Content marketing

Content marketing is a marketing technique that businesses use to attract new and engage with existing customers. It involves creating and distributing content such as blog posts, videos, and social media posts. The aim is to convert your website visitors into customers.

Content marketing can boost your brand awareness among your target market. It can be a cost effective way to reach your audience and build loyalty. Ultimately, it should lead to increased sales.

Content marketing is a long term strategy. As time goes on and you publish more content, you will be able to build up knowledge about what works best. This helps you to plan future content. It also provides insight into your customers' interests and needs.

Content and your marketing tactics

Quality content underpins all forms of marketing. Having valuable content can be the key to success for a number of marketing tactics:

• Social media: Good content is key to building your online audience on social media, building relationships and driving engagement. See social media best practice for business.
• Search engine optimisation (SEO): Search engines give higher rankings to websites that regularly publish quality content. To build your inbound links, you will need to have useful content that other websites want to link to.
• Public Relations (PR): Successful PR campaigns depend on content that the audience is interested in.
• Pay-per-click and paid search advertising: Search engine advertising works best when the content is relevant to the user. This leads to lower costs-per-click and ultimately higher conversions.  

Content marketing can help you engage your audience and build relationships, ultimately boosting sales. However, there may be certain challenges. These include thinking of good content ideas and finding the time to write it.

Advantages of content marketing

Build brand awareness, trust and loyalty

People consuming your content will start to build an impression of your brand. Publishing informative, well-researched content means your business will be seen as authoritative and trustworthy. The more your audience relies on you for information, the more likely they will be to buy from you. See branding for your business. 

Reach an audience who may avoid ads

Using content rather than digital advertising methods can help you reach potential customers who may use ad blocking software or actively avoid or ignore digital advertising.

Keep costs down

There are no media placement costs, and most work can be done in-house. This means your spending can be kept low.   

Increase traffic and conversions

Quality content draws your audience to your website, boosting web traffic. Once they are on your site, you can persuade them to register or make a purchase (ie convert). 

Data-driven insights

Using customer performance metrics from your content marketing will help you shape future content marketing decisions.

Support your other marketing tactics

Good content is important for the success of many other marketing tactics, such as search engine optimisation, social media and public relations.

Disadvantages of content marketing

The benefits aren't immediate

Content marketing can be a long process. There is normally a period of trial and error to discover what works best before you see results.

Skills and resource

Content marketing can be time-consuming. You need to create content, publish it across your marketing channels and analyse the impact. To create certain kinds of content such as infographics and videos, you may need to outsource or develop your in-house skills.

Finding content ideas

It can be tricky to come up with ideas for effective new topics and formats. This will become easier as you go along and can analyse the impact of previous content.

Evaluation

It's relatively easy to measure the effect your content marketing has on web traffic and online conversions. It can be harder to determine the impact of your content on brand reputation, awareness and loyalty. 

To get the most from content marketing, it's important to plan ahead and take a strategic approach. You have a better chance of success with a detailed strategy and clear plan.

Set objectives

It's important to define your goals and what you want to achieve from content marketing. You may want to increase your brand awareness among your target audience or drive traffic to your site to boost online sales.  You should set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound) objectives. See your marketing objectives.

Define your target audience

Consider who your target audience is. You should research their needs and interests to create content they will find valuable and relevant. See understand your customers' needs.

If you already publish content (such as blog posts) analyse what has been popular and look at your web visitor demographics.

Brainstorm content topics and formats

Use research to help develop ideas for new content. Consider what has worked in the past and look at social media to find trending topics in your industry. Staff who work directly with customers may have ideas on what will be most relevant.

There are various content formats and types you can try. For example, blog posts, infographics, videos and templates. See types of content for marketing.

Plan, manage and publish

Plan to publish your content throughout the year with a content calendar. This will help you spread out your content over time and ensure it's topical. For example, if you are a gift retailer, you could publish a blog post on 'romantic present ideas' before Valentine's Day.

Your calendar will help keep you on track with when content should be written, approved and published.

You should also use a schedule to plan when you will promote each piece of content on your various social media and other marketing channels.

Download a content calendar template with examples (XLSX, 46KB).

Evaluate and refine

To evaluate the success of your content marketing, look at metrics that relate to your objectives. You could measure:

• number of downloads
• page visits
• social media engagement
• conversions such as sales or registrations

As part of your evaluation, you should consider the return on investment. Use your analysis to refine and improve future campaigns. 

See measuring your online marketing. 

There are many formats and types of content you can use for marketing purposes. Consider what will work best for your business. Use a combination of different formats and try new things for comparison and evaluation.

Blog posts

Blog posts should provide valuable content to your audience. Some examples of formats include:

• lists
• reviews
• how-to guides
• opinion pieces 

Experiment with different post lengths, topics and formats to find out what works best.  Publish blog posts regularly so your visitors will keep returning for more.

Infographics

Infographics present concepts and information visually. This can be a good way to make a topic more interesting and engaging. It can help you share data in a clear and easy-to-understand way. 

Videos

While creating videos can cost you more time and resources, it can be a highly effective format. Videos can be shared across social media. They can include explainer videos, product review or case studies.

Podcasts

Podcasts are becoming an increasingly popular content format for businesses to communicate with their existing customers about products and services and drive traffic back to their websites. It is typically a series that can take place in different formats, including interviews, panel discussions and storytelling.

