Content marketing

Content marketing is a marketing approach aimed at creating and distributing useful, valuable, and relevant information, establishing brand awareness, driving site traffic, generating leads, educating people about a specific brand and its products, building trusting relationships with potential customers, and many other purposes.

In this video, a LIKE.TG marketer, Anna, explains how to use content marketing to your advantage.

In this article, we’ll unveil why content marketing is important, discover statistics and benefits, and find out how it works. We’ll also review content marketing tips, services, and examples.

Why is content marketing important?

Content marketing is essential for establishing a strong brand and relationships with the audience that trusts and prefers your business over others. Since most people nowadays search for products and services online, you have more touchpoints with prospects when adding quality content to your company’s site. Useful content encourages leads to engage with your brand and ultimately explore your products. In the end, these people might want to get solutions to their problems.

Using content marketing helps you obtain higher website traffic, get customer loyalty, establish a competitive advantage, build credibility, and increase the number of potential customers. You can explore more on the benefits in the next sections of this article.

Let’s find out more about content marketing in terms of statistics to have some real proof of its importance and necessity for every company.

Content Marketing Statistics

Content marketing is a powerful tool that empowers you to educate your target audience on your brand, demonstrate your expertise in the field, and have more conversions. We’ll support these facts with statistics encouraging you to develop an effective content marketing strategy for your business. So let’s check out some of the most robust stats.

• 51% of users land on websites thanks to organic search;
• 74% of companies report a boost in lead generation when using content marketing;
• 90% of businesses include content marketing in their overall marketing strategy;
• 41% of marketers use content marketing for establishing brand awareness, 33% use it for building customer loyalty, and 38% use it for boosting sales;
• 80% of respondents report that their content marketing strategy was very successful;
• content marketing campaigns are more cost-effective since they cost 62% less than other types of marketing campaigns;
• 50% of companies intend to increase their investment in content marketing in 2024;
• short-form videos bring brands the highest ROI among different marketing channels;
• video is the top-performing content format because 45% of consumers prefer videos over other types of content;
• 87% of businesses mention that video content enables companies to keep their audiences engaged, resulting in lower site bounce rates.

These are only a few statistics that should make you pay closer attention to content marketing for your business. In the next section, we’ll delve into the most essential advantages content carries when implemented right.

Benefits of Content Marketing

Content marketing has numerous pros for businesses of all sizes. This section will discuss it in more detail.

• Higher brand awareness. When you consistently share quality content, you improve the visibility of your brand and eventually boost your reach. While people explore your blog posts, videos, podcasts, and social media posts, they find out more about the products and services you offer. Although they might not instantly purchase your products, they can consider your brand in the future.
• Positive brand reputation. Valuable and useful videos, blog posts, articles, and other materials enable you to show yourself as an expert and build authority. It will result in trust, credibility, and a positive brand reputation.
• Improved customer engagement. Numerous content formats allow you to communicate with your audience and boost engagement. Blog comments, social media discussions, and other channels are great mediums for answering customer questions, interacting with prospects, and educating them about your brand.
• Trusting relationships with clients. When publishing high-quality content regularly, you can build trusting relationships with users, encouraging them to become your clients over time. As a result, you’ll have customer loyalty and retention.
• Better site traffic. If you share valuable content consistently, you can take top positions in search results. More visitors will come to your site because of the content you publish. Besides search engine ranking, you’ll have more social media shares and referrals.
• Cost-effectiveness. Unlike traditional ads, content marketing is more affordable in the long run. You need to create quality content that attracts site visitors and update it over time, so no costs will be needed after sharing content. It can serve you for years and engage prospects effectively.
• Effective lead generation and more conversions. With good content, you can capture prospects and lead them through the sales funnel. It will help you turn site visitors into customers.
• Competitive advantage. By creating content, you can demonstrate your perspective and voice. This will make you stand out among competitors and encourage users to land on your site.

Now when the advantages are clear, let’s find out how content marketing works.

How does content marketing work?

Content marketing can be used for different stages of the buyer journey, from when prospects discover the product until they purchase it. Reaching business goals effectively implies using the right content at each stage of the customer journey. Below, you can find which type of content it is advisable to use at each stage.

