What is Content Marketing (and Why You Need It)

Business TipsContent MarketingPinterestSEO

Sep 9

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I see you. Tired of posting on social media. Another selfie that looks exactly like the last one. Another caption that maybe 10 people see and 100 people scroll past.

Sure social media is great. But there is a better way to market your business…

…content marketing.

Content marketing can be a beast but the beautiful thing about it is that your content has a shelf life of weeks and months, even years, over that of a social media post. So it can keep working for you over and over again bringing new people into your circle, into your audience, into your marketing funnel.

Let’s dive in to what content marketing is and what types of content you can create!

This is for you if…

You’re just getting started in online business and want to create a solid marketing plan that doesn’t involve ads (unless you want it to)
You’re ready to attract leads to your audience who are actually looking for what you have to offer the world. No more dead email list of people who will never buy. These people found you!
You’ve had enough social media and know there has to be a better way to be seen that doesn’t involve mindless posting to the abyss.

What is Content Marketing

The dry definition of content marketing is “strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.” (Content Marketing Institute)

That pretty well sums it up. But let’s make it more fun, shall we?

Content marketing is every blog post, social media post, podcast, and video you create to share.

This content is used to attract new potential clients into your audience, as well as to keep your current audience engaged and ready to work with you.

We all know growing an engaged audience is key to a thriving business, right?

Coolcoolcool.

So let’s get into it!

Why You Need Content Marketing

We touched on this a little already but the idea behind content marketing is to attract new people to your audience with your content.

This means, creating things like blog posts, podcasts, and videos (just a few examples) and optimizing them so that when your ideal client googles or searches Pinterest for an answer to something, your content shows up for them!

They land on your blog post, love what you had to say, sign up for your freebie, and BAM! New audience member who was looking for your offer and what you have to say.

Now they’re in your marketing funnel and you can continue to nurture them until they are ready to make a purchase from you.

Types of Content Marketing

BLOGS

Blogs are probably the most popular type of content marketing. They are powerful. Now you’ll see tons of posts out there now about how blogging doesn’t work anymore to attract new clients.

They are wrong.

Blogs show up in search engines. Blogs show up in Google searches. If you blog consistently and keyword optimize your posts, they can be super powerful tools for growing your audience.

The key, however, is to not blog about random topics just to post a blog. Make sure your posts are related to how you serve your audience and are quality posts. Google can tell!

YOUTUBE VIDEOS

In case you didn’t know, YouTube and Google are like peas and carrots. YouTube videos show up in Google searches too, just like blog posts.

In fact, YouTube acts as it’s own search engine. People use it to search for answers, just like Google.

So if your content is related to how you serve your audience, you’re answering the questions they’re asking (aka: searching for), and you keyword optimize your title and description, YouTube will show your answers both in relevant Google searches and YouTube searches.

LEAD MAGNET

This is a fun one. The lead magnet is a gift you send to people who sign up for your email list (aka, they join your sales funnel).

Generally, this is a PDF workbook or something similar, but it can also be a video series, checklist, or anything else you can think of.

The idea here is to create a piece of content that relates to how you serve your clients that you give away to them for free, in exchange for their email address.

EMAIL LIST

You must have an email list. Point. Blank. End of discussion. Here’s why…

If you live on social media and house all your content there, you could lose it in the blink of an eye. You don’t own your friends list or your followers. If Facebook or IG shut down, or go out for the day, you lose access to everyone.

You own your email list. You can download and save it at any time so you’ll always have that list no matter what. Facebook crashes, you can still email your people. So start your list right now.

Your email list will likely be the most engaged (ie: ready to spend) segment of your audience. They’ve already invested in you by giving you their email address. Keep them engaged, give them lots of value, and they will be your best customers.

WEBINAR

Webinars are marketing magic. If you have a product or service that relates to something you can teach, a webinar may be the way to go. They help build relationships quickly because your audience can see and hear how you teach and share content.

Webinars are a great way to showcase your expertise and build credibility as you teach a topic to your audience.

If you teach a webinar live, you can take that and turn it into an evergreen webinar to reach even more people without taking more of your time. This is a great way to get them into a funnel for a related product or service.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Okay so we talked briefly about how social media posts don’t have a long shelf life. And they don’t. I don’t advocate that social (any of them) be your main marketing strategy. However, it never hurts to share your amazing content on social media.

Where am I going with my love/hate relationship with social? Well it’s like this.

The first step to a good content marketing plan is the content. The blogs, the videos, etc.

The second step is giving that content a long life with SEO and Pinterest. This allows your content to keep circulating and turning up in Google search results, even if you don’t promote it anywhere else again.

The third is social media. Share the content on IG and Facebook. There’s nothing wrong with that. Just know that the post isn’t going to stay front of mind for long. And it isn’t going to reach many people who aren’t following you. But that’s okay too, because it does give value to your warm audience.

PODCASTS

Podcasts are suuuuper popular right now. Everyone has a podcast, amiright? And that’s awesome. Because they are a great way, just like video and webinars, to showcase yourself as an expert in your field.

They help to build trust and relationships with your audience quickly. And let you speak or shed light on topics that may be too difficult to put into written words in a blog post or email.

Plus you’ve got the added benefit of podcast apps also being their own search engines, more or less. If you have a podcast about habits and someone is searching for podcasts about habits, there’s a very good chance your episode will pop up in their results. And voila! A new audience member for you and you only had to publish the episode. 😉

What Can I Share

This is sometimes the most difficult thing for me as a content creator. Everyone tells you to share about your life, what you’re working on, what you’re doing…

And my thought was always “but my everyday life is so boring! No one wants to hear about that!”

And honestly, it’s how I got focused on blogging, SEO, and Pinterest over social media. I hated that feeling of having to come up with something exciting to share everyday when everyday is basically the same thing over and over again.

So, what can you share on your blog, podcast, email, etc? Pretty much anything! I’ll list a few out here to get you going:

→ Behind the scenes
→ Pillars of your brand
→ The framework you use with clients
→ Quick tips
→ Your favorite tools
→ Your morning routine
→ Favorite books

… the list could go on but you get the idea. There are tons of content ideas out there. Choose the ones that work for your business and make sure they speak to your ideal client. Otherwise you won’t reach her. But she’s looking for YOU!

How do they find me with content marketing

The magic sauce is… keywords.

Yup. That’s it! Using keywords in your content, whether that’s blog posts, YouTube, or podcasts, is what helps your ideal clients find you.

When you use the right keywords, you effectively tell Google and Pinterest what your content is about. So those two platforms now know when they should share your content in searches.

Your ideal client then comes along and types that search into Google (or Pinterest) and voila! There is your blog post to answer all her questions.

Not only that, she loves everything you have to say and hires you! 🎉

Now finding the right keywords can seem like a daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be. I’ve created the Google + Pinterest Keyword Planner to help my clients with just that. Learn more about the planner and get access here.

Recap

Content marketing is the creation of content related to how you serve your audience that attracts them to you through searches. Think: Google and Pinterest.
You need content marketing to attract people to your brand and business It helps them get to know you and gets them into your marketing funnel.
There are tons of types of content you can create to attract your audience! The key here is knowing what kind speaks to them. If you’re making videos but your ideal client is never on YouTube, they may not be able to find you that way.
Content marketing is incredible for business because one piece of content can be used many different ways to reach your ideal audience where they are. Record a video, then make it a blog post, then an email, then a social media post, and share it on Pinterest… get the idea? 😉