What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing may sound self-explanatory, but it actually includes a lot more than just writing pages of content and throwing them up on your website. If you share an important and beneficial piece of information through your content, your clients will share that on multiple social platforms and that drives even more engagement from others who are interested in what you post. When they see that you are creating quality content, it brings them back because you become a reliable resource for helpful information. Once you form a relationship built on trust with your clients, you have will have a consistent clientele because people return to businesses they can trust.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing refers to the creation and distribution of online materials, such as videos, articles, infographics, and social media posts. The content you create for your audience should be valuable, engaging, and useful to your clients. While the word “valuable” is subjective, this just means that your content should provide something for your audience to consume rather than sharing blatant sales materials. For example, some clients may find great value in educational articles that take a deep dive on a single topic. Others may love a funny video of your staff doing a trendy dance at your practice. The important thing is that whatever you post keeps your audience engaged and tempts them to return to your website, social channels, and practice. Eventually, great content should help convert your audience into loyal clients.

Why Content Marketing?

Content that is relevant, compelling, entertaining, and valuable must be provided consistently in order to make a change in the behavior of your clients. This doesn’t involve direct selling but instead focuses on providing useful information to a target audience on a regular basis. If you distribute an important and beneficial piece of information through your content, your clients will share that on multiple social platforms and that drives even more engagement from others who are interested in what you post. When they see that you are creating quality content, it brings them back to your website, social channels, and practice because you become a reliable resource for helpful information. Once you form a relationship built on trust with your clients, you have will have a consistent clientele because people return to businesses they can trust.

Content Distribution Channels: Where to Share Content

Where you choose to distribute content is another important piece of your content marketing strategy. Multiple distribution channels are necessary and can include social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Other venues include article marketing websites, micro-sites, and even offline channels such as print magazines. When you engage with your audience, it shows them that you value those interactions and will actually respond when your followers like or comment on the content you are creating.

The Latest Trends in Content

The latest trends in content marketing show a huge surge in video usage. It’s now being used for brand awareness, client acquisition, client loyalty, and client retention. A bigger focus on visuals has also become popular, especially with the booming popularity of Pinterest and recent changes in the new look of Facebook.
Mobile content is also vital to your content marketing strategy. This kind of content should be dished out in smaller, bite-size portions as client attention spans are limited. That constant interaction between you and your followers keeps them coming back because they know that you will reply and keep the discussion going.

Have a Focus and a Purpose

Remember that any marketing campaign you choose to run needs to be measured for effectiveness and content marketing is no exception. However, before you can measure this, you must define some clear goals on what you would like to achieve with your content program. Your goals might include increasing traffic to your website, capturing new leads, or just increasing your brand awareness.
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