What is Content Marketing?

Information drives the Internet. Content Marketing seeks to engage potential clients with meaningful information, related to what they are looking to buy. Basically, as opposed to your sales pitch and unashamed advertising, content marketing focuses on customers during or before they are researching products.

So how does this work? It pays to think of the Internet as an interrelated community of shoppers looking for information. Giving readers something to take away other than a sales pitch will heighten your brand name and make them more likely to come to you when they are ready to move along in the next phase of the buying cycle.

This stage is very important in the B2B environment, as there is often a buying committee that needs to be satisfied. This is also a valuable exchange for contact details to re-market to prospects through trigger email campaigns or email marketing, until they are ready to buy.

Providing your clients with ‘downloadable’ practical guides such as research papers,  presentation notes, cheat sheets or behind the scene insights is a sure way to build rapport and establish your company as a trusted advisor an industry expert. (I have taken to calling them ‘downloadables’ but think I just invented a word- again cc: @evanfosterufg ).

Your goal is to create a sense of trust and credibility, so that you become your customer’s solution before they have a problem. You do need to be subjective to invite trust and create the relationship that will lead them to you.

Written by: Natalie Giddings on July 16, 2011.