Traditional marketing and advertising methods are going the way of the rotary phone. They were heavy and slow, and basically never evolved. After decades of being the only way people communicated, its limitations and clumsy design forced a rethinking of how phones should work for the user. The telephone needed to adjust to us.
A similar process of thought has been taking place in the world of marketing. For as long as anyone can remember, businesses were reliant upon media advertising to boost sales and reach new clients. The fact is, though, that traditional advertising is no longer satisfying the modern business, which relies increasingly on websites to reach the public. A sales pitch, no matter how clever, can ‘t earn trust. ;By creating free and valuable content on a website, content which helps the consumer and directly relates to their products or services, businesses attract potential customers.
Remember the old saying that the best advertising is word of mouth? That really is the essence of content marketing strategy. Let ‘s say you want to know something about refinancing a mortgage. You enter a question on the subject into a search engine and are instantly given a number of postings to view, including videos. Several of them come from banks, so you navigate to their pages, checking out content which addresses your question. One posting in particular answers your question in a helpful and friendly manner. They ‘ve gained your trust. In time you come to know, like, and respect the information that you get from this site, and you become their customer. Furthermore, you go to various social media sites and tell others about this bank.
The bank didn ‘t just get lucky, however. First, they applied digital marketing techniques to direct you to their site. ;Once there, let ‘s face it, you wouldn ‘t have wasted your time on a website that was impossible to navigate. By doing all the right things, this bank became your new bank.
Good content marketing, then, requires these basic elements:
- Content which answers questions, solves problems, and offers authoritative credibility
- A friendly, easily accessible website
- SEO techniques which make the content easy to find
Content marketing strategy is the proven, modern approach to advertising. There is no returning to the antiquated methods of the past, any more than you would go back to the rotary phone.
