The What, When, Why, and How of Content Marketing
Content Marketing
How much content do you consume a day? If you are anything like me, you love watching funny videos online, taking quizzes about which ice cream flavor you are and scrolling through your friend’s and favorite brands’ Instagram. But did you know there are endless opportunities to create content and get paid? Yep, content marketing has lots of potential career paths for those who love to create.
Melanie Deziel, a highly successful content marketer and marketing consultant, spoke with Loyola University Maryland students about content marketing as a promising and exciting field. She explained her journey in the field and provided insights on how to create content effectively.
Author of The Content Fuel Framework: How to Generate Unlimited Story Ideas, Melanie worked as a content expert for companies such as The Huffington Post and The New York Times. She wrote articles and created content, both serious and light-hearted, for brands such as Cheerios, Green Giant Vegetables, and Progresso. Her presentation and my class inspired me to share information about content marketing’s function in business and why everyone interested in marketing should be aware of its benefits.
What?
What is content marketing? While most people think of marketing as advertising, advertising is a push strategy—where advertisers push their ads towards consumers they hope to attract. Content marketing is a pull strategy. It works to attract an audience towards your company by providing content that connects with audiences about things that they care about.
In my content marketing class, taught by Marie A. Yeh, PhD, we learn that the basis of content marketing is “creating and distributing valuable,
relevant, and consistent content. The goal is to attract and engage a defined audience (i.e.,
website visitors), which then converts those visitors into leads and ultimately customers” (Yeh 2023). Figure 1 below illustrates how content marketing differs from advertising.
According to Melanie, content marketing is “the creation and sharing of online material that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services”.
Content marketing includes creating blogs, videos, podcasts, infographics, social media posts, images, and more. It allows companies to connect with millions of people all over the world in a way that is engaging, inspiring, and impactful. The content created must be useful, helpful, informative, and/or entertaining to your customer rather than overtly trying to sell your products/services to them.
When?
When is content marketing used? Melanie explains that it is useful at each stage of the buying process. In my content marketing course, we study how customers need content at each stage of the process to help them satisfy their needs.
During the pre-purchase phase, “content marketing can be used to increase awareness of a brand and get a customer’s attention” shared Deziel. It can also be used to cultivate interest from the audience so that they consider buying from the company.
During the awareness stage, customers become aware of a problem or need (Indeed 2022). They experience symptoms of a problem or are maybe seeking an opportunity.
At this stage, you produce content that will help them solve their problem and/or
serve their interests (Yeh 2023).
During the consideration stage, customers have a clearly defined problem or opportunity. They commit to doing research and evaluating alternatives to help them reach their goals.
During this stage, you should think about what solutions you offer compared to your
competitors. Craft content that positions you to solve their problems and makes you
more favorable than your opponents (Yeh 2023).
Content marketing is used at the point of sale to increase the customer’s intent,
help them evaluate their options, and guide them through the steps of making a purchase.
In the purchase stage, customers commit to a decision and act on the right solution. Ensure they can act using your products/services. Craft content that answers questions that might be barriers to purchase such as How-Tos and FAQs (Yeh 2023).
During the post-purchase phase, content marketing can be used to build relationships with customers. It is useful for retaining customer loyalty and turning them into advocates for the brand.
Why?
Why do we do content marketing? To form meaningful relationships with consumers and position your brand/company where your customers are…
93% of Gen Z spend an average of four hours daily on social media (Iskeiv 2023). To capture their attention, you have to have funny and relatable content to connect with them where they are.
82% of shoppers want a brand's values to align with theirs. (Google n.d). Content marketing allows brands to attract an audience that shares their values and drive interest and brand loyalty.
91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool (Hayes 2023). Most people are visual learners and prefer being able to see a product/service demonstrated. Creating engaging videos makes brands more memorable.
How?
How do we create effective and engaging content for our audience? By crafting stories and bringing them to life.
But first, it is important to know who you’re making content for. Buyer personas—a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customers—are used to align your content to the interests and goals of your target audience. They allow you to get a good idea of the people you are trying to attract.
This video by Semrush demonstrates how to create a buyer persona.
This is a buyer persona that my team and I recently completed in Dr. Yeh’s content marketing class.
Once you know your target audience. You can understand what kind of content to create for them.
Creating virtual, interactive, and multi-formatted content (such as an article with videos) drives more traffic than content with static formatting and plain text (Deziel). Incorporating these elements captures attention and intrigues your audience.
Creating regular content to attract, entertain, and retain your customer can be tough which is why Melanie wrote The Content Fuel Framework: How to Generate Unlimited Story Ideas to help creators figure out what to create content around. She focuses on 10 lenses that you can make your content about. These lenses include:
- People: Uses personal stories such as the experiences of those that work in a certain industry.
- Basics: Talks about a subject at a 101 level. Provides a quick and easy overview for new-comers.
- Details: Goes more into depth about a subject. Usually longer and more thorough.
- History: Gives the history and background of a subject.
- Process: Gives steps for completing a task such as recipes, instructions, and D.I.Y guides.
- Curation: Collection of items from different sources. For instance, an article titled, “Top 5 content marketing videos”.
- Data: Tells a story using numbers. You may use statistics and other areas of math to make important points.
- Product: Gives details about the selling product. May talk about its features, benefits, set-up tutorials, demonstrations and more.
- Example: Useful when the subject is about a big idea that is hard to fully capture such as innovation, diversity, or activism. You can “create content that focuses on a much smaller part of that story”.
- Opinion: Giving your own judgement and perspective about something. For instance, an article about why I think content marketing is the most important class for marketing majors.
Content marketing is an important way to attract an audience to your brand, showcase value, and deliver material that benefits both your brand and your audience. More and more companies are using content marketing and social media to make meaningful connections and cultivate a loyal and happy customer base. And thus, more and more companies are hiring people to fulfill roles that are involved in the creation of this content.
If you are interested in taking a content marketing course, contact Dr. Marie Yeh
to learn more about what she teaches.
410-617-2620
mayeh@loyola.edu