• Awareness stage. The content at this stage should be educational and respond to prospects’ concerns, problems, and needs. Blog posts, videos, and email newsletters are the most suitable types of content for the awareness stage.
• Consideration stage. At this stage, your content should combine valuable information and marketing. By showcasing your product's features and how they can solve customer problems, you can create more reasons to consider it. The consideration stage usually includes the following content formats: checklists, how-to blog posts, how-to videos, and worksheets.
• Closing stage. At this stage, the focus shifts to the sale. Your main task is to show why your product stands out from the competition and the reasons why leads should choose your brand. You can show your expertise by using the following content formats: user-generated content, case studies, product videos, testimonials, etc.

Now let’s explore more content types you can incorporate at various customer journey stages.

Types of Content Marketing

There are numerous types of content you can use to attract prospects and convert them into customers. In this section, we’ll discuss the most popular types in detail.

• Blog posts. Articles and blog posts are the most spread types of content companies publish on their sites. They help highlight various topics related to industry, products, services, or customer interests.
• Infographics. With infographics, brands can communicate important information through charts, graphs, and illustrations. This format allows marketers to provide essential data in a short, engaging, easy-to-understand format.
• Videos. Video content is now one of the most popular formats brands use to showcase products, tutorials, behind-the-scenes footage, customer testimonials, and more. Videos are interactive, engaging, and easily shareable across various communication platforms.
• Podcasts. Podcasts are audio recordings people listen to on the go, during a ride or a workout. They can be presented in various forms, including interviews, discussions, storytelling, and ads. Podcasts are a great format for effectively bringing value to customers and educating them about your product.
• Ebooks. Content such as ebooks and whitepapers offer comprehensive insights into specific topics, providing thorough analysis, case studies, and research findings. These materials are invaluable tools for generating leads, commonly exchanged by companies for email newsletter sign-ups.
• Case studies. These reveal your product's practical benefits. They act as social proof, demonstrating the genuine value and usefulness of your products, thus encouraging potential customers to consider them.
• Social media posts. Social media posts allow you to share a wide range of information, including images, videos, text, and links to your product or website. By posting on Instagram and Facebook based on a specific schedule, you can establish brand awareness, boost engagement, and encourage new purchases.
• Email newsletters. With email newsletters, you can introduce your brand to new subscribers, send them attractive offers, update them on promotions, and invite them to loyalty programs. Emails help you deliver the necessary content right to subscribers’ inboxes.
• Webinars. You can engage with your audience in real time using webinars and live streams. This content format can be used for presentations, Q&A sessions, workshops, and other real-time events.
• User-generated content (UGC). Reviews, testimonials, social media posts, and user-generated videos refer to the content your customers create. These pieces of content are essential for every brand since they help establish customer trust and improve sales.

However, when creating any of the above-mentioned types of content, you need to consider the influence of SEO on it because it will influence your website traffic, your posts’ visibility, and your reach on various communication platforms.

How to combine SEO and content marketing?

You can easily combine SEO and content marketing when creating blog posts, videos, webinars, and podcasts for top search engine ranking. When you use relevant keywords and create quality content with appropriate visual elements, it’ll emerge at the top of search results. The first point lies in conducting keyword research. Use Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to find relevant keywords and create content your audience needs and searches for.

It's better to use long-tail keywords and analyze competitors’ content to enhance your content and SEO efforts. With long-tail keywords, you’ll be able to target specific audience segments with smaller numbers of competitors and better conversion potential. After conducting competitor analysis, you can identify opportunities and understand the preferences of your buyer persona.

The second step involves content optimization, focusing on adding keywords naturally, creating quality, relevant content resonating with your audience, and paying attention to content length.

Thirdly, you should use clear structure and formatting, including headings and subheadings, optimized images, and internal linking. All these elements contribute to readability and SEO and ensure your content is visible to users.

The next thing to do is to make sure your website is easy to use for everyone who visits it. That means it loads quickly, works well on mobile devices, and has a design that's easy for users to navigate.

For the best combination of content and SEO, you should also build backlinks, choose the right channels for promotion, and develop a posting calendar. These steps are necessary if you want a wide reach and high brand visibility, resulting in higher conversions.

Now let’s proceed to creating a content marketing plan.

While developing a content marketing plan, align your content with business goals to effectively reach the target audience. That’s why we provide a detailed plan to create a plan for your company.