Ebooks

Ebooks are longer and more in-depth than blog posts. They should contain valuable and comprehensive information about the topic.

Templates

Templates can be extremely valuable to your audience, offering an easy, time-saving solution. This can help build brand loyalty. Like ebooks, they can be used to generate leads. 

Other types of content

There are many other content formats you can try, including:

• case studies
• photo/image galleries
• memes (viral content following a particular format)
• FAQs
• checklists
• quizzes
• polls
• research findings
• company news
• competitions
• user generated content
• online tools
• white papers
• LinkedIn articles

To create quality content for your audience, you should base your decisions on research and an analysis of past content. When you are starting out you should trial various content formats and topics so you can compare the results.

Aim to create content that is valuable to your audience. Generate content that is:

• informative
• entertaining
• accurate, where facts are included
• relevant
• original
• offering a solution to a problem
• thought provoking

Headlines

Getting your headlines right is important to grab your audience's attention and for search engine optimisation (SEO). Consider the following best practice:

• Make sure your headline is accurate and relevant to the content. The user should have a clear expectation of what the content will be.
• Use the right keywords. Consider the kind of language your audience will search for.
• Keep it interesting. The headline is your chance to draw your audience in. Make the value of the content clear and use emphatic language.
• Ensure your headline is concise - otherwise it will get cut off by search engines and social media platforms.
• Try using numbers in your headline. People enjoy reading list articles as they know they will get a quick summary of information.

Images

Images are a useful way to break up text-based content and to illustrate information. Consider using a combination of text and visual content such as photos, graphs, infographics and videos.

Topical vs evergreen content

Some content is topical and current, for example news articles, seasonal content, statistics or pieces about recent trends. This kind of content will be effective at the time of publishing and works well on social media.

However, 'evergreen content' will remain relevant and retain its value over time. This type of content may include how-to guides, templates, videos and top tips. With the right keywords, it can drive search engine traffic to your site in the long-term.

You should consider using a mix of topical and evergreen content as part of your content marketing strategy. 

Working with online 'influencers' to promote your brand can help you reach your audience in a convincing way. Done well, it can be more persuasive than traditional advertising. 

What is influencer marketing?

An online influencer is a person with a strong social media following who has the power to affect purchase decisions. This could be a celebrity, sportsperson, industry expert, or a local blogger. They may have a large audience or a small highly engaged niche audience. Influencers are often focused on particular interest areas, such as: 

• tourism and travel
• sport
• health and fitness
• business
• beauty and fashion
• hobbies
• food 
• TV, film and gaming

Advantages of influencer marketing

Persuasive

Influencers have gained the trust of their audience. Their endorsement of your product can be very convincing. 

Cost

Working with small niche or local influencers (micro-influencers) could cost you nothing more than giving them free samples of your product or service. This may be enough to secure a mention or review. For more in-depth campaigns there will usually be a fee. 

Brand awareness

Working with an influencer can be a good way to spread the word about your business among your target audience. 

Targeted

Most influencers have a reputation for knowledge in a certain area. This can help you find an audience with a specific interest that relates to your product or service. 

Disadvantages of influencer marketing

Risk to reputation

If badly executed, a campaign could have a negative impact on how your brand is perceived. It's important to be upfront when a recommendation has been paid for. You should only work with influencers that align closely with your brand values to maintain authenticity. There is a risk that an influencer could become involved in a controversy and damage your brand.

Results not guaranteed

It can be hard to predict the impact of an influencer campaign on sales. It may take some time for brand awareness campaigns to make a difference to your bottom line. 

Resources

Finding the right influencers to work with is the key to success. You will need to invest enough time and resources into research and planning. Negotiating with influencers and developing content and campaign tactics with them can be time-consuming.

Monitoring

Tracking the success of your influencer campaign can be trickier than other types of online marketing. You will have to consider how to effectively measure your campaigns. See measuring your online marketing. 

How to make an influencer marketing campaign a success

Taking a strategic approach to working with influencers will increase your chances of success. Consider the following: 

Find the right influencer for your brand

Do your research before choosing an influencer to work with. It's important that their focus area is in line with your offering and brand identity. For example, a local restaurant specialising in vegetarian food could work with a local vegetarian food blogger.

Choose the right channel

It's also important to choose the right social media channels for your campaign. Some important social media platforms for influencers include Instagram and YouTube. See choose the right social media platforms. 

Set objectives

Consider what you ultimately want to get out of your influencer marketing. For example, increased brand awareness, online sales or event registrations. See your marketing objectives. Ensure you track your result to evaluate the success of the campaign.

Negotiate the contract

Agree in advance with the influencer on what you expect from them. Create a contract that includes details such as the cost, content required and the duration of the campaign. 

Influencer marketing legal issues

It is important that influencers make it clear when they have been paid, incentivised or in any way rewarded to endorse or review something in their posts. There are laws and advertising rules to prevent consumers from being misled. Influencers who don't comply could face enforcement action. The Competitions and Markets Authority has produced guidance on social media endorsements: being transparent with your followers. 

There are a number of ways that influencers and brands working together can be clear about their relationships. Download a guide for influencers to making clear that ads are ads (PDF, 1MB).