Have you found yourself struggling to increase your brand awareness? Maybe you’re trying to increase your reach to your target audiences.

I know your pain, trust me. What if I told you that the latest trends for content strategy and expanding your consumer base is more of a blessing, than a headache?

Allow me to introduce to you the content marketing strategy. What is content marketing? Well, I’m happy you asked.

Content marketing is a marketing strategy used to attract, engage, and retain an audience by creating and sharing relevant articles, videos, podcasts, and other media. 

Content marketing helps promote brand awareness and keeps your business relevant when it’s time to buy what you sell. 

It has the potential to generate conversion rates six times higher than other marketing methods. But it’s not only about selling your products, it’s also about educating your audience to grow your brand.

Four Elements of a Successful Content Marketing Strategy

If you search the internet, you will find so many different elements to creating a successful content marketing strategy.

However, quite a few industry experts agree with www.JaneHamill.com four successful content marketing strategies that, if done correctly, will consistently keep your business on the minds of your customers, as well as increase your sales.

Brand Positioning: You have to know who you are as a company, who your target audience is, and what you do. What does your target audience want? How can you offer better service/products than your competitor?

Owned Media Value Proposition: Owned media is any online presence you control, ie., your website, email list, blog or podcast. Evaluate the value to your audience, and research what information they are looking for and through what channels.

Business goals: Providing value to your audience is important, but it shouldn’t be your only goal. Content Marketing should move your business forward. That means you need to identify your business goals and the resources you will need to achieve those goals.

Strategic Planning: The absolute most important part of any Content Marketing Strategy is a well thought-out plan of how to achieve your business goals. This plan should help you decide who your target audience is, how to present your content, and how to achieve and measure your results.

Types of Content Marketing Channels

We all know great content is the key to growing your audience. However, most people forget that sharing and promoting your content is the quickest way to success. 

How can I get my product/services in front of a larger audience? How can I guarantee success? Well, the easiest way is to create a content distribution strategy. Let’s take a look at these common content distribution channels.

• Social Media – Allows you to connect and engage potential customers where they are at. Food for thought, although you may control your social media page, you don’t technically own it. 

• Blogging- The part of your site that is often updated with new posts and information to keep your audience engaged, and start to build your brand’s audience.

• E-book – Allows you to give detailed information on specific areas of expertise.

• Video- Adds a human touch to your brand, and helps establish a relationship with your audience.

• Email or Newsletter – A form of owned media that allows you to distribute your content and build relationships with your audience.

• Earned Media Channels – Earned Media Channels or “Shared” channels require other people to share your content for free. This can include guest posts, or some type of media coverage.

• Podcasts – A podcast is a series of recorded information that is released regularly in the form of episodes. There are over 800,000 active podcasts and an unlimited reach to grow your audience.

Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing

Another really hip trend for you cool cats, is digital marketing. Wikipedia says digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the internet and online based digital technologies like desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products or services.

There are many advantages to using digital marketing, but the main advantage is that it allows you to reach a larger target audience at a very low cost. You can also get detailed information on how your audience uses your website and how they respond to your advertising by using online metric tools.

Digital marketing also allows you to personalize how you greet or engage with your targeted audience. It gives you the freedom to make real time changes to your content at the palm of your hands. 

Different Types of Digital Marketing Include…

When it comes to choosing what type of digital marketing to use, it normally boils down to two questions: Why are you trying to use digital marketing? Who are you trying to reach?

Here are some different types of digital marketing that can give you some insight on what channel works best for your business and how to achieve your goals.

• SEO- Search Engine Optimization is a marketing tool and per The Balance it is defined as “the art and science of making web pages attractive to search engines.”
• Content marketing- Attracts leads that convert to customers
• Social Media Marketing- helps drive traffic and brand awareness
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC)- posting an ad on a platform and paying every time someone clicks on it.
• Affiliate Marketing- make money by promoting another person’s business.
• Native advertising- offers information or entertainment before it gets into the promotion, bypassing the ad aspect.
• Marketing automation- uses software to power digital marketing campaigns
• Email marketing- using email to promote a business’s products and services as well as incentivize customer loyalty.

So, What is Traditional Marketing?

Traditional Marketing is a form of promotion that reaches an audience offline using newspapers, broadcasts, telemarketing or direct mail, billboards, bus advertisements to engage their audience. 

We’ve all been the victim of this type of marketing. Either from being bombarded by 1000’s of pieces of junk mail in the mailbox, or looking at a billboard near your favorite shopping mall.

Traditional Marketing has been a necessity in every business. I mean, in the old days, in order to reach an audience, you had to get out and be seen.

There are many benefits to using traditional marketing, such as reaching those customers who spend most time away from their computers/mobile phones.

It can also allow you to reach a larger audience when the advertisement is placed in a public place people like to visit.

There are some familiar channels used in traditional marketing, and most of these are still being used to this day!

• Billboards are located next to highways and feature images and graphics with supporting text.

• Direct Mail sends printed material like letters or postcards to the address of potential customers.

• Print ads can reach more customers through outlets like newspapers or magazines.

• Broadcasting is making commercials for broadcast channels, like radio and television.

• Telemarketing/Cold Calling is used for business to business while selling products and services to other organizations.

Which One Should I Use? Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing

I know you’re asking yourself, which would be best for my business, digital marketing or traditional marketing. Well, you can’t make an educated decision without knowing the good and the bad.

Digital marketing relies on technology, and technology can be a life saver or a nightmare. Why do I say that? Well, social media  sites can go down, and that can cause delays with scheduled posting.

You also want to keep in mind cyber security. The responsibility of keeping your audience’s data safe from hackers.

And of course, updates. We all know updates can take a while to learn and incorporate into your advertising strategy, and that can slow you down. 

When it comes to traditional marketing it really doesn’t allow for an interaction with your audience in real time.

You also can’t make real time edits or changes to your content. And the number one party pooper, is the cost. It can cost a pretty penny for advertising and there is no promise that investment will render a further reach.

Both, digital marketing and traditional marketing attract consumers to your product in order to get more sales.The fundamentals of marketing remain the same, they just use different outlets, online and physical at a higher cost.

The Need for a Digital Marketing Strategy in Finance and Business Consulting

It’s always a good idea to have a plan. Having a digital marketing strategy will help you identify the uniqueness of your business and also foster more loyalty for your brand.

It helps you understand your audience and their behaviors and allows a more targeted reach to customers by:

• Connecting businesses with consumers when they are online and can be used in all industries.
• Increasing traffic and lead to more visibility and increased sales and revenue.
• Providing more market and consumer awareness.
• Keeping costs low- there are a lot of free and some paid sites/apps but highly effective.
• Making it easy to adapt and change a digital marketing strategy.

So, which one of these trailblazing new marketing strategies will you choose for your company?

Email me, tiffany@tiffygwrites.com to sky rocket your marketing message.

This post is written by Vee Sims.