Content marketing… why is it so effective?

In the wake of Google’s Penguin and Panda search engine updates, online marketing has changed dramatically. Algorithms began to promote almost exclusively substantive posts, paying attention to the message and opportunities that follow publications. There has been a shift away from the classic methods previously associated with SEO, based on acquiring many links from pressel pages or posting short, phrase-laden texts on websites or popular directories.

There has been a significant shift toward the quality that comes with Content Marketing in the broadest sense.

Content Marketing is, in its simplest form, content marketing, which is centered around preparing and creating substantive posts and sharing them across various channels. The key word here is quality, which is expected to lead to sharing of content by audiences and news portals that mediate information.

This is the time when it matters what value you give to others through the materials on your website.

The more you give, the more you can gain.

What exactly is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a strategy that involves building a relationship with your audience through valuable content, captured in the form of easy-to-absorb articles and publications with thoughtful graphics, infographics and video content. The most important goal of the activities is to reach a potentially interested recipient, who will be persuaded to interact by the value of the post. This is a model of cooperation, which ultimately creates a long-term relationship between the author and the recipient, based on trust.

Activities within Content Marketing have a significant impact on the positioning of the site. Ba, today it is a key form of promotion, which conveys the most power to domains, thanks to the placement of a link in valuable services, highly scored by Google. Nowadays, one link coming from a reputable site is much more valuable than several thousand coming from popular link farms or modest backlinks.

The advantage of Content Marketing is the multi-dimensional form of sharing, which is guaranteed by satisfied users, provided they are provided with valuable content that they can share and identify. They mostly publish on social media, blogs and sites. Sometimes also in online forums.

This is a natural form of promotion and the greatest power for our domain.

What tools are used in Content Marketing?

It is by no means just content in the form of articles and publications. Content Marketing involves a much broader spectrum of activities. It includes, among others:

• webinars
• iconographics
• video
• tutorials
• sponsored articles
• expert articles

Reliable operations require a number of tools to create posts and articles, measure their effectiveness, and check which elements perform best in the context of the activities undertaken.

Example: by creating this article and sharing it on social media channels, we check from which medium there were the most hits, reactions and comments. Based on this, we can determine how much money we will spend on a campaign in a particular medium, while knowing that it will bring better benefits than other methods of promotion. The cost of entry, for example, will be much less on Facebook than on Instagram.

In sum, you need tools for finding inspiration, gathering knowledge, organizing the process, creating content, distributing, promoting, and monitoring and reporting.

The Internet offers a great many opportunities and solutions. In each area, there are a few, or a dozen, available that guarantee effective work and the ability to monitor the results….

We primarily use in our work:

• Slack – for communication between team members and transfer of ideas and data
• Canva – for preparing graphics and infographics,
• Trello – for organizing work and setting tasks,
• Google Analytics – for monitoring website positions and movements,
• Google Trends – for tracking current Internet trends,
• Brand24 – for tracking social media news,
• Facebook Business – for managing advertising campaigns,
• Ahrefs – for keyword and competitor analysis,
• Tomato Timer – for time control in 25-minute sequences.

Many of these tools have multifaceted uses, so they are worth checking out.

Content marketing, and positioning

This is the aspect that is most interesting in the context of promotion in organic search results. The impact of Content Marketing on SEO is growing every year. Read more about it in our post on SEO. Just a few years ago, all it took was a sufficient number of links targeting the main domain for a site to be in the top positions very quickly.

Today, everything is moving towards value, conveyed through reliably prepared articles (such as this one ?), which allow you to learn about the topic, get factual data, and the author can be considered an expert. That’s why the quality of the content created is so important. If this article is shared or linked to by outsiders then it can definitely be considered a success.

Self-positioning articles in the long term is the dream of many SEOs. However, this is not a utopian vision. As, for example, Michal Szafranski shows, it is possible to get yearly hits on an article that was published years ago. Such is the case with his entry on ways to reduce heating costs in the winter.

Direct traffic acquisition

In addition to the benefits of strengthening the domain and site by directing valuable links to it, Content Marketing has another very important advantage. It is a self-perpetuating traffic machine – as long as it is done according to the art, of course. What does this mean? Well, an article that solves a problem and has, for example, the ability to expand on the information contained on the website or directly from the site owner creates a high probability of contact from the reader.

This is the power of a well-written article. It allows you to solve a problem to some extent, while inviting contact so that the reader can get more information on a topic, get a broader view or decide on a comprehensive service.

Stand out – storytelling in action

The biggest conundrum for copywriters and content marketers is getting the audience’s interest and capturing their attention. In the search for a solution to the problem of evoking engagement, there has been a return to the classic form of messaging, which is storytelling, or so-called storytelling, which is part of copywriting. In its case, it is not about presenting a specific product or pushy promotion of a brand – the key is to evoke emotions.

Storytelling, the use of metaphors, the introduction of a distinctive character – these are elements that are meant to intrigue the recipient and make him curious about the story. Smuggling a subliminal message, anecdote or moral at this time? It is by all means at a premium, and is in fact an expression of superior craftsmanship.

The idea is to make the brand stop being just a logo on a product and become part of a bigger idea.

Storytelling is by far the most effective human communication tool. Storytelling has been used for centuries, and has long been present among the most recognizable brands, such as Apple, Honda, Mariott, Coca-Cola, and Xerox. In Poland, Żywiec, Wedel, and Tymbark are trying to follow this trend.

In conclusion – let yourself be swept away into a world of possibilities

As Jeff Bezos used to say, “By deciding only on what will work out, you miss a great many opportunities” – the same is true for content marketing. By deciding solely on classic promotional methods, you can lose a great deal – potential customers, out-of-the-box traffic sources and far-reaching reach. By creating thoughtful content marketing activities, you can only gain – direct customers from your articles and higher search engine ranking, thanks to valuable links.

 

We invite you to cooperate with us. Explore the possibilities of content marketing!