Content marketing is what you need to do to reach your target market. If you have a business or are considering starting a business then you’ll need content. Content is anything that you use to communicate with your prospects and customers. Content is what your company puts out into the world to market, advertise, and share.
Blog posts are content. Email messages are content. The Pinterest pins and Twitter tweets you share and post are also content. Put simply, content is ultimately the foundation of your business.
It’s how your prospects will find you. It is how you will convert those prospects into subscribers and customers. It’s how you will build a strong and loyal customer base and how you provide value to the world.
So What Is Content Marketing?
You know that content is the message and medium you use to communicate with prospects and customers. Content marketing, therefore, is using content to market to your audience. It’s the practice of creating and distributing or publishing content to attract, engage, and convert your target audience.
The ultimate goal is to build your sales and profits through content. Every business, whether it’s a one-person operation or a global conglomerate, uses content marketing. It can be argued that it’s more important for a small business to embrace content marketing. The small business owner has to carve out a unique niche to be profitable and competitive.
Getting Started with Content Marketing
We will try to cover what a new marketer and business owner need to know about getting started with content marketing. Before we dive into that, there’s a little homework.
Start compiling a list of ideas. Make a list of the problems that your audience faces and the various questions they may have. The key to good content is to provide value.
Start brainstorming how you might provide value through content. What topics can you address? If you don’t have a solid understanding of who your audience is, it’s time to take that step too.
Next time we’ll explore how content marketing can build your business and we’ll start making use of that list of ideas you’re going to pull together. Keep in mind that you’re just thinking about topics right now. Consider exploring your competition’s websites and reading industry magazines to get the creative juices flowing.
You don’t have to decide how you’re going to deliver the information; we’ll cover that later. For now, simply start gathering ideas and write them down.
