked versus its competitors (conversations). Outside the digital world, SOV stands for the space and frequency a brand advertisement is placed on traditional media.

• Sentiment is when the brand has positive, negative or neutral feedback.

• Brand Influence refers to the amount of times a post, comment or tweet is shared on different platforms.

Diversified user base

For businesses hoping to reach not only more - but also new - types of customers online, they should pay attention to the demographics of new visitors, as evidenced by cookies that can be installed, different sources of traffic, different online behaviors, and/or different buying habits of online visitors.

• Demographics of visitors
• Sources of traffic (i.e., SEO, social media, referral, direct)
• Differences in buying patterns and user-behavior of visitors

Sales

Businesses focused on increasing sales through content marketing should look at traditional e-commerce metrics including click-through-rate from a product-page to check-out and completion rates at the check-out. Altogether, these form a conversion funnel. Moreover, to better understand customers' buying habits, they should look at other engagement metrics like time spent per page, number of product-page visits per user, and re-engagement.

• Conversion through the sales process (the process from sign-up to check-out), including click-through-rates at each stage of the conversion funnel
• Time spent on the page
• Re-engagement (i.e., % of return visitors)
• Click-through across product pages

Innovation Metrics

Companies want to analyze if their social media campaigns are generating commentary among consumers. This helps them to come up with ways to improve their product and service. This involves “high level of brand engagement and builds brand loyalty.”

Examples:

• When a company makes a post through their social media platforms and shares its ideas, consumers can be influenced or motivated to share their opinions.
• Trend spotting refers to the latest consumers’ comments about a brand, product or service that must be targeted. Some tools can be provided by Google Trends, Trendsmap ( Twitter) and other sites that report what is in everybody’s mouths worldwide.

See also

• Earned media
• Custom media
• Brand language
• Inbound marketing
• Interactive Marketing
• Permission marketing
• Content strategy
• SEO