What is “Content Marketing”?

Photo by Skye Studios on Unsplash

The phrase, “content marketing” is primarily used to describe marketing online by using social media, e-newsletters, blogging, etc.

Do you think the term “content marketing” is just another marketing buzzword or a passing trend? Sure, the term may be another buzzword, but it’s definitely not a passing trend.

Although content marketing seems like a somewhat new idea, it has been around for a while. Plenty of businesses have used content in the form of printed documents and publications for marketing purposes.

Currently, many businesses are moving much of their offline publishing to the internet. These savvy business owners and marketers fully understand that content marketing is essential for establishing and strengthening their online presence.

So, what is content marketing? Here are a few things you need to know!

Content marketing is an important piece of an overall inbound marketing strategy

Content Marketing Institute provides the following definition of content marketing:

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

Traditional, or outbound, marketing is also known as “interruption” marketing. In other words, this type of marketing involves businesses “interrupting” decision-makers for the purpose of informing them about their brands and/or products. Common outbound marketing methods include phone calls, direct mailers, trade shows, and face-to-face meetings.

Inbound marketing, on the other hand, is where small business owners and marketers use a variety of online content to attract potential clients to their websites. Businesses are not interrupting or overtly selling their brand with inbound marketing. Instead, they are providing information, in the form of content, as a way of educating and informing their online audiences. Content marketing allows businesses to “sell” their products and/or solutions in a far more subtle fashion than outbound marketing.

Here is a list of some of the common types of content that marketers currently use for content marketing:

  • Blogging
  • Infographics
  • Memes
  • Images/Graphics
  • Videos
  • Podcasts
  • SlideShare presentations
  • E-newsletters
  • Social media posts

How effective is content marketing?

Small business owners and marketers are seeing positive results from using inbound marketing, and especially when they include content marketing in the mix.

If you are still feeling skeptical about inbound/content marketing, then these statistics about its value may help change your mind:

  • Website conversion rate is nearly 6x higher for content marketing adopters than non-adopters (2.9% vs 0.5%)
  • Organic search leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound marketing leads have a 1.7% close rate
  • Adopting an inbound strategy doubles average website conversion rates, from 6% to 12%
  • Brands relying on inbound marketing save over $14 dollars for every new customer acquired
  • Inbound marketing delivers 54% more leads into the marketing funnel than traditional outbound marketing
  • 61% of consumers say they feel better about a company that delivers custom content, and are more likely to buy from that company
  • Social media sites and blogs reach 8 out of 10 of all U.S. Internet users and account for 23% of all time spent online
  • 82% of marketers who blog see positive ROI for their inbound marketing
  • B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not blog
  • 70% of consumers say content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company
  • 60% of buyers are inspired to seek out a product after reading content about it
  • 90% of consumers find custom content useful and 78% believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships with them

Source: Siteefy

Do you agree that it sounds like content marketing is a win-win for the businesses that are using it – and also for the people who are seeking out valuable content online.

At Plan Promote Prosper, we believe that most businesses are aware that strategic and consistent communication through content marketing equals increased revenue. However, we also understand that day-to-day operations take priority for most small business owners. We can help! If you’re interested in learning more about how we help our clients with their content marketing, please contact us online or give us a call at (971) 238-4705.

~ Jamie

About Jamie Teasdale

Jamie Teasdale founded Propel Businessworks, a small business development company, in 2009. Since then, she has been lending insight and creativity to businesses all over the U.S., giving them the tools they need to plan, promote, and prosper.