Content marketing is not equal to social media to inbound marketing to branded content and storytelling.
When I come to meetings with clients, I always explain the differences between the different concepts listed above. Marketing heads are not clear on the difference between them. They think that when they talk about content, everything is in the same bag.
In the end, everything has different concepts. They can be complemented once each one of them plays in the current digital marketing spectrum is clear.
We could synthesize it this way. Inbound marketing is a marketing methodology based on content marketing, which can be complemented with branded content and storytelling. Social media is one of the content amplification platforms, but the idea is that the content inhabits the brand’s website.
Well-structured content marketing allows you to generate traffic and leads up to 99% cheaper than paid advertising.
It is a reality that a good content marketing strategy allows you to achieve leads and visitors to a brand’s website, up to 99% cheaper than with campaigns through DSP, Google, and Facebook Ads and countless platforms available on the website. The basis of content marketing is SEO. A strategy without SEO is totally hollow, and that cannot be ignored.
Automation platforms potentiate a good content marketing strategy. This is one of the most important content marketing tips.
When a content marketing strategy is organized, companies begin to receive quality organic traffic. This point is important since a poorly implemented strategy can begin to direct traffic that does not convert simply because of poor content planning.
When it comes to inbound, many people tend to think that platforms allow us to manage the routes through which consumers move on websites. The reality is that for me, the concept of inbound is terrific. But the implementation is not possible without a good automation platform.
What those platforms such as Hubspot, RD Station, Marketo, and the others that exist in the end do are automating the sending of emails to achieve an end with each user.
Imagine that a user enters your site, you manage to register, and you do not have contact with him again. You missed the opportunity to make him a customer.
What you achieve with automation platforms is precisely to continue having contact with them from the permanent sending of information that may be interesting for them. In the end, the ideal is to ensure that each person who visits your website ends up knowing your brand in-depth and therefore becoming a customer.
The best friend of a good content marketing strategy is the google search console.
We cannot ignore that Google Analytics is an important platform, but in my opinion, the one that should be our best friend is the Search Console. This platform is where we must measure, measure, and measure everything that we publish. Consider that this is one of the essential content marketing tips.
This is where we can evaluate how the indexing and positioning of the content we develop behaves.
Every time we publish content, we notify Google that we have new content. We do that through this platform. When we publish it, let’s validate that Google indexed it and its position.
Let’s review the No. of organic impressions, the CTR, the average position, the keywords under which it was indexed, etc.
We can see the evolution of the content strategy and if the provider you are working with knows about it or not (we hope you are doing it with us at WeAreContent).
A good content marketing strategy is not a social media content posting plan.
When we get too many meetings or meetings, clients tell us that they are developing content for social networks, their biggest concerns. They should bear in mind that social media content has a limited life.
According to the following table, life in each social network is different, and the content on a brand’s blog can live at least two years.
When I say at least two years, I mean that if it is updated with a certain periodicity, it will never die, and it will never stop directing organic traffic.
The actual role that social networks play in a content marketing strategy is that of content amplification. In other words, through social networks, I will be able to reach people who do not know me and will end up on my website consuming the published content.
But what do I achieve with it? Very simple: If the person comes to your website to consume content, you already have it in your field. If you sell cars, you can offer a test drive, if you sell tickets a discount voucher, among others.
To achieve results, I must create content permanently, and I can have a 5x return on investment.
Platforms such as MOZ or media such as the Search Engine Journal suggest periodicity in content publication.
According to MOZ, brands should publish more than ten pieces of content per month (ideally 11), and the Search Engine Journal suggests posting 16.
Search engines need to know that the published content is fresh and that the published content is constantly updated. This gives them peace of mind, and therefore this point cannot be ignored.
This requires a financial effort. But looking at the metrics of some of our clients, the return is at least five times higher if a good content strategy is developed.
It means that if I invest 100 in content per month, I will receive 500 in organic traffic. The way to value this organic traffic starts from the value of each keyword on which the content is indexed multiplied by the organic traffic it receives.
This means that if the keyword on which the content was built has Google bids of US $ 1 and I receive organic traffic on that keyword from 100 people, I saved the US $ 100 in the month.
You must create helpful content for your potential client and not for your brand.
