The term ‘content marketing’ is the new buzzword in digital marketing. Everyone knows that it’s more effective that most forms of digital marketing – such as banner adverts – however, what is it really? How is it done?
Content marketing is not copywriting
First up, there’s a common misconception that copywriting forms the basis of content marketing. In other words, that copywriters produce the articles that are used in content marketing.
However, copywriters only produce content for marketing material such as adverts and sales letters. Think about the copywriter as a salesman but instead of them sitting in front of a client and selling them their products, the way that they sell their products is through the copy that they write.
Digital copywriters are very similar to traditional copywriters – just in the same way that digital marketers have an undeniable similarity to traditional marketers. However, there are marked differences between online and offline copywriters. As Maria Veloso says in Web Copy That Sells: The Revolutionary Formula for Creating Killer Copy Every Time:
“… [digital] copywriting is distinctly different from any other kind of advertising copy and offline marketing communications.”
So, what is content marketing then?
Content marketing is about telling stories
Modern day consumers want more than just information. Individuals of this generation are accustomed to having easy access to:
- News,
- Ideas,
- Information, as well as
- Knowledge
They are well versed in the tricks that digital marketers employ. These consumers cannot stand annoying marketing. The more advertising lines they see in a piece of copy, the quicker they stop reading it. This means that storytelling is a great idea for any digital marketing campaign.
Why do we say this?
People adore stories. They are excited to read about what is similar to something that they’ve experienced. Storytelling can be a very useful tool for content creators. This is because stories can influence people’s emotions and get those precious likes and shares.
As the name suggests, ‘content marketing’ is about using content in order to market your business. Where it has the advantage over other forms of digital marketing is that content marketing provides much more space in order to convey the business’ marketing message to the customer as opposed to a small banner advertisement or advertorial.
Don’t think that only articles qualify as part of content marketing. This type of marketing can also take the form of infographics, videos and podcasts. In fact, the great thing is that you can use the blog post that you create as the basis for the other forms of content. This means that you content gets longer legs and you can repurpose it. This means that the money you’ve spent on your initial content generation goes further.
