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Do you know what this is?
This, my friend, is one of the best examples of content marketing of all time. When you hear the phrase “content marketing,” you might think of blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and viral YouTube videos. But content marketing has been around for a lot longer than the Internet.
Why is content marketing so important? Because it is all about storytelling, and humans have been telling stories since they could speak. Our attention will always go to those who tell great stories. When Hasbro and Marvel cooperated to launch their comic book series “G.I. Joe – A Real American Hero!” in 1982, their
Kenner Toy Company’s Star Wars action figures already had a rich backstory, so the creators of G.I. Joe wanted to emulate that success. Within two months of releasing the first comic book, they had managed to get 20% of their target audience, boys between the ages of five and twelve, to buy two or more G.I. Joe toys.
Seven years later, G.I. Joe was one of Marvel’s strongest titles, with two out of three boys in the same age category owning at least one action figure. How’s that for using content to market a product?
A lot has changed in the intervening years, and what was effective in the 1980s may not work today. However, with new marketing channels like social media appearing all the time, there are plenty of opportunities.
Let’s take a look at what content marketing means now in my it guide. If one topic catches your eye, feel free to skip ahead.
- Definition
- Overview
- Strategy
Definition of Content Marketing
The Content Marketing Institute’s definition of it is: “
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.”
A strategic marketing approach that focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
Content marketing is a long-term strategy that focuses on creating strong relationships with your target audience. You do this by providing them with high-quality content that is very relevant to them on a consistent basis. When customers are finally ready to make a purchase decision, their loyalty already lies with you.
Show your customers that you care about them by investing in it. In a world full of noise and distractions, demonstrating that you care about your customers will make you stand out and improve your bottom line.
Remember as we examine some of the various types of content marketing.
Content Marketing Overview
Joe Pulizzi’s Content Marketing Institute has been incredibly successful since its 2010 founding, proving that he had a great eye for the industry.
As content marketing becomes increasingly popular, top resources like it Institute are providing more statistics and data to help marketers understand the landscape. CMI has created a great video overview of the evolution of it, highlighting how the foundation of it is simply high-quality content and storytelling.
Though we can learn a lot from older offline content marketing methods, any successful content marketing campaign today has to take the online sphere into account.
Marketers must keep up with the times and tell stories that resonate with people in the year we actually live in. There are three major categories where you can put it efforts these days:
If you want to learn how to be a great content marketer, one of the best ways is to look at examples of successful it campaigns. That’s why we’ve put together this list of 15 great examples of it in all different categories. By studying these examples, you can learn what works and adapt those lessons to your own business.
I’m going to show you how you can create a it strategy. Then, you can use the examples at the end for inspiration
Strategy
Different content marketing strategies are available today. In the past, there were fewer options for it. Bandit signs, magazines, and newspaper ads were the main options for marketers.
Even then, they had a variety of different customization options available to them. They could play with the words in their ads, the pictures they showed, the placement of the ad, and the call to action. In other words, even though there were few content marketing methods back then, the options were still remarkably vast.
Today, an unprecedented number of it mediums and methods are available. That means that the number of strategies you can use is greater than ever before. One online publication, for instance, suggests using the “3D Content” model.
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Basically, it’s three individual steps.
- Map the content to the pain point.
- Then use the right type of content for that problem.
- Finally, map the content to the buying cycle of the people who have that problem.
The focus of this strategy is on the person that the marketer is trying to reach rather than the marketer themselves. This is an important step to take in your content marketing strategy to ensure that your content is catering to the right people with the right problem.
If your content doesn’t speak to the right people with the right problem that your product solves, then your content marketing efforts are futile. Naturally, you’ll want to tweak this to fit your own audience and marketing strateg
The most important thing to remember when creating content is to always keep your audience in mind. Your content must be tailored to them in order to capture their attention and interest. Keep these tips from the Content Marketing Institute in mind and you’ll be on your way to success.
Be sure to take note of this tip – it is essential for developing a content strategy that will successfully address your key business and customer needs.
What does that mean?
You need to understand your customers, prospects, and audience to create content that solves their problems and grows your business. The goal of content marketing is to grow your business.
There are many ways to attract paying customers, but you have to start somewhere. In a world with social media, endless Internet space, self-publishing companies, and free graphic design tools, you have many options. You can use any number of strategies to get the attention of potential customers and get them to buy from you.
One example of a great content marketing strategy comes from Hubspot. They have a wide variety of content formats that can be used to achieve different goals. Don’t get overwhelmed by all the options. The purpose of this article is to provide you with an understanding of the benefits of each content type and when it should be used. Although there is only one ultimate goal of content marketing, there are many ways to achieve it.
Before we get started with creating our own content marketing strategy, let’s take a look at its history. Where did it come from? Why has it been around for so long? And why is it so popular today? We’ll answer those questions next.