The Keys to Content Marketing: How to Get It Right and What to Avoid
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a method for marketers to increase awareness of their products and services, attract potential customers, retain existing customers and, drive growth. Some common types of content that most people are familiar with are podcasts, videos, blogs and articles. By developing a well-researched content strategy, content marketing can be used to communicate with an audience at any stage in the marketing funnel.
The flexibility and versatility of content marketing can make it a little bit tricky to wrap your head around, though. Once you know your audience you have to understand what sort of content they consume and where they find this content. The next step is figuring out how you can promote your product whilst also providing your audience entertainment, education or a solution to a problem they may have - this is called value-driven content.
What does the best content marketing look like?
To understand great content marketing let’s look at two examples, one in a B2C context and the other in a B2B context.
B2C Content Marketing - Red Bull
When it comes to B2C content marketing, it's hard to ignore the success of Red Bull. The company has dominated the energy drinks market for years with a market share of 43% as of 2020. It would, however, be a mistake to attribute this level of success to the quality of their products alone. Red Bull seems to have mastered the formula, they know who their target consumers are, they understand their interests and they create high-quality value-driven content.
The energy drinks company is well-known for its sponsorship of sporting teams and events. Historically they have targeted extreme sports, motorsports and esports as a way to associate a sense of excitement and adventure with their products. Red Bull hosts unique and engaging events like the Soapbox Race, as well as creating full-length documentaries on niche sporting communities. When it comes to FMCG, it is difficult to think of a brand which transcends its product more than Red Bull.
B2B Content Marketing - HubSpot
HupSpot’s approach to content marketing is vastly different, instead of trying to entertain their audience, HupSpot seeks to solve problems for potential customers. In turn, this creates a positive association between the audience and the product. The quality and quantity of their sought-after content topics, is the foundation for a brilliant SEO strategy. It means that almost any marketing-related Google search query will return a HubSpot blog on the first page.
As the majority of their audience works in professional services, newsletters, blogs, webinars and how-to guides are the most appropriate content formats for HubSpot. These forms of content help HubSpot attract new customers and grow the reach of their business. Hubspot also offers courses and exclusive content, helping retain existing customers whilst promoting additional products and services.
What are common content marketing mistakes and how can they be avoided?
Lack of research and poor strategy
Without identifying a target audience and understanding their interests and content preferences, any content marketing strategy is less likely to succeed. A depth of knowledge on content publishing platforms, content formats, as well as trends, will contribute to a strategy which can achieve marketing goals throughout the marketing funnel.
Content that misses the mark
Great content answers the needs and/or questions of your audience. If they want to be entertained or learn about email marketing, they need to experience some sense of gratification after consuming your content. Your audience may engage with your content with a degree of intent but that doesn’t guarantee they will do so indefinitely. Each word, each sentence, and each image or sound must capture your audience’s attention and buy you another moment of their interest. This means you must continually provide them value in addition to an overall sense of satisfaction for consuming your content.
Once you know your audience and where to communicate with them, you can get down to actually creating your value-driven content. It's often said that great promotional content is indistinguishable from non-promotional content. If your audience consumes your content and is as captivated by it as something from their favourite content creator, it is great content. If it sticks out on their feed, they can tell immediately it is promotional or doesn’t provide the value they were looking for, it's poor content.
Not staying agile
The common phrase of “don’t post and ghost” is always worth mentioning. Not only do social media algorithms favour accounts which respond to their commenters, but building a two-way relationship with your audience is mutually beneficial. By creating an additional touch point you can build your brand narrative and provide additional value-driven content to your audience. Finally, as with any marketing method, analysis of results and iteration is key. Trends come and go, audiences move between platforms, and almost all content formats invariably lose relevance.
Not reviewing content
Before publishing your content, it is important to consider the content’s lifecycle. Even if you have published, engaged with your audience and have taken learnings and applied them to your next piece of content, there is still more to do. Not all content is evergreen, meaning it retains its value over time, as some content becomes redundant. To combat this you can return to your content and make adjustments where possible by editing/archiving/deleting where necessary. Keeping content up-to-date can be beneficial not only for you or your client, but will also improve your SEO.
Final Thoughts
Content creation is a complex and dynamic approach to marketing. Attention is often focused on the actual process of content production and the results, overlooking areas such as research, strategy and engagement. Between our team of marketing strategists, designers, copywriters and analytics gurus, we have years of experience in content marketing. If content marketing sounds like something for you, or if you want to build upon your existing output, contact us, we’re here to help.