Quick Navigation:
- What Is Content Marketing
- The Types of Content Marketing
- The Power of Interactive Content
- Benefits of Using a Content Strategy
- Search Engine Optimisation: Should You Write for the Reader or Google?
- How To Talk to Your Ideal Clients Online
- Planning Your Content Strategy
- How To Measure the Results from Your Content
- The Main Benefits of Working with a Content Marketing Agency
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Content marketing used to have a bad rep, and many business owners believe that it takes too long to see results and investing in creating blogs and videos is a waste of time. While trends change faster than ever, you can still build an empire and attract your ideal clients using a content marketing agency for branding, reputation management, and lead generation. This post will cover everything you need to know to make content work for you and your business long term. We will also tell you why you might want to engage with a content marketing agency in the UK.
What Is Content Marketing
Content marketing is the creation, distribution, and promotion of branded content with a clearly defined audience in mind. That said, everything you do online can be classed as content, such as your comments on blog posts or social media posts, your professional profiles, and your vendor accounts. However, without a strategy and a clear understanding of the target market, you can be wasting a lot of time and energy on messages that will never reach the right people.
Content marketing is not limited to the online sphere, either. You can publish content in printed magazines, as well as on radio or TV. After all, some traditional ways of marketing are still working for some businesses. If you are unsure which channel to use to build your brand messages, you might want to get in touch with a branding content marketing agency that can advise you on the potential results of each method of distribution.
The Types of Content Marketing
Depending on your business, your target audience, your budget, and your brand visibility, you can choose to engage in one or more content distribution strategies. Generally speaking, social media requires the lowest startup cost, and it is one of the most competitive channels. You can create content yourself using advanced tools such as Canva, or employ a Virtual Assistant to get the job done for you. If, however, you are interested in going deeper instead of wider, you will need to create engaging and educational content that your target audience will resonate with.
Using guides, books, case studies, and white papers will strengthen your brand and your status in the industry. Here are some of the most common types of content you can implement in your marketing strategy.
Blogs
One of the most popular and most well-known types of content is a blog. It usually sits on your website and allows you to update your current and potential customers about what is going on with you and educate them on your products or services. Blogs have existed almost since the birth of the internet, and WordPress, the most popular website builder of today also started off as a blogging platform.
Blogs need to be informative, useful for the reader, relevant, and easy to share. As the attention span of people has shrunk significantly in recent years, you need to pay attention to the readability of your text. A good content marketing agency will make sure that the blog post is not only easy to find and share, but also easy to read.
Social Media Posts
As mentioned, starting off with a free social media account will give you a basic level of visibility in your market. You can create a company page on all platforms before your website is ready to attract visitors. However, social media posts need to be crafted in a way that they stop people scrolling. And that’s a challenge. Visuals are great, but eventually you want people to take action; like your page, share your content, or check out your site.
A good social media marketing package will include suggestions, detailed reports, and audience analysis, so you know what’s working and what’s not. Social media is the most competitive and fastest changing content channel of all.
Email Marketing
Creating email marketing campaigns is essential to creating a winning content strategy. You might know by now that only a very small proportion of website visitors will buy the first time they come across your messages. You will have to follow up. That’s exactly what email marketing automation does for you. Instead of having to pay to contact the same people again, you will be able to message them any time, provided that you asked for and gained their permission. Want to find out more about email marketing automation? Check out our detailed blog post or see our related services.
Video Marketing
Nothing builds stronger relationships than videos when you are talking directly to your potential clients. You need a video distribution channel and strategy, and make sure that you measure engagement, so you know which topics are the most popular among your audience.
You can do video marketing on your own site, distribute it on one of the video hosting sites, such as Vimeo or YouTube, or create IGTV or Facebook videos. The choice is yours, and an expert content marketing agency in the UK can help you choose the platform that best suits your industry, message, and audience.
