4 Frequently Asked Questions About Content Marketing

The #1 rule of online marketing is content is king.
Your website, social media, SEO or other internet marketing campaign can’t succeed without “fresh, unique, frequently updated” content.

But what exactly does that mean?

1. What Is Content Marketing?
In the last few years, various names have sprung up for producing great content that is more “editorial” than “sales pitch” in nature.

 Previously, it was called “informational marketing” or “education-based marketing.” Now, the name has shifted to more catchier terms like “content marketing” or “inbound marketing.”

The fundamental principle behind content marketing is that people don’t want to read your sales pitch.  They don’t want to sit through your commercials, read your ads, or be interrupted by your “Buy from me!” messages. 

Value is subjective, but if your marketing messages are self-promotional and scream at prospects to pay attention to you, your prospects will judge them as having no value and filter them out. People only pay attention to what is important to them. 

With content marketing, you recognize that people only care about “What’s in it for me?” so the best way to get people interested in you is to offer them editorial information that addresses their current aspirations and problems.

2. What Is Great Content?

Great content adds value to your prospects’ life in some way.  That might be telling them how to do something, appealing to their emotions, passions or beliefs, entertaining them, or offering another point of view. 

The rule of thumb is that if your readers consider it worthwhile, then it’s good content.
Depending on your audience, good content is:

• humor and entertainment
• practical, useful free information on a topic
• opinions, commentaries, and reviews
• products for sale
• forums, chat rooms, and communities
• breaking news
• free tools and software

Good content

1. demonstrates your expertise
2. provides a free sample of your services
3. provides a snapshot of your personality

Of course, you’re not limited to just one of those categories, nor must you try to incorporate them all into your site.

3. Why Is Content Marketing Important?

The NY Times estimates that people are exposed to 5000 marketing messages each day. To cope, we filter out what isn’t relevant. Content marketing strives for relevancy, so it isn’t filtered out. Here are 6 reasons why content marketing is essential to any marketing campaign.

1. Engage readers – Content marketing adds value to people’s lives by offering interesting, useful information that helps them solve a problem, achieve a goal or make a purchasing decision. 
2. Tangible body of work – When selling services, it can be difficult to explain all the value you provide. By producing articles, books, audio, video, seminars and other educational materials, you share what you know in an accessible way.
3. Position yourself as a thought leader – While people want to do business with those they know, like and trust, they also want competency. When you position yourself as a thought leader, you demonstrate your expertise and have others vouch for your credibility.
4. Drive sales without hard selling – People like to buy but they hate to be sold. Content marketing offers them information to help them make purchasing decisions without sleazy, high-pressure sales techniques designed to manipulate their emotions.
5. Build an authority website – Search engines want to rank sites they perceive as “the best” for any given topic, so they look for websites considered “authorities” in their fields. An authority site has lots of useful content and plenty of other websites linking to it.
6. Evergreen content – A good content strategy involves creating content that doesn’t have an “expire by” date. You create the content once and can use it for years to come.

4. What Does Content Marketing Include?

With content marketing, it helps to think of yourself as a publisher.
 Just as magazines have editorial calendars planning what topics they will address in upcoming issues, you should have an editorial calendar for your website, blog, newsletter, podcast, or speaking series. Content marketing can include anything you publish. That might take the form of:

• Writing: blogs, articles, white papers, ebooks, guest posts
• Audio: podcasts, teleseminars
• Video: Youtube, recorded presentations, webinars
• Graphics: photos, infographics

If you are just getting started with content marketing, writing is probably the easiest. Consider what types of content your target market wants and start writing articles about those topics. Have a wonderful day. content is king.