What is content marketing?
If Content Strategy has already defined the framework for Content Marketing activities, then more specifically, what is Content Marketing doing?
Content Marketing is to make a detailed plan of the categories and topics that will be covered; plan to write articles, post articles with content and style that have been given in the strategy; plan to post articles on the website as well as on appropriate media channels to create (positive) reactions and discussions about the content conveyed, thereby changing the thoughts, attitudes, and actions of target customers. As can be seen, the main task of content marketing is execution, transmission, and connection. This is when content is written, read, and discussed.
With any marketing, you need to have a goal. Goals in online marketing are set by using content that requires a Call-to-action. If you do Content Marketing for a brand's website, you need to cover the content with articles appropriate to each stage of the brand's development or buying process, emphasizing the Call-to-action problems to encourage customers to make decisions.
Examples of Content Marketing goals:
- Build brand awareness, create demand (demand creation, awareness) = new followers/subscribers
- Change perception of an issue to encourage action (trial conversion) = paid subscription
- Strengthen brand trust and loyalty with expert content (loyalty building, expertise/how-to) = increased sales
In case your website is not for a brand, but a news publisher, then the content is also the product: you want readers to stay on the website as long as possible to see and understand “products”, from which they can view and click on (3rd party) ads, or sign up for membership and shop for “exclusive products” – what we call premium content or subscriptions. The goal of Content Marketing then is not only to have good, new, relevant content but also to be long-term, often, to cross-link with each other, so that readers can easily go from one page to another with matching articles.
As Google increasingly tightens SEO practices and reduces the influence of links on the website, the quality of content is increasingly important to help increase the ranking of the website in search results.
The importance of content marketing
Why are businesses paying more and more attention to Content Marketing in their marketing campaigns? Here are the reasons:
Provide Full Information
Any content that is built contains necessary information about an issue, service, or product that an individual business wants to share with customers on the website. Content Marketing can be multi-field from health, beauty, and fashion to electronics, accessories, and consumer products.
By providing information, the content will help Google understand the information and activities on your website. That will help evaluate the reliability and usefulness of the website so that Google can push the page to show up at the top when users search.
Increase Traffic
Increasing Traffic here is understood as the process of increasing the number of users coming to your website through search engines, most commonly google. The more attractive and useful the content will be, the more users will visit. At the same time, optimize the user experience and bring efficiency to the content marketing strategy.
Increase Authority For Business
Content marketing can help businesses become experts at the forefront of what they offer. Quality content will bring the value that customers need. Thereby promoting customers to return to your website regularly, helping to increase the prestige and popularity of the business.
Increase Conversion Rate
Content Marketing builds customer trust, and is an important factor in persuading customers to learn and register to use the products and services that businesses provide. Especially, when there is trust, customers are willing to leave personal information, and contact information such as full name, email, and phone number to receive more notices and news about products.
Avoid Google Panda Algorithm
A special thing about Content Marketing is avoiding the Google Panda algorithm. Quality content will always be "favored" by google and placed on the top of the search page. However, articles with poor quality content, little information, and not much value for users will be directly removed from the front pages by google.
In addition, websites may be subject to Google Panda penalties if they make one of the following errors:
- The content on the page is thin, with little information (Thin content)
- Duplicate content too much
- Copy multiple sources, and spam content (Content farming)
- "Fry" the content of other websites, leading to junk content (Spin content)
- Low-quality content does not bring much value
- Lack authority, no high trust
- Content contains too many ads
Forms of Content Marketing
No matter what marketing tactic you are using, content marketing is an important part of the strategy. Simply put, content is the tool for you to convey your message to your target audience. There are 6 most popular forms of content marketing applied today:
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a form of direct marketing that uses email as a medium to deliver promotional messages to customers. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a prospect or customer can be considered email marketing.
In what situations should we use email marketing?
