Content Marketing is a way for you to find your tribe, earn their trust, enlighten them and over some time, turn them into your brand advocates.
It is proven! There is no denying that this works, but if you are looking for shortcuts to get noticed, this is not it! It is a marathon, and it takes consistent review and engagement with your audience to set up a system that will actively promote your service or product even when you are not in the room. Isn’t that the goal? Getting your business to a point where the word-of-mouth takes over, allowing you to focus “on the business” and not be caught up “in the business.”
Content Marketing acts as a funnel. You produce “stuff” (this can be video, articles, micro blog posts, pictures, anything really) with a value-add to someone and provide an option into your solution. You repeat this process and gradually move the prospective client from being a foreigner to a client, and from a client to a fan. If you repeat this long enough, your clients will eventually become your brand advocates and hopefully superfans!
What makes up the “Content” part of content marketing?
You can decide how you want this offering to stack up.
That is a trick question! There is no point where you will “have the content” because content models require you to always create value for your audience. There is no finish line – ever. Although your content production will ebb and flow, the right mindset is to have it as a part of your communication culture. A culture that puts the emphasis on the customer.
The challenge is to find ways to present your breadcrumbs (content) to new audiences with a problem. A problem that you can solve. The more content you’ll have on offer, the easier it will be for a potential client to see that you are a credible source of knowledge when it comes to this particular problem. The entire focus of your content marketing strategy should focus on this: Solve someone’s problem, and establish yourself as the one who is the go-to girl for that problem. The book by Seth Godin This is Marketing is a must-have if you want to dive deeper into this. (We will list this title along with others below.)
When your marketing is about your brand, it is not content marketing.
When your communication is about your audience’s problem, that is content marketing!
Yes! Content marketing is a smart way of decoding your audience’s problem and establishing yourself as a leader in your field.
Let’s see how this article could be “mined” to produce some content for content marketing purposes.
Make sure your agency/designer is on board with your vision and mesh the content with your brand’s touchpoints as much as you can, and as often as you can.
Before we go further, let’s look at some examples of how this post could be mined (or “scraped”) for content to share with your audience:
Over the years we have had many clients see the positive impact that content marketing can have on their brands. In many instances, locally produced content (where we are in South Africa) have ended up on a global playground when content gets picked up to be recycled to an international audience. The ideas we create could be around for a while… There rests a massive responsibility upon the shoulders of any content creator to be authentic, ethical and honest. We all know that attention is the new currency, but we should never allow hype or gimmicks to wag the dog. Be kind.
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These tools are for anyone who wants to level up their brand’s presence through consistency and overall look. At our studio we use them all the time and now we are sharing them with you! Mahala.
Podcasting is a kind of content marketing that allows you to establish yourself (or your brand) as an expert in a field.
There rests a massive responsibility upon the shoulders of any content creator to be authentic, ethical and honest. We all know that attention is the new currency, but we should never allow hype or gimmicks to wag the dog. Be kind.
“The whole country is in shock. People are anxious and with good reason. At the moment, we are in desperate need of escapism, and that is what the RadioRaps brand is all about! As content creators, we have a responsibility to help out. I am an entertainer, and this is what I do… It is as simple as that.”
How to produce a web show that can help build your brand Anyone – really, can produce continual or episodic infotainment to lock in with
Creative Director
John-Henry is the founder and owner of The Media Farm and has been creating television, films, music and digital content for more than 15 years.