1. Determine your goals. The first step involves identifying your objectives which should be accurate, measurable, and achievable. For instance, you can strive to improve brand awareness, drive traffic, attain more prospects, increase sales by 15%, etc.
2. Understand your target audience. Conduct research to identify your target audience and develop an accurate buyer persona. You need to find their demographics, interests, problems, concerns, and preferences.
3. Conduct keyword analysis and content research. When you decide to create new content, consider using tools to identify topics and keywords that are popular and needed. If you already have content, you need to analyze it and identify gaps, strengths, and areas for optimization. Pay attention to website traffic, engagement, and conversion rates to find out which type of content your target audience prefers the most.
4. Determine content marketing strategy KPIs. You need to identify key performance indicators (KPIs). They’ll help you to track and evaluate the effectiveness of your content efforts. They are total visits, unique visitors, page views, traffic sources, time on page, backlinks, conversions, and many other metrics.
5. Build content strategy. Your content strategy should be detailed and structured. It should mention all the aspects, including the types of content you'll create, content themes, messaging, and tone of voice. You should also identify and write your competitive advantage and have a unique value proposition for your product.
6. Create a content calendar. For the best results, you need a schedule to publish your content. Consider creating a content calendar to identify the best days for sharing your blog posts, videos, social media posts, etc. Your calendar needs to include the topics, publishing dates, formats, and responsible team members.
7. Identify your budget. Analyze the resources you need and you can allocate them for the execution of your content marketing plan. You need to calculate costs associated with experts, tools, software, and promotion channels.
8. Create content. Align your content creation with your strategy and posting schedule. Make sure the content is relevant, valuable, and of high quality, resonating with your audience. Incorporate storytelling, visual elements, and interactivity to enhance engagement.
9. Promote your content across multiple channels. Develop a promotion strategy to distribute your content across various channels and reach your target audience. Utilize social media, email marketing, SEO, paid advertising, and influencer partnerships to improve reach.
10. Evaluate results. Monitor your content performance using special analytics tools and tracking KPIs, including site traffic, conversion rates, interactions with your content, and ROI.
11. Optimize your content. Use analytics tools to identify weaknesses in your content and improve it based on the obtained data. Consider experimenting with new formats, promotion channels, and trending topics to improve performance.

In addition to a content marketing plan, you need to develop a content marketing strategy. The next section provides a step-by-step guide on how to do this.

How to create a successful content marketing strategy?

To create a content marketing strategy that works, you need to consider several steps. We’ll unveil them below.

1. Identify your primary goals. You need to have your main objectives clear when creating a content marketing strategy. They should be accurate, measurable, and achievable. Based on the goals, you’ll be able to find out how close you are to your primary business objectives when analyzing content performance.
2. Develop buyer personas. The second step involves developing your ideal customer persona to understand your target audience and address their concerns. You need to identify their demographics, gender, needs, preferences, and pain points to create the right marketing offer and content.
3. Conduct a content audit. If you already have content and you strive to improve it, consider running a content audit to identify your best-performing and low-performing content. This way, you’ll be able to focus on blog posts, videos, and social media posts valued by users. Make sure that all your content is relevant and high-quality.
4. Find the right content management system. You should choose a content management system based on your needs, goals, skills, and budget. However, it’s better to focus on platforms that have all the necessary features and are easy to use. These include WordPress, Wix, Joomla, Magento, and others.
5. Identify suitable content formats. Analyze your audience's preferences and the performance of existing content formats. Focus on the top-performing content to create more pieces and obtain a wider reach, visibility, and conversions.
6. Optimize content for a wider reach. After publishing content, monitor its performance to identify the best blog posts, videos, webinars, podcasts, etc. This data will help you improve your content strategy and allow you to prioritize specific topics, keywords, and content formats.

Now that you know how to develop a strategy, it’s time to uncover some excellent content marketing ideas and trends.

Many companies incorporate various techniques and approaches aimed at driving visibility and awareness. However, not all of them are effective. In this section, we’ve compiled a list of content marketing trends that can bring your brand towards success.

