Content marketing is the new kid on the block, but the strategy is making headlines across the industry because of its ability to consistently generate fantastic results for companies of all sizes. The average person consumes 11.4 pieces of content before making a purchase, which is why content marketing can have such a large impact on the purchasing decisions of consumers.
When compared to traditional advertising methods like TV, radio and even pay-per-click ads, content marketing allows you to avoid interruption. According to Vincent D’Eletto Jr from WordAgents Reviews of content marketing, “the problem with these traditional marketing methods is that you rely on interrupting the consumers day” to tell them about your product, while content marketing puts the information in front of those who are already looking for it.
Not only does this mean that you get your business in front of hot leads who are further down the sales cycle, but it also prevents you from becoming a nuisance. It’s easy for consumers to become irritated with companies that are constantly using interruption marketing, especially in the era of ad blocking; this is why many firms are switching to content marketing.
The Content Marketing Process
As with all forms of marketing, it starts with research. The marketing team needs to understand what kinds of content are hot and who is sharing them and why. Once this has been established, they can create a fantastic piece of content and publish it. But that’s not enough, the old adage “build it and they will come” isn’t accurate. In reality, you need to use tools to promote that content.
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is an online web application that aggregates the most popular pieces of content on the internet by looking at how many engagement signals they get on popular social media sites. This includes Facebook shares, Facebook likes, Retweets and Pinterest pins. These signals give you a good idea of what types of content are popular in a given niche.
Ahrefs
Although usually used for backlink analysis, Ahrefs allows you to enter a domain and rank their pages by the number of referring domains. Doing this shows you which pieces of content get the most links, which you can analyze along with the BuzzSumo data to better understand what you should create and why.
CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer
The headline that you use for your content is incredibly important, especially on social media where people often share content without reading it. To create the perfect headline you should use the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer which scores your suggested title and gives you recommendations on how you can improve it.