Sooner rather than later, to sell more, you will have to have a good content marketing strategy behind you. Do you want to know why? We'll tell you in this article, where we'll also explain what content marketing is, what are the advantages of applying content marketing to your strategy and how we do it.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is basically a marketing technique based on creating, publishing and sharing content of interest to your buyer persona. It differs from traditional marketing strategies in its method of communication. It is not limited to placing advertising messages, but focuses on providing relevant and quality content, i.e. good content that is attractive to the target audience, that attracts and retains potential customers. Thus, the content presented to the audience should:

• report,
• advise,
• entertain
• and/or establish an emotional bond.

Content marketing encompasses not only written media but all types of content, i.e. images, videos, graphics, audio files, studies and surveys. Content marketing encompasses all content and its marketing, as well as its propagation on different online channels such as company blogs or social media.

Thanks to this marketing technique, we will work on the user's entire purchase cycle. In other words, the process a person goes through from the moment they realise they have a need until they decide to buy a product/service to solve it.

What types of content does content marketing cover?

Content marketing is equally interesting for a wide range of companies and brands, largely because there are hardly any limits to the content that can be disseminated. Here are some of the types of content you can use in your content marketing strategy:

• Images
• Infographics
• Videos
• Guides/tutorials
• Magazines
• Ebooks
• Templates
• Whitepapers
• Applications
• Games
• Webinars

Evaluation

As with other marketing strategies, campaigns are evaluated on a number of measures:

• monitoring and optimisation,
• control,
• lead management and
• final evaluation.

This content marketing process does not end once the four phases have been completed.

What type of audience does content marketing target?

One of the first tasks in the content marketing process is to define the target audience - or several, if appropriate. As a general rule, defining the audience is almost a matter of course. The objectives defined in previous phases are used as the basis for the automatic implementation of the project, which accelerates this phase of work. In this context, the creation of buyerpersonsi.e. prototypes that represent a user group and allow it to be defined down to the smallest detail. In addition to potential new customers, these groups can refer to:

• regular customers,
• new customers ready to buy,
• potential customers who are not (yet) ready to make a purchase,
• employees,
• influencers and
• multipliers (people who spread the content).

What are the main benefits of content marketing? Why do companies need a content marketing strategy?

1. Increases a brand's organic reach.
2. Improve the brand's interaction with the target audience or buyer persona.
3. Increase conversion rates. A page with content can have 6 times more conversions than one without.
4. Lowers the cost of traffic to a brand's website. The cost of the traffic that reaches a website can be up to 99% cheaper than with paid campaigns. If you want to go deeper into this topic I recommend you to analyse the following text that talks about the differences between SEM vs SEO.
5. Improves the brand's SEO. Helps to improve the organic positioning of a brand.
6. Improve the quality of leads.
7. Content is at the heart of any inbound marketing strategy.
8. It is essential for automation platforms
9. Support social channels with valuable content.
10. Creating your own audiences.

Objectives of content marketing

Content marketing aims to improve brand positioning, acquire new customers, create leads and build customer loyalty. Depending on the type and size of the company, as well as the type and scope of the campaign, there are other objectives that should have different priorities during the planning process. In order to implement the content marketing strategy in an optimal way, it also makes sense to differentiate between between short-term and long-term objectives.

Defining content marketing objectives: how it's done

The definition of objectives will depend on the type of company or brand. In addition, other factors need to be taken into account which also vary from case to case: starting position, brand awareness, reputation or available financial resources. Although the above-mentioned objectives provide a good overview, they are not applicable to all content campaigns, as they will need to be adapted according to the specific needs of the company or brand. individual goals and the possibilities of each company. One of the best known approaches is the SMART approachwhich presents five criteria for the optimal definition of a good objective:

• S (specific): Objectives should be defined as clearly and precisely as possible. Instead of formulating a goal in a vague way, such as "to get more visits", a more concrete goal should be set, such as "to get 20 per cent more visits by the end of the last quarter".
• M (measurable): objectives should be measurable and should therefore always be linked to specific criteria such as number of visitors, length of stay or number of times content is shared on social media.
• A (acceptable): It is important that the company and, within the company, the marketing team considers the selected objectives to be worthwhile. Moreover, they must be achievable, otherwise disappointments are impossible to avoid.
• R (relevant): In order for content marketing to achieve the desired success, business-relevant objectives that truly promote the company must be pursued.
• T(finished)Deadlines become very important in this type of campaign. This is why it is necessary to schedule available deadlines for both long-term and short-term objectives. Exceptions to this are, for example, purely financial objectives, such as meeting a certain budget, for which this type of scheduling is not really relevant.

Content marketing: strategy and planning

Developing the right strategy is the basis for the success of any content marketing project. Starting to produce content without clear and defined goals means wasting time and money, as the effort will certainly not be successful. In the first place are always conception and planning. The following aspects must be defined in any content marketing strategy:

• Definition of objectives and buyer personas
• Production/creation of content
• Seeding and promotion of content
• Monitoring and evaluation

 What are the keys to success?

Any effective strategy must foresee the possible complications it will have to face, the bottlenecks or limitations that could affect the expected results. Planning is key to avoid problems that everyone who knows what content marketing is has experienced at some point, such as these three:

1. Know how to generate relevant content for the buyer persona. Without relevance, the audience's interest is lost, the prospect's attention wanes and the brand's desire to gain authority and visits is deflated by the results.
2. Produce sufficient content. While this is a long-term strategy issue, it requires an investment of resources (time and dedication) from the outset that must be planned for.
3. Generate content that covers the entire user's purchasing process and its different casuistry. The buyer persona at the centre and their buying journey, each of the brand interactions, as a roadmap to avoid missing important moments in their journey through the funnel.

We're sure you've heard the famous phrase, "content is king" and it's no wonder, according to the latest study of the Content Marketing Institute 56% of companies consider this to be their biggest area of growth. 70% consider their strategies to be more effective than the previous year and 93% confirm that they have made a serious commitment to this marketing discipline. This data helps us to get an idea of their effectiveness.

From Zapiplay We manage thousands of campaigns for our clients on a daily basis without forgetting the importance of content marketing. As you know, a small or medium-sized company can display content that captivates its audience.