- Remarketing, sending promotions, or taking care of old customers to increase their loyalty to the brand
- Advertise, sell to potential customers
- Provide necessary information to customers
- Benefits of email marketing
- Generate more potential customers
- Sales improved
- Improve conversion rate
- Reduce marketing costs
- Identify better quality leads
- Integrate with other media for enhanced feedback
- Shorter sales cycle
Notes when creating content for email marketing
Content is the most important factor to evaluate the quality of email marketing. The common content requirements when using email marketing are personalization and valuable information. Personalization in email marketing is when you send mass emails to many people but still make them feel like you are interacting with them alone, their problem is being solved. To achieve this effect, you need to at the very least pay attention to the address in the email. Use your - me address to good effect. Valuable information is the second element to keep in mind in the content section. Customers are only really satisfied when the content of email marketing contains information about the products and services they need. You can make headlines but pay attention to the level, don't go too far and go too far from the content.
Social Media
Social Media is a form of media marketing based on online services and is a collection of all apps and websites. Through Social Media, users can freely exchange and discuss opinions on a common issue or share photos and videos with each other easily and quickly.
Currently, there are many types of Social Media in common use such as social networks (Facebook, Twitter), media sharing networks (Instagram, YouTube) or forums, discussion forums, and bookmarking networks. , Content Management, and more. There are many popular types of Social Media Marketing.
Here are some of the most popular types of Social Media Marketing used today:
Social News: includes popular websites like Digg, Sphinn, and Newsvine used to read news, comment, and vote.
Social Sharing: includes Snapfish, Flickr, and Youtube sites used to create and share videos or images.
Social Networks: includes social networking sites Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, and MySpace used to connect and share.
Social Bookmarking: includes Faves, Delicious, Diigo, BlogMarks, and StumbleUpon pages used to share or save your favorite websites for each specific use.
Content on Social helps businesses transmit message content through social networking platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Because of social environments, users often "surf" a lot of content displayed on social media. screen. Therefore, if you want to be effective, content for social media must be able to create viral.
Content on social media is quite diverse, can be videos, images, articles, or short status lines. Another advantage that needs to be mentioned is that measuring the effectiveness of content marketing is also quite convenient because most of the interactions on Social networking can be done very simply and quickly.
Using social media will bring your business the following benefits:
1. Leveraging the power of word-of-mouth marketing
2. Increase brand awareness
3. More traffic sources for your website
4. Contribute to increased conversions and sales
Blog
A blog (weblog) is a form of diary on the website that deals with one or several specific areas, expressed by the writer (or organization) based on personal opinion. Blog posts are a top strategy in content marketing. Blogs are an impossible part of websites because they provide free information and help attract target customers.
Blog content marketing offers the following benefits:
- 126% increase in leads for small businesses
- 434% increase in Google Index page rate (for SEO)
When informative content is shared through your business blog, you will become an expert in that field, which will:
- Nurture users/readers into potential customers
- Encourage old customers to keep visiting the blog
- Build trust with users who have never known the business.
Blogging is also a means of communication for other forms of content marketing such as eBooks, Videos, and Infographics. The common feature of all these 3 forms is their intuitiveness and attractiveness to users. The content on the blog also focuses on providing solutions and navigating the viewer's information.
EBook
EBooks contain a large amount of shared information on many aspects of an issue, often packaged as PDF files. Using eBooks to share tutorials, and provide useful information helps increase the number of emails that sign up for your newsletter.
As with any field, to have more in-depth knowledge we still need to look to specialized books. Currently, when digital technology is on the throne, people will switch to ebook versions instead of reading paper books for convenient carrying. In the content marketing industry too, there are many interesting content marketing eBooks.
The field of content marketing is considered a relatively new field for many people. Therefore, the eBook versions of documents related to the field will be useful documents to help you learn more deeply. At the same time, the eBook version is very convenient to use on mobile devices and very convenient for those who like to "move" without fear of being cumbersome.
Benefits of eBook Content Creation
Unlike print publications - paper books, eBooks can be accessed at any time as long as you have an internet connection or after you download them to your computer. If you or your Marketing team can produce an eBook and post it on the company website and advertise your website with the content of that eBook, it will encourage potential customers to visit the website and increase traffic to the website.
Each eBook you create can be used for many different channels, attracting a large number of customers without the cost of communication, printing, or shipping like paper books. In addition, in the process of creating eBook content, you can also add links, links to other articles on your website, encouraging readers to participate more deeply in the content.
