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Writer's picturePravaah Consulting

Content Marketing

Have you already figured out your digital marketing strategies to take your business to the next level? Well, if not, we have an excellent guide to help you get there!


Content marketing is a great way to notch up your business goals. It is a process of attracting and engaging your audience in a cost-effective manner. Content marketing creates an immersive environment for prospective customers to find how your products or services will solve their pain points or fulfill their desires. Implementing this strategy will dramatically improve your clients buying decisions.


Your existing and potential customers want valuable information from your business, and it needs to reach them in a way that feels natural and not forceful. Indulging in a practical and planned approach will help your business increase conversions, brand awareness, and revenues, establishing yourself in your niche market.


While devising your content strategy or revamping your existing plan, you can continually re-evaluate your process and invent new techniques to create and share the content your audience wants. This guide will help you know and understand everything you need to include in your content marketing strategies. So before further ado, let’s begin!


Topic covered



What is Content Marketing?


Gone are the days when content marketing used outbound strategies to interrupt your audience and forcefully try to resonate with them. Today, your content needs to reach your target audience more naturally than ever. The best way to do this is by creating a story for your content - storytelling approaches are an excellent way to convey your message across social media platforms. This will make your content look more original, engaging, and personalized to your audience.


So again, what is content marketing? Content marketing refers to planning, executing, and sharing valuable content via social media channels, websites, blogs, apps, press releases, podcasts, print media publications, etc. It aims to reach your target customers and boost brand awareness, engagement, sales, and customer loyalty.


Content marketing is a long-term strategy that aims to build a solid relationship with your target audience by providing them with high-quality content that resonates with them. Effective content marketing techniques can show care and concern for your customers compared to aggressive advertising strategies.


Why is Content Marketing Strategy Important?


Designing a content strategy that suits your specific business needs and potential customers is how you stay relevant to your brand and make your marketing efforts as successful as possible. Moreover, content marketing is the basis for your digital marketing strategies and complements them in several possible ways.


No matter which digital marketing channel you choose - social media marketing, email marketing, video advertising, etc., you will always need compelling content to succeed in your marketing strategies. After all, content is the king!


In a sea full of content, people have the power to choose which content to consume. They are drowning in a sea full of information; you might want to give them the best content to pick your brand over others.


So, how is content marketing important?


  • Inform your audience about the products or services you offer.

  • Establish customer relationships that result in increased customer loyalty.

  • Increased conversions

  • Show your target users how your products or services will solve their pain points or fulfill their wants.

  • Create a feeling of community


You can achieve all of this with an effective content marketing strategy in mind.


How Are SEO And Content Marketing Related?


How Are SEO And Content Marketing Related?

Content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) strategies go hand-in-hand. You need superior-quality content to rank high on the search engine results pages. And you need SEO to know which keywords you need to place in your copy. You can’t follow content marketing strategies without SEO in place.


SEO is most likely the best tactic to achieve your content marketing goals. Search engine optimization is a centerpiece of content marketing strategies and campaigns. Enhancing your content allows you to update your brand message for a modern audience, outshine competitors for high-ranking keywords, and keep your website aligned with Google’s search engine page.


While considering ranking factors, you must know that there are over 200 criteria the search engine considers when it crawls and indexes your website. And based on your website and content, your pages will rank in the SERPs.While some factors are considered more important than others, Google doesn’t reveal exactly which factors weights higher. However, the top factors that determine your ranking are:


  • Backlinks

  • Content

  • Direct web traffic

  • Mobile-friendly design

  • HTTPS

  • Keyword-rich anchor text

  • User behavior signals


The bottom line is that - you can’t do content marketing without SEO and vice versa; they’re inseparable.


The Benefits of Content Marketing


The Benefits of Content Marketing

Content marketing campaigns can help you achieve your objectives without wasting time and money on short-term strategies or expensive advertising. A straightforward way to look at the content marketing benefits is to ask yourself: What does your business want to accomplish? Once you answer this question, you can frame your business objectives to particular content marketing goals and activities.


There are almost endless benefits of using a content marketing strategy; some of them include:


  • Attracts visitors and drives more website traffic


Helping people discover your business among many other companies in your industry is challenging, but the content marketing strategies you employ make you visible, especially to Google. Likewise, relevant content drives more social media attention, making more people visit your site.


  • Provides helpful and valuable information


The content you formulate and offer is valuable and spreads an important message about your brand to the right people at the right time. It will surpass the expectations and generate value for your brand and audience.


  • Engages your target audience


When you provide your audience with valuable and relevant information, they will consider it incredibly important to share it with their family and friends. Furthermore, people will interact with your content by leaving comments and reactions.


  • Informs the audience about your products/services


Most people don’t even realize they have a problem that can be solved unless it is informed to them. Content marketing has the potential to educate your audience that a solution exists and can change their lifestyle.