This is one of the most challenging points for a brand. Brand managers always want to see their brand in all the content they produce. What is critical in the content marketing business is that the content must be 100% educational and 0% commercial.
What brands must achieve is trust on the part of users, and therefore the only way to accomplish this is by providing valuable and educational content. The content should provide solutions to everyday problems and not sell a product or service through the generated content.
If a vehicle brand wants to get mothers who are heads of families with children to know a new car reference, they will not achieve it by offering the new car but by providing helpful content.
Ex: 5 tips to put on makeup and look pretty. They may think that it is crazy for a car brand to do it. But what is very clear is that they will appreciate it, and possibly many will end up visiting the brand’s website. When they get there, they will show you or offer you the test drive of the new car reference.
You have to amplify the content with advertising so that people interact with it.
Once the content is published, we cannot ignore the importance of amplification or distribution of the content.
Theories say that brands should invest six times what it is worth to produce the content in its amplification. A brand achieves in doing so to reach people who do not search in search engines and possibly the target of the product.
Returning to the example mentioned, what would happen if, once published, I use advertising videos on social networks, on google, and native advertising to amplify it. The levels of segmentation that exist to do digital advertising will allow me to reach mothers who are heads of families with children to tell them if they want to read the text of the five tips for putting on makeup.
If the content is of interest, they will read the text, and the brand will be able to offer them the test drive. Depending on the salesmanship of the salesperson, the car will be sold or not, but you generated a qualified lead for the salesperson.
Check what content is good and interesting, and turn it into an ebook, a guide, or a downloadable format to get leads.
The best tools to achieve leads are the formats that force users to register to download them. For this reason, we suggest that you be very aware of the content that achieves the best results and recycle the content in other downloadable formats.
In my opinion, ebooks are a marvel to get leads. Users of the digital world are fascinated by the gift of valuable content. Imagine the previous case. Place a banner for a mother, head of the family, or any woman that says: FREE EBOOK of 5 Tips to put on better makeup and be more beautiful.
First, any woman loves the word FREE and adds the ebook on makeup tips. Good content for any human being is an excellent incentive for them to try to download it. The interesting thing about this process is that when they are going to do it, they must give us as much information as possible to be able to qualify the lead.
What I mentioned in the second point is why the cost of a lead can be 99% cheaper than with traditional advertising.
Possibly we will be turning this text into an ebook. There will be many people who will download it to validate what are the 11 tips we have in the content marketing business.
Not everyone knows how to develop content marketing strategies.
You will find many companies that talk to you about content marketing as publications on social networks. As I said before, that is not content marketing.
You must make sure they know how to do it. For this, I recommend that you ask them for cases where you can see the organic positioning of the agency that offers you the content. It is impossible that an agency that is supposed to know how to develop content does not appear in search engines positioned on words other than its own company. What does this mean?
If it is an agency that produces content, enter her blog, take a text and check whether or not it is positioned in the search engines.
If you want to evaluate it with good software, I recommend going to Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz. They are very good software that will give you an idea about the positioning of a text in search engines and the agency that offers you to develop the content.
Content marketing and SEO are inseparable allies for any e-commerce platform.
We cannot ignore electronic commerce in this text. Most companies that have e-commerce platforms depend almost 100% on Google and Facebook to sell.
The interesting thing when developing content strategies is that this dependency is reduced. I’d love to tell you that it’s removed, but that’s not entirely true. Many keywords have such low search volume and so low CPC.
Sometimes it is better not to produce content but to continue using ADS which is cheaper. If you want to delve into this topic, I recommend you read this text that tells you about the ROI of content marketing.
The underlying reason is that organic positioning begins to direct quality users to websites without the need for digital advertising. Thus the reason for the dependency is self-explanatory.
Conclusion
I hope that each of the content marketing tips that I have given you will help you enter the world of content marketing. It is an exciting world. Best of all is that if you do it well, you will be able to get rid of the dependence on digital advertising to move your brand. You never know when advertising or marketing budgets are running out or going down.
If this happens, remember that each content you develop becomes a true digital asset for the brand (it will never stop generating organic traffic if you do it right). Content is the best investment a brand can make for its present and future.