What is Content Marketing and How to Find Success in It

Ciao Bella! 👋 Thank you for taking the time to read my blog today! 

I’m enjoying sharing different aspects of content marketing so much that I thought today I would start with the basics - what exactly is content marketing? I’ve created this blog post to inspire you to get started on your own successful content marketing journey. So let’s not waste any more time - let’s get started!

What is Content Marketing?

So how does Content Marketing Institute, which is a world-leading publication on content marketing, define content marketing?

“Content marketing is a 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.”

Instead of pitching your products or services, you are providing truly relevant and useful content to your prospects and customers to help them solve their issues. 

And finally, Marketo, one of the biggest names in marketing software, also has an awesome definition on content marketing:

“Content marketing is the process of creating valuable, relevant content to attract, acquire, and engage your audience. Buyers and customers today are inundated by more marketing messages than ever before—more than 2,900 per day, by current estimations. This creates an environment of attention scarcity, challenging marketers with the task of producing engaging content that won’t get lost in the static. A well-crafted content marketing strategy places your business in the position of a thought leader, building brand preference as you inform and educate buyers. Providing helpful and entertaining content can form a strong bond between your brand and customers that continues to grow and strengthen over time.”

The 2 Core Elements for Successful Content Marketing

1. When content marketing works best, it usually has two core elements or commitments. First, the core goal of great content marketing really should be to attract, engage and build an audience, not to sell something - that's when you'll lose that great definition of content marketing. Instead of being pushy or being me-centric, we're focusing on them -  how to solve their problem and how to give them valuable information.

2. The next core element is being ready for a long term commitment, kind of like the story of the tortoise and the hare. The one who actually finishes the race is the turtle - slow and steady truly wins the game when it comes to success through content marketing. No overnight hack here, you're not going to achieve those massive traffic numbers with one piece of content. It can take 6 - 18 months of publishing consistent content. 

What does it take to be successful at content marketing?

If you study the best content marketing examples from brands through time, you will find that even the Content Marketing Institute focused on creating valuable audience-focused content for the first 12-24 months before even making an offer to that audience. So audience building comes first, and then the offer comes next. 

Alongside building up the content, a current trend in content marketing is all about mastery. So instead of trying to get on all the channels and be everywhere, focus on mastering one or two channels. Since starting Ciao Bella Media, I have focused on publishing content on my blog which has helped me improve my content ranking in Google. What I learned is that commitment is where content marketing success is at.  It's all about mastering what you're putting out about the topic, the content, and the channel. So focus on that instead of trying to be everywhere. Focus on how amazing the content is that you're putting out in one place. Once you've mastered that, move on to launching a podcast, doing video, and the other formats.

So as we wrap up on this question, what is content marketing? Let's talk briefly about the types of content involved in content marketing. Usually, a content marketing plan involves web pages, blogs, social media, email, copy, news, ad sales, copy, and then creative content. The best content to publish consistently are blog posts. Blog posts can be published weekly, social media posts published daily, and emails should be going out weekly to your list to build and nurture that audience (and share your new content so you can drive traffic to it).

Mindset Switch - It’s not doing it all, it’s managing it all

Three content types can sound like a lot, but if you have a constant plan in place, a good set up, and smart delegation, it will only take a few hours of your time each week. Instead of thinking in terms of doing it all, think in terms of managing it all because you shouldn't be the one doing everything. 

So replace doing with managing and you'll see so much more content success. 

I hope today's blog post has shed some light on content marketing. If you have any questions, please shoot me an email at info@ciaobellamedia.com. 

Keep an eye on my blog for future content marketing tips and tricks!