Popular eBook Format
1. PDF: PDF is possibly the most common file type. “PDF” stands for “Portable Document Format. It is the best format for e-books to be read on digital media.
2. EPUB: The EPUB format stands for “Electronic Publication'‘ and is a more flexible e-book format. EPUB format eBooks are especially useful when viewed on smaller screens, such as phones.
3. MOBI: The MOBI format is derived from the Mobi pocket Reader software, which was purchased by Amazon in 2005 but then discontinued in 2016. However, the MOBI file extension is still a popular eBook format with compatibility. preferred on large electronic readers.
4. AZW: This is an eBook file type designed for the Kindle, an Amazon e-reader. However, users can also open the AZW file format with a mobile device or a desktop computer.
5. ODF: ODF stands for OpenDocument Format, a file type primarily intended for OpenOffice, a series of open-source content creation programs similar to Microsoft Office.
6. IBA: IBA is a proprietary eBook format for the Apple iBooks Author app. This format does not support video, audio, images, and interactive elements, but it is only used for books written in iBooks, not compatible with other e-readers.
Video
Video Content is a form of Content Marketing that uses video to convey media information (from the sender) to customers (recipients). Common types of video content include vlogs, animated GIFs, live videos, customer testimonials, webinars, and more.
A few statistics about Video content that you cannot ignore:
- Insert video on the landing page to increase conversion rate by 80%
- Inserting a video in an email increases clicks by 200-300%
- Websites with video inserts increase their visibility on Google 53 times
The Importance of Video Content
The importance of Video Content is to create useful, entertaining, and interesting video content for your audience and encourage them to engage with you further. 80% of users today, especially Gen Z, prefer video content over regular articles.
Video content is used to:
- Create awareness of your brand, product, or service in your target audience
- Spread the message and benefits of the product to the target customers
- Orient potential customers to trust your company's products/services and more
Video content can appear at any stage of a marketing plan. It can help you build loyalty and trust, position your brand as an expert, increase conversion rates, develop lasting relationships with your audience, and more.
Pros Of Video Content:
- Ease of messaging: When using Video Marketing, you can combine images, sounds, and emotions into the video. Information is conveyed in a clear, specific, and detailed way to customers
- Extremely good interoperability: Compared to other formats, the video has a very good interaction. Audiences are more likely to engage and share video content than any other type of content. Video is also very strong on social platforms in general and Facebook in particular
- Improve conversion rate: Not only has great interaction, but video content also can improve conversion rates, especially when using a supporting landing page
- Long-term use: Video content is not easy to create. Every element in a video like screenshots, animations, sound effects, and audio can help you convert it to another type of content to reach a wider audience
Cons Of Video Content:
- Large production costs: Although effective, not many businesses spend money to produce and use Video Content. Cost is inevitable for this type of Content Marketing. Without training or experience, creating videos on your own can be very complicated, and video production beginners often make very expensive mistakes or ruin an entire shot.
- Limit search: Unlike the article content, the video will be limited to search because there are not too many keywords.
- Videos that are too long can be distracting: Nowadays, there are thousands/millions of people creating Video Content on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok and videos are getting shorter and shorter because there are so many people competing with each other.
- On average, nearly 20 percent of viewers will skip a video clip within the first 10 seconds of it being played, and a quarter of video viewers will drop out before the 30th second. If your content isn't engaging enough, it won't keep people watching to the end.
- Not a great tool for everyone: One survey found that over 41% of users prefer reading news content to watching videos, which they think is faster and more convenient. The psychological state of the visitor plays a big role in information consumption.
- If their desire is just to surf the web (reading a web page without a clearly defined goal) then they are more likely to prefer video-based content because of the negative state of mind. Those with definite goals – such as learning more about a particular topic – are more likely to prefer text-based content, because they are in a more active, focused state of mind. much.
Infographic
Infographics will present information and data most intuitively. Its name is a combination of information + graphics which means information + graphic image.
Infographics are the form of content that can get the highest number of shares, likes, and interests of all types of content. This is the most effective way to get your information out in the most intuitive way. A study shows that infographics can get shares and “likes” 3 times higher than other types of content. Although very popular in the world, in Vietnam, not many businesses/websites choose this form of content marketing for marketing.