This is a complete guide to understanding content marketing. In this guide, you’ll learn, clear strategies to boost organic traffic, how to make your content stand out, and practical ways to make better content.
If you have been thinking about using content marketing for your business, or if you just want to use it better, this guide is for you.
Time Stamps: 00:00 Intro 00:37 What is Content Marketing? 02:10 The Connection between Content Marketing and Teaching 04:21The Purpose Of Content Marketing 06:11 Is Content Marketing Right For My Business? 07:47 How to Get Started In Content Marketing 10:11 What is Domain Authority 11:31 The Importance Of Building An Audience 13:06 Why You Should Create Content Even If It Doesn't Go Viral 15:18 How To Make Your Content Stand Out 16:56 Why and How To Create Content With Others 20:00 Time Management With Content Creation
“Content marketing is a strategy where a company publishes helpful, useful articles [videos, graphics, or podcasts] as a way to attract attention from people who can advocate for them, refer business to them, or people who might one day need their services. It's about being helpful on the internet, and usually, it's teaching something.”
— Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media
Teaching and creating content positions your business or brand as the expert.
If you show someone how to do something that makes their life better then they will be more likely to trust you for another problem.
The Two Types Of Marketing: Content and Advertising Even the best of marketers don’t enjoy commercials or advertising. They are distracting. They pull you away from the thing that you want to focus on.
Content Marketing helps people.
It answers questions.
It makes people's lives better.
People seek out content.
The Connection Between Teaching & Understanding You are only truly an expert in your craft when you can explain HOW to do something. Here are the levels of expertise and how they relate to creating content and teaching.
Level 1 - You can recognize the difference between quality and not quality. Many of us can do this naturally.
This is what it means to be a spectator.
People are quick to give their opinion if something is bad or good.
Level 2 - You can explain why something is quality or not quality. You can point to specific reasons and examples about why something is good or bad.
This is what it means to be a hobbyist.
You are more than a spectator. You have reasons to back up your opinion.
Level 3 - You can create or do quality stuff. You can use your knowledge to make things or do things that are quality.
Now, you are a practitioner.
You are no longer in the stands. You are in the arena.
Level 4 - You can teach others to create or do quality stuff. You can break a thing into parts and show someone how to do each part until they can do the whole thing.
You are an expert or a guide.
The arena has become a classroom.
Chapter 2:
The Purpose Of Content Marketing Why create content? What purpose does it serve?
Basically, all content falls into three domains:
1. Entertain: Make someone feel emotion.
Remember, people use search engines to get questions answered, but they go to social media to be entertained. Plus, entertainment can include humor or excitement, but it can also evoke compassion or sympathy.
2. Inform: Teach, explain something, or convey a thought.
These can be helpful articles, how-to guides, and tutorials. This type of content is usually search engine-related content like blog posts, podcasts, and YouTube videos.
Someone has a problem, and you give them a solution.
3. Persuade: Convince someone to your point of view.
This can be testimonials, case studies, editorials, or opinion pieces. This type of content is often advertisements that explain your brand’s product or service.
The goal of this content is to show empathy and authority, that you know their struggle and have the expertise to solve their problem.
All content does at least one of these three things.
All businesses need each type of content for their potential customers.
Entertaining content humanizes your brands and builds a following. Informative content builds trust. Persuasive content convinces people to work with you.
Some content does all three.
Think Pixar.
Every Pixar movie makes you laugh and/or cry, teaches you a lesson, and convinces you that the lesson they taught you is something you should live by.
“I learned all about pedagogy (teaching) and curriculum development and learning styles, and then found content marketing and thought, Wow. Yeah, that makes sense!
That's how it works. This is why people pay attention.
Why they care. Why they click. Why they visit. Why they subscribe.”
