What is the Importance of Content Marketing?

In modern marketing, high-quality content is the fuel for every customer experience and distribution channel. In fact, recent studies show that 90% of marketers plan to continue investing in their content marketing strategies. 

Ultimately, the purpose of content marketing is to create a messaging strategy that goes beyond mere advertising and aims to solve a problem for your audience. But how did we get here? 

History gives us a solid reference point when discussing the importance of content in digital marketing. Really, the concept of using content to promote business isn’t exactly a new idea—especially when you consider that the desire to tell stories has been ingrained in the human psyche for millennia. Even in the 18th-century, content was used to market businesses and services. In fact, Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac was specifically published to advertise his printing business. 

Although the practice of content marketing has technically been around for ages, the term is quite new. John F. Oppedahl officially coined the phrase in 1996 during a conference, making content marketing an official term in our modern lexicon. Putting a name to this age-old practice was absolutely critical and led to the development of content marketing as a methodology and service.

Fast forward a bit and here we are, in the golden age of content creation! But, where do we go from here? To many, developing a content creation strategy can be a bit overwhelming. In fact, less than 40% of marketers who engage in content marketing have a defined and documented strategy. As content experts ourselves, we’re here to offer our insight to help you traverse the highly competitive content marketing world!

Is Content Marketing a Part of Digital Marketing?

Content marketing is an integral part of a larger digital marketing strategy. At its core, content marketing is about creating and distributing high-quality content that solves the readers’ problems and tells a story. Naturally, the company is the narrative hero, but it’s important to extend beyond a mere sales pitch. Successful content marketing involves delivering helpful, relevant, and timely information to your audience. Instead of saying you’re the best, the right content proves you are. This will help you establish a strong relationship with your audience and build brand loyalty. Additionally, your specific topics and narrative will vary greatly depending on your audience and the type of content you produce. But we’ll dive into that a bit more below. 

Types of Content Marketing

Creating a solid content marketing strategy involves curating and cultivating multiple content mediums. Each content medium serves a specific purpose, and its effectiveness depends on your target audience. For example, many studies have concluded that older generations respond well to traditional marketing tactics like TV advertisements. In contrast, younger generations are more likely to interact with content on social media platforms. Before you choose which type of content to produce, you need to analyze your audience and develop targeted customer personas. Without solid research informing your decisions, your content won’t have much of an impact. On a broad scale, there are three categories you can use to organize your content:

1. Social Media: This encompasses any content published on a social platform.
2. Owned Media: This covers anything published on your company website. 
3. Earned Media: This category includes any content you create published on your own platform. Press releases are an excellent example of owned content because they are created so journalists will be encouraged to write about your brand.

Now, many forms of content exist within these three categories; here are a few examples:

• Interactive content like webinars
• Online written content like blogs
• Photos for social media
• White papers 
• Infographics
• Podcasts
• E-books
• Videos

What Are the Benefits of Content Creation?

Although there are countless benefits of content creation, here are some of our favorites:

• Improved organic search traffic
• Better audience engagement
• Increased brand awareness
• Accelerated business goals
• Better conversion rates
• Stronger relationships
• Wider audience reach

But creating great content doesn’t just happen on its own, you have to work for it. Here’s some general advice to help you unlock the benefits of successful content:

• Understand who your audience is. Here you need to begin researching what your audience is searching for on search platforms like Google—this will inform the topics of your content. It can consist of conducting surveys and other investigations with your current customers to gain insight into their opinions, desires, preferences, etc. 

• Understand your audience’s problems. This is where you dial in on your customer’s pain points and begin to learn about their collective and individual experiences. 
• Establish your brand as the solution. Once you know who you’re targeting and understand their pain points, you can begin creating content that positions your brand as the hero. Remember, you’re not telling people why you’re better than all the rest; you’re showing them.

The best content marketers truly understand their audience. The better you understand your customer's desires and values, the more effective your content marketing efforts will be.

DemandJump: We’re Obsessed With Content

Sure, all this advice sounds great on the surface, but how should you gain this insight? Traditionally, people have spent hours and hours researching and guessing what their audience needs. As markers ourselves, we know how frustrating this process can be. That’s why we created DemandJump.

The DemandJump content marketing platform was built to do all the research for you, so you know exactly what your ideal customers are looking for on search engines—and what your competitors are ranking for. Our cross-channel analytics give you a comprehensive view of your customer journey at every stage of every funnel. While our customer insight reports and content outlines tell you precisely what to write about to get on your ideal customer’s radar. 

As a team of marketers, we recognize the importance of written content and all other aspects of content marketing. With us by your side, we’ll help you create valuable content for your audience and deliver the ROI you need. 

Say goodbye to guesswork and try DemandJump for free today.