  • Creates a positive brand image


Besides everything, content marketing helps generate a positive brand perception and establishes goodwill in the market. And people usually tend to do business with those who are well-known and have a good reputation.


  • Generates more revenues


Sales is the primary objective of any business, and by leveraging content marketing at all the stages of the buying process, you can drive more traffic to your business. By embracing content marketing techniques, you gain bigger coverage, reach more customers, and target them most effectively.


  • Drive more leads


Lead generation is every business’s goal. It’s that part of your marketing strategy that will drive sales. A lead is your website visitor or an individual who is most likely interested in your business. Despite having more visitors to your site, investing in content marketing can convert them into leads, offering attractive deals that encourage them to close the deal. And the higher the leads, the higher the chances to sell.


  • Improves the customer lifetime value


The lifetime value defines the total value invested by your customers on your products or services. The more they buy or stay as your customers, the higher their lifetime value will be. Offering valuable and relevant content to your consumers will keep them more engaged and loyal to your business. They will feel a sense of belonging, making it easier for you to lock the deal.


  • Reduces Client Acquisition Cost (CAC)


CAC is a KPI that indicates the overheads spent in the sales & marketing areas to gain a new client. Content marketing can help your business lower the CAC because a small piece of information can reach a larger audience. Besides, most content is everlasting, meaning its educational content will produce results for the long haul. So, besides lowering CAC, content brings massive value to your business and helps your customers without needing efforts from your sales team.


The Different Types of Content Marketing



The Different Types of Content Marketing

marketing formats can vary based on customer expectations and demands. With websites and social media channels becoming more responsive, they can grant greater opportunities for marketers to reinvent the wheel.


Content typically fits into five categories:


  • Written - blogs, landing pages, FAQs, eBooks, case studies, ad copy, email copy, etc.

  • Video - video blogs, GIFs, product demos, animations, AR/VR, event footage, and more.

  • Graphic - call-to-actions, wireframes, illustrations, infographics, etc.

  • Social - quizzes, contests, polls, user-generated content, etc.

  • Audio - podcasts, interviews, webinars, and more


Let's discuss some of the most commonly-used content marketing types.


1. Social Media Content


Today, with more than 3.6 billion people using social media, it's easy to understand why several businesses spend on social media marketing. Social media posts can also promote content published on other marketing platforms. There are some ways to leverage the power of social media, but the best one is to create a relationship with customers and engage them with your brand.


There are many platforms to work on (e.g., Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc.) and several ways to design and share content on each platform. (e.g., live videos, stories, pictures, pre-recorded videos, etc.) Social media posts are about high-quality images to illustrate the posts and write short copy with a call to action (CTA).


2. Email Marketing


Email marketing is one of the best content marketing strategies to boost your ROI. You can fulfill your different business objectives using various formats, such as promotional, transactional, and relational emails.


Newsletters: This is a great way to share news about your company and the new blog posts. Moreover, after choosing the content you want to promote, you can even add a link to your web pages that are engaging for your subscribers. You can include links to additional content using CTAs. Your CTAs should be appealing and specific.


Email Nurturing Flow - This specialized email marketing campaign uses on-site content to provide value to prospective customers. You can create a personalized email flow by utilizing user activity data to help build your brand's trust.


3. Blog Posts


Blog posts are an excellent way to boost an SEO strategy and the basis of your overall content marketing strategy. Blogs and articles can attract organic traffic from search engines like Google. However, before beginning the blog post, you first need to list specific keywords for that content. Keyword research is crucial is see what your target audience is searching for. Later, you need a content writer who will draft good-quality content.


Content-writers and copywriters have modernized over the years with several strategies to write compelling content that persuade the readers to take the next step. After writing the content, you'll need to optimize it as per the SEO rules. Always remember that optimization is the key to notching up your content to the first position on search engines.


4. Case Studies


The case study describes a client's actual problem and how your business solved it despite several challenges. It usually helps inspire potential clients and convince them to turn to you. The layout for a case study is generally like this:


  • Explain the real issue that the client faced.

  • Telling the story of how your business helped them solve it.

  • List down the challenges and how your business successfully met all the difficulties to solve the issue.

  • Displaying the long-term benefits and success clients gained from your solutions.


For this, you can also interview the client and ask them about the problems they were trying to solve and how your business helped them weather their issues.


4. Infographics


Infographics display content and information in an easily understandable graphic format. They're fun to view and chock full of information. It takes readers via visual resources such as pictures, graphics, vectors, and beautiful typography. Infographics aim to explain something quickly so that an individual just glances and understands the message. Hence, including infographics in your content marketing strategy is a brilliant idea.


