Content marketing is not a new strategy but it is certainly not everyone’s first choice. It has traditionally been the purview of big marketers who have access to all the right tools to master content marketing, and if they manage to write a good headline, the reader will automatically head towards their website to read the rest of the article.

Today, content marketing is pretty much everywhere. Mediums on social media are feeding