1. Interactive content. Engaging and eye-grabbing content is key to more interaction with users. You can achieve this by creating quizzes, polls, surveys, and infographics. Besides entertaining site visitors, this type of content brings value to users and customer insights to your marketers.
2. User-generated content. It’s always a good idea to share successful customer stories and feedback to establish transparency and credibility. This way, you’ll not only gain trust but also showcase your products and establish a community.
3. Personalization. Use all your customer insights and technology to craft personalized content that aligns with users’ needs. You can target potential customers with content based on their preferences, behaviors, and demographics for higher engagement.
4. Evergreen content. Consider creating in-depth content with evergreen value. With such blog posts, videos, and podcasts, you’ll be able to attract website traffic and showcase your expertise.
5. Content repurposing. You can bring even more value to users by repurposing your content and changing its format for site visitors’ convenience. For instance, you can turn long guides into short reels providing users with the best places to visit. You can transform any type of content you have into something more engaging.
6. Short-form videos. Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook are perfect for sharing short videos called reels. They are engaging, short, and useful for users. Reels matching with algorithms and trends can easily become visible to millions of people, boosting your brand’s reach and visibility.
7. Creation of content with AI. AI is an inevitable part of everybody’s life, especially now when you can create content with its help. Consider using AI tools for new content ideas, drafts, and personalization.
8. Sustainability. Your content should reflect your company’s commitment to sustainability. Modern customers pay close attention to transparent businesses that contribute to social and environmental change.
9. Podcasts. Podcasts are extremely popular now, so it’s worth incorporating this content format. When starting a podcast, you can share insights, tips, interviews with experts, and interactions with users.
10. Communities. Consider using online forums, social media groups, and live events to build a community of people around your brand. By communicating with your target audience in a new setting, you can easily establish customer loyalty and encourage community members to refer their friends.
11. Disappearing content. Instagram Stories and Snapchat posts are perfect for sharing time-sensitive information and driving fear of missing out. You can use them for flash sales, attractive offers, and promo codes to establish a sense of urgency.

Besides following trends and ideas in 2024, you need to consider using content marketing automation for more efficient work for your team. Let’s find out more about it.

Content Marketing Automation

Since content marketing is a complicated process that requires a combination of various tasks and processes, businesses need technology to manage them effectively. This section explains why to automate content marketing, its benefits, and how to do it.

Content marketing automation is an effective approach to effectively managing your content, improving efficiency, establishing consistency, building scalability, and incorporating personalization. With its help, you can create, schedule, and distribute content, personalize your company’s messages, and ensure consistent and data-driven customer communication. Yet these are not all the pros you can reap after leveraging automation.

Content marketing automation helps you:

• make data-driven decisions;
• streamline various marketing and sales processes;
• improve customer experience;
• establish trusting relationships with your audience;
• build customer loyalty;
• segment your audience;
• provide relevant and timely content;
• improve customer satisfaction;
• consistently publish content;
• drive conversions;
• reduce human error;
• reduce the workload on your content marketing team;
• reduce costs associated with content marketing.

To effectively implement content marketing, we invite you to follow our step-by-step guide.

1. Choose content marketing automation platforms that suit your goals. Build a list of tools that will help you reach your primary business goals, complete your tasks, and apply all the necessary features. These tools should comply with your budget and experience managing such services.
2. Test them during free demos and trials. To ensure that the platform is perfect for your business, tasks, and goals, consider taking advantage of free trials and demos. They will help you learn about the platforms' strengths and weaknesses, as well as their features and pricing structure.
3. Determine your tasks. After selecting the most suitable solution, think of the first task you want to complete with the service. For example, you can try to publish posts on multiple social media platforms at a time.
4. Segment your audience. After identifying the tasks, you need to segment your audience by their interests. You need to identify people who might be curious about the social media posts you want to share on your platforms.
5. Develop an automation workflow. The process depends on the platform you choose. Some services allow you to drag and drop the necessary elements to build workflows quickly and easily. You can cross-post using automation and outline the schedule for publishing on autopilot. These parameters and more are easy to set up with intuitive solutions.
6. Run tests. Before running your automation workflows, make sure that everything works properly according to your requirements. Check the workflows for rules and triggers to prevent errors. After that, run tests to identify any possible mistakes.
7. Review KPIs to assess performance. After running workflows, you need to monitor their performance. Track the key metrics, including views, engagements, and interactions with this post.

If you are looking for the perfect solutions to set up processes related to content marketing on autopilot, we recommend you consider the following platforms: HubSpot, Marketo, Quark, or Brightspot. They will help you effectively manage your content and share it with customers promptly.

Now that you know about the use of content marketing automation, it’s time to find out which tools to use.

You can use many content marketing tools and services to automate multiple processes and tasks related to content marketing. In this section, we’ve compiled the best platforms for different content marketing needs to optimize your strategy and maximize results.

Topic Research Tools

A thorough topic research is a must for top-performing content yet it’s difficult to search competitors manually. Topic research platforms allow you to find relevant topics and keywords in seconds and discover how users search for information related to your industry. These tools help identify trending topics and content across multiple platforms, analyze content performance (comments, shares, likes, etc.), identify keywords and backlinks, find search questions, and many more. The best tools for this purpose include SEMrush, BuzzSumo, Ahrefs, Google Trends, AnswerThePublic, and Reddit.

Content Creation Tools

Content creation tools enable you to create various content formats, including blog posts, social media content, emails, audio tracks, presentations, infographics, etc. Their features often cover video editing tools, text overlays, marketing calendars, content scheduling, social media management, AI-driven content generation, and many more. You can use Hemingway Editor, Grammarly, ProWritingAid for better writing, Adobe Premiere Pro and Lumen5 for video content, and Audacity and Anchor for audio content.

Content Distribution Tools

Content distribution tools differ in the channels you want to use. They usually have the following features: content scheduling, social media performance analysis, email marketing automation, list management, video hosting, live streaming, etc. For social media management, you can use Hootsuite, Buffer, and Sprout Social. If you want to create and automate sending your email campaigns, consider using LIKE.TG, Mailchimp, or Sendinblue. When you want to share your video content, you can use YouTube or Vimeo.

Content Marketing Analytics Tools

With content marketing analytics tools, you can evaluate the performance of different content formats. Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, and Matomo help receive data related to website traffic, user behavior, conversion rates, campaign effectiveness, etc. Platforms like Sprout Social, Buffer Analyze, and Hootsuite Analytics allow you to get post-performance metrics, audience insights, and competitor analysis.

Social Media Content Marketing Tools

When using social media content marketing tools, you can effectively plan, create, schedule, post, and analyze content. You can choose Canva, Adobe Spark, or Snappa to develop visually appealing social media posts. If you want to manage and schedule your posts, consider using Hootsuite or Sprout Social.

Content Marketing Management Tools

Content marketing management platforms are designed to help you plan, organize, execute, and analyze content marketing performance. For content planning and organization, you can use CoSchedule, Trello, and Asana. They will help you schedule content, communicate with team members, execute content projects, manage editorial calendars, etc. WordPress and Medium are the services suitable for content publishing.

Visual Content Marketing Tools

You can use platforms like Asana, Trello, or Notion to plan and manage visual content projects, distribute tasks, collaborate with teams, and manage project deadlines. To provide interactive presentations and storytelling experiences, consider using Prezi, Haiku Deck, and Google Slides.

Content Optimization Tools

You can select among numerous quality services to optimize the relevance and performance of your content. Yoast SEO, SEMrush, and Moz Pro will help you improve content for search engines, readability scores, and provide suggestions for optimization while Optimizely, Crazy Egg, and Unbounce allow you to run A/B testing and optimize landing pages for better conversions.

AI Content Marketing Tools

Using artificial intelligence is useful for content creation, optimization, distribution, and analysis. If you want to create content, consider leveraging GPT-3 Powered Tools, Articoolo, and Writesonic. They will help you generate articles, blog posts, product descriptions, and social media posts. Platforms like Idio, BrightInfo, and OneSpot enable you to personalize content based on user behavior and preferences.

It’s time to jump into the most crucial content marketing metrics, helping track content performance.

12 Essential Content Marketing Metrics

Evaluating the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy is key for identifying pain points and optimizing the overall strategy. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the most crucial metrics to track after publishing your content.