White Papers and Case Studies
For businesses that would like to focus more on reputation and becoming the go-to company when it comes to a specific problem, white papers and case studies should be implemented in the overall content marketing strategy. Here’s the lowdown on the benefits of each type of publication.
White papers can be based on your internal market research, your insights, or the solutions you have developed to help your customers. They are great for educating the decision-maker and building a strong referral network. If you would like to attract referral partners, white paper distribution will certainly help.
Case studies can win business that you would otherwise not even dream of getting. They help you zoom in on the expert solutions you create, and generate something we call the “Like Me Moment” ©. It is the point when potential clients realise that they like you, and you have solved the problems of businesses like them. No salesman can convince a prospect sitting on the fence better than a case study.
If getting a case study or white paper written sounds good, but you don’t know where to start, check out our content marketing packages for more information.
Press Releases and Media Publications
Instead of just engaging in inbound marketing and taking care of your own “online real estate”, you can also reach out to potential clients and find them where they look for information. Press releases can be great for SEO purposes, as well as for brand visibility. Make sure that you have something newsworthy, relevant, and timely to share, and get publishing.
On the other hand, media features and publications can put you on the map as an expert immediately. You can establish yourself as the company with the know-how. No matter if you are featured in an online magazine, a blog, or a printed feature, you might benefit from support from a professional content marketing agency that can find and communicate your superpower.
in theThe Power of Interactive Content and Using an Expert Content Marketing agency in the UK
In 2022, there’s no such thing as static content. Your main goal should be to engage with your audience, survey the market, and get people to take action. In 2021, we have introduced quiz funnels and other interactive marketing tools that help clients from different industries gain traction and have a real conversation with their audience. We are Typeform partners, which means we can not only create interactive quizzes, but also video engagement funnels on your website.
Benefits of Using a Content Strategy
Without planning your content, you will not be able to scale your marketing or your business. As the old saying goes: “fail to plan and you plan to fail”. For example, here at LMNts Marketing, we have a social media content calendar that is ready to go before the new year, and we revise every quarter’s results. You can download a blank copy of the social media content calendar if you wish to do the same.
We also plan the blog posts, guest posts, media publications around campaigns and different events. This helps us measure interest and understand how the market reacts to each message.
Search Engine Optimisation: Should You Write for the Reader or Google?
There’s an old debate going on in the industry, and the content marketing agency industry is divided. Some say that you should focus on keywords, others are recommending delivering value. The truth is right in the middle. You have to talk to your audience and educate them, provide value with every piece of content, but you also want to be found. A good piece of content will have the right keywords, related keywords, a good structure, great message, actionable tips, and a strong call-to-action.
How To Talk to Your Ideal Clients Online: Insights from a Content Marketing Agency in the UK
There are many content marketing agencies in the UK that can take care of the keyword research and allocation, but they don ‘t take their time to truly understand your target market. If your messages don’t resonate with your audience, you are wasting a lot of time and effort, and you will never get a positive return on your investment. That’s why it might be a good idea to engage with an expert content marketing agency.
When we start working with a client, the first thing we do is fill out the ideal client profile together. This helps us understand the audience, no matter if we build a website, create a social media campaign, or write a case study. You can download our ideal client persona sheet and have a go yourself to see if you are hitting the right tone when you are creating content. Apart from completing this exercise with dozens of clients, I have also used the same tool to support mentees taking part in the Help to Grow programme at Lancaster University.
Planning Your Content Strategy with a Content Marketing Agency In the UK
We often recommend carrying out market research before engaging with a content marketing agency and creating a long term strategy. If you are starting a new business, service, or product line, or changing your niche, it is crucial that you know all about your competition, your market size, the trends, the hot topics, and the unwritten rules. That’s why we often start our brand collaborations with a marketing SWOT.
A marketing SWOT analysis is a great tool to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of your current positioning, marketing, and targeting. It can also reveal the opportunities and threats, and help you with strategic planning. Simply put, a marketing SWOT is a 360 of your current marketing activities, highlighting the best course of action long term.
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