Moreover, the infographics process is similar to blog posts, but after reviewing, it will be designed by a graphic designer before it gets published. Infographics can also be shared on landing pages to drive more leads.


5. Video Marketing


Today, it has become more crucial than ever to find a way to captivate your audience's attention, and videos can help your business do that. It is necessary to include videos in your content marketing strategy to survive in this cutthroat competition. Moreover, it can be consumed by people wherever they are and whatever they are doing.


Video marketing can capture your audience quickly and efficiently. People are consuming more content in video form than any other. This makes videos one of the best content marketing types for your strategy. As per sources, 80 percent of people switch between online and video searches when they research stuff to buy.


By posting your video on Youtube, you can use some optimization tactics to ensure that your video gets found by the users on the platform. You can use tags, subtitles, linking, video descriptions, and more to other pages related to the content.


6. Testimonials


Testimonials are the best way to boost your brand's goodwill. Testimonials can provide prospective clients an inside look at what it's like to work with your business or use its products or services. You can also showcase testimonials on your social media pages and websites to improve your credibility.


Zendesk is one of the best examples that display the best customer testimonial examples. When visitors click on a testimonial, they can read a detailed profile about the business and the solution Zendesk offers.


7. Webinars


Webinars are a great way to establish relationships with your customers and educate them. Webinars are online forums that you can create and host for your target audience. They can be live or pre-recorded videos or both, and it's an excellent chance to share your viewpoint on an industry theme, your product, or something else.


To create a webinar, you must have a plan and a presentation about the subject you will discuss. You can prepare a list of details to ensure that everything is ready for the event. During the live sessions, you can answer several customer questions in real-time.


Did you know there is also something like collaborative webinars? - Yes! It's a great way to partner with another brand. For instance, several webinars presented by Content Marketing Institute are affiliated with another brand, such as Sitecore or Drift. This brings in a lot of expertise, making each webinar session valuable and attracting more viewers.


8. Podcast


Podcasts are gaining traction for consuming online content nowadays, and it's easy to understand why. It renders a straightforward, user-friendly way to maintain a continuous connection with your audience. Podcast helps you strengthen the marketing message without being too hard-selling about it. They are quicker and more cost-effective to produce than videos, so they are an affordable way to notch things up.


Podcasts bring in a lot of creativity as they can be about any topic. Moreover, you decide on other factors related to the Podcast like the theme of episodes, who's on the Podcast, how long the episodes are, and where you advertise it.


9. User-Generated Content (UGC)


UGC is content created by people outside your business. This technique engages real people as it is unique, creative, and pocket-friendly. Small to big-sized businesses can create user-generated content using social media to arouse interest and engagement from their followers.


10. Paid Advertisements


Sponsored ads help you reach a wider audience, not just those who follow you; they allow you to be seen everywhere per your targeted locations and demographics. It is an excellent way for a new and emerging company to gain momentum, generate leads, and raise brand awareness. Paid ads deliver quick, reliable, and predictable returns while implementing marketing strategies and deadlines.


You can incorporate paid content marketing plan through several platforms - including social media, landing pages, sponsored partnerships, and banners. Consider paid ads as a way to launch and increase brand recognition for your business and inbound marketing to add depth and longevity to your efforts.


Paid advertisements are a fantastic way to showcase your company in the market, but your inbound marketing efforts will tie your customers to your brand.


The Best Content Marketing Examples


Over 90 percent of brands use content marketing because it allows them to share their story with their customers. The examples below will give you a better understanding of implementing content in your marketing strategy.



1. “Share A Coke” Campaign


If you haven’t heard about this campaign, this is the right moment. Coke’s “Share a Coke” campaign gave everyone a chance to customize their favorite drink. They chose the 150 most famous names in Australia and placed them on the side of the bottles. People went crazy about it! Literally, everyone was talking about Coke.


Since then, the campaign got super popular. The “Personalization” factor made it successful. This personal touch is the essence of content marketing.


“Share A Coke” Campaign


Coke wasn’t retargeting customers or tracking online behavior. They just targeted what matters the most - special treatment (using their names). Ultimately, everyone loves attention. And if you want to get someone’s attention, the best strategy is to use their names.


Coke stirred emotional connections by asking the audience to share their products. As per studies, 74% of marketers know personalization boosts customer interaction. But, only 19% of them employ it.


2. Lush & Customer-Created Content


Lush fresh homemade cosmetics are all about the luxury bathing experience and transformative self-care with their natural skin care products and bath bombs. And this cosmetic brand has welcomed and cultivated a community of natural bathing enthusiasts. They need a way to keep such customers, known as “Lushies,” engaged with the brand.


Lush needed a budget-friendly solution to continually deliver vast amounts of compelling content while captivating the community. Lush knew they could rely on the community for genuine and influential content. User-generated content (UGC) is a promising way to generate massive content that performs extraordinary and engages the community.


Lush & Customer-Created Content

UGC is an innovative way of word-of-mouth marketing on digital platforms, as per the Community Manager at Lush. Lush implements authentic UGC content across its social media channels and website while saving time and money. And it’s crucial to make sure that people are engaged enough to create user-generated content - eventually leading to making more purchases in the future.



3. Hubspot & Inbound Marketing


Hubspot is a marketing innovator. They are a pioneer in inbound marketing. Yes, that’s right!


Hubspot follows a simple process:


  • Attracting

  • Converting

  • Closing

  • After caring


Hubspot produces ample valuable content to help people progress in their marketing efforts. They provide free and detailed guides, such as e-books, webinars, video tutorials, and user guides. Their content is relevant, engaging, and high-quality, which is crucial for higher search rankings. So whether or not you purchase from Hubspot, you’ll always consider them a vital resource.


4. TED - ideas worth sharing


TED is a global conference platform where experts, authors, celebrities, and other motivational speakers give short talks about groundbreaking ideas. This platform has massive growth due to its excellent free content. Most videos have over 10 million views, and they are doing so well because of their commitment to creating ideas worth sharing.


 TED - ideas worth sharing

TED isn’t SEO or research-centric. The platform focuses on locating and creating top-notch content they think would be worth spreading. Henceforth, they have become a worldwide sensation, even though most of their content is only 15-min watch.


Takeaway: Finding and hiring innovative thinkers to contribute to your content is the best way to build an audience. You can begin by interviewing them on a podcast and turn those podcasts into emails, blogs, and more.


5. GoPro & UGC content


GoPro is a maker of action cameras mainly used in adventure sports. These cams are typically used in dangerous or adventurous locations, making it difficult to encourage them to share their videos. They’ve run the thought of letting the product market itself via UGC. And as per research, 79 percent of customers say that UGC highly influences their buying decisions.


GoPro & UGC content

GoPro took UGC to the next level by designing a million-dollar challenge. Here people send their adventure videos for a chance to win a million dollars. This camera brand used the winner’s video to create a marketing campaign, and it was a massive success, as it not only inspired users to share their videos but also created free marketing content. GoPro’s YouTube channel is filled with a collection of adventure sports, which captures the attention of users interested in similar activities.


6. Spotify


Spotify is the lord of personalization in the music world. They offer personalized emails and playlists celebrating every user’s listening habits.


Spotify

A few years ago, they released their first “Wrapped” campaign wherein users received an email featuring their most-listened-to songs in a story-like style. And after its success, each year, they come up with new “Wrapped” campaigns.


P.S. - Personalization is an excellent way to boost engagement with your audience.



The Strategies for Content Marketing


Thousands of different content marketing strategies exist these days. This wasn’t the case in the initial days of content marketing. Marketers had only a few options - newspapers, magazines, leaflets, etc. However, today the possibilities are endless with digital marketing in the picture.


You can consider your content marketing strategy just as your content marketing plan. Let’s go through the steps you want to work through to build an effective strategy.


1. Build SMART goals


The first step of your content marketing strategy is to create SMART goals - specific to your business. The following are some of the SMART goal examples:


  • Boost revenues

  • Increase brand awareness

  • Improve conversions

  • Boost customer loyalty

  • Improve customer engagement

  • Attract strategic partnerships

  • Establish bonds with existing & prospective customers


2. Decide your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)


Determine KPIs for your SMART goals. KPIs are eligible data points you can use to gauge your actual performance against your goal.


  • Brand awareness: social media followers, website traffic, subscriptions, registrations, etc.

  • Conversions: wish cart abandonment rate, competitive price trends, conversion rate, etc.

  • Customer loyalty: referrals, promoters, feedback, returning customers.

  • Rapport & trust: followers, returning customers, and promoters

  • Customer engagement: shares, likes, comments, follows, backlinks

  • Strategic partnerships: backlinks, mentions, and new partnerships


3. Choose the Content-Type


Determine the type of content you’ll create by considering your target audience and their persona. Answer the below questions about your target audience to narrow down the correct content type for them.


  • What are they looking for?

  • What pain points are they looking to solve?

  • Why should they buy your product or service?

  • How can you offer them value?

  • How is your product or service different?


4. Select your Content Marketing Platforms


Once you have determined the content type, it’s time you pick the specific content marketing platform. Some channels might be obvious to work with, such as Facebook and Instagram. However, some might be thought upon based on the type of industry you are in. For example, if you are a blogger, YouTube and Twitter might be excellent platforms for your content type besides Facebook and Instagram. But if you are into B2B business, LinkedIn is the best platform for you. It varies from one industry to another.


5. Determine a Budget