1. Page views (the total number of times users viewed your page);
2. Unique visitors (number of individual users landing on your company website);
3. Traffic sources ( the places where users come from);
4. Average time on page (how much time users spend on your page with content);
5. Bounce rate (percentage of users who leave your site after visiting only one page);
6. Social shares (how many times users shared your content on their social media);
7. Impressions (number of interactions with your content, including likes, comments, and shares);
8. Organic search traffic (users landing on your site based on search results);
9. Backlinks (the quantity of good inbound links from external websites to your content);
10. Conversion rate (the percentage of users who took the desired action);
11. Lead generation (the number of prospects generated through subscription forms and downloads;
12. Customer acquisition (the number of new clients acquired).

Besides metrics, you should also know what steps to take to do everything right. In the next section, you’ll find some useful best practices to help you seamlessly bring your content marketing strategy to life.

8 Content Marketing Tips

Content marketing can be very effective yet it should have the right execution for the best results. Below you can find some great tips that will help you achieve your business goals faster.

1. Be consistent. When creating and sharing content on your site, social media, YouTube, or other platforms, you should develop a posting schedule. Sticking to a predefined schedule enables you to be consistent in your content and provide users with value at specific timeframes. Depending on your audience preferences, you can share content daily, weekly, or monthly.
2. Consider various content formats. Content can be presented in different forms and shapes to engage with the target audience and reach goals. You can combine several formats like blog posts, videos, infographics, podcasts, eBooks, webinars, or interactive quizzes to cater to different customer needs.
3. Optimize for SEO. To reach top ranking in search engines, it’s a must for you to use relevant keywords, meta tags, and descriptions. All these elements will help you improve content visibility. Consider optimizing titles, headings, and body text based on the latest SEO algorithms and ensure that it’s good for users.
4. Promote your content through different channels. Besides creating content, you should find the best ways to promote it and reach potential customers. Consider creating sponsored content or ads for social media, use email campaigns, guest blogging, and partnerships with opinion leaders to boost your reach.
5. Interact with customers. Show your activity in comments by answering users’ questions, asking for feedback on your content, and organizing contests and giveaways. If you manage to respond quickly to customer actions in your blog posts, social media posts, and videos, you can show your appreciation for each of them. As a result, you can have a community of people who trust and love your brand.
6. Use storytelling. By telling a compelling story, you can make your content engaging, competitive, and memorable. Consider adding memes, sharing customer success stories, or case studies to connect with users emotionally.
7. Consider creating reels. By creating short videos based on the latest trends in Instagram and TikTok, you can get visibility and brand recognition. In a world of social media, you can become popular in days if you manage to create videos that resonate with the audience.
8. Conduct online events. Webinars are a great idea for providing educational materials to your students and introducing your company. By demonstrating your expertise, valuable knowledge, and quality information, you can connect with your audience and resonate with their needs.

Now let’s jump into the examples to find out where to get started with your content marketing strategy.

Successful Content Marketing Examples

You can find many brands that incorporate content marketing effectively and reach their business goals. We’ve compiled a list of successful examples for you to get inspired.

Videos on YouTube — Move with Nicole

Move with Nicole's YouTube channel is a great example of successful content marketing, driving views all around the world. Videos with yoga classes are short and sweet, allowing students with any experience to get started.

Podcasts — Radiolab

Radiolab is a podcast based on investigative journalism to provide answers to deep questions. Each episode focuses on different topics. One might involve science and other history, making it interesting and engaging for audiences with different tastes and preferences.

Posts on Social Media — Influencers

Posts on social media like Instagram and Facebook are very effective, especially when you have an enticing offer. In the example below, influencers collaborate to conduct a giveaway. This way, they can encourage engagement, including likes, comments, and views. The reel gathered 2,5 million views, around 80 thousand comments, almost 30 thousand likes, and over 4 thousand shares.

Email Campaigns — Levi’s

Levi’s drives subscribers’ attention with rewards and vouchers sent through email campaigns. The example below includes three vouchers customers can use to purchase their favorite items. The offer is time-sensitive, encouraging customers to purchase within a required time frame. This evokes fear of missing out and more sales.

Blog Posts — Casper: 10 Dog Sleeping Positions + Their Adorable Meanings

This article is an excellent example of a successful blog post, driving links from other websites and proving that the post is a reliable and credible source. It contains funny illustrations with all the most important information in short, readable text elements and enough white space, improving readability.

Congrats! Now you know what content marketing is and why it’s essential. We hope that our tips and examples will help you develop a successful content marketing strategy.