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Have you heard the new buzz word? Content Marketing.
Content marketing isn’t new. It has been around since the first “stone-moving entrepreneur caveman” carved a Top 10 Ways To Keep Your Stone Looking Shiny And New list for his potential and existing customers.
Why am I thinking about the money I could be saving by switching to Geico right now?
Content Marketing Defined
Wikipedia defines content marketing as “encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation or sharing of content for the purpose of engaging current and potential consumer bases.”
Let’s break this down a bit shall we?
How does Content Marketing Differ From Traditional Marketing?
Easy answer – Content Marketing is developed to assist the customer in some form or another.
Content marketers look to provide FREE content to their prospects that addresses, among other things, the below needs:
- Teach Me Something
- Make Me Safer
- Make Me Laugh
- Make Me More Money
- Save Me Time
The sale comes after a relationship is formed with a prospect — a relationship that is built on trust and former contact with your business through free and helpful content.
Traditional Marketing taps into the “Make Me Laugh” need very often with radio, television and print but generally is about the following:
- Show the product/service
- Communicate the features and benefits
- Show a price
- Create a “Call To Action”
This form of marketing does not perform well on the Internet because we have the ability to choose where we spend our time online.
The traditional form of advertising is having difficulty overcoming new technologies that are filtering its message. For example, television (TiVo), radio (iPod) and print (Online Newspapers, Magazines and Blogs.)
What Vehicles Can Be Used In Content Marketing?
All forms of marketing requires that you are getting a message out to your audience. Nearly every method for getting a message out to your audience can be a vehicle for content marketing.
However, the reason that Content Marketing has become a popular term as of late is because creating helpful content has never been easier with Internet technologies. In other words, I did not have to chisel this information into a stone tablet to get it to you.
Popular methods of distributing content are:
- Text
- Blog
- E-mail Newsletter
- E-book
- White Papers
- Audio
- Podcasting
- Teleseminars
- Coaching Calls
- Video
- Video Sharing Sites
- Video Podcast (Vodcast)
- Screencast (Screen Recording)
- Web Seminars
- DVD
- Embedded Video
How Can I Get Started With a Content Marketing Strategy?
Woh… slow down partner. This type of marketing could be a total shift from what you have been doing in the past. It’s best to take baby steps.
The first thing you should do is start using the technologies that your prospects are using. Once you are using these technologies for a week or so you will be better fit to choose which best fits your business. Try the following action item list:
1. Open a Netvibes RSS Reader account by following the tutorial located here – add blogs that pertain to your industry and this blog, of course. I love self-promotion.
2. Subscribe to my podcast and others in iTunes and start listening/watching by clicking here.
3. Start watching video on YouTube — see what your competitors are doing.
4. Subscribe to 3 different email newsletters (mine if you like) and read what these people are sending you.
Once you become actively involved in these technologies you should begin to see some opportunity for your business to provide valuable content through one of the vehicles described above.
Set an overall content marketing plan including what vehicles you will use (audio, video, text) and what methods you will use (Blog, podcast, video, newsletter, white papers, dvd, etc).
A Pep Talk
Then ask yourself one question —- What do my existing customers and prospects need? Then deliver.
Get out there and find out what -if anything- your competitors are doing. If you find that they are doing nothing – that is good news. You can be a first mover and reap the rewards.
Content Marketing is not difficult – in fact it is so easy a caveman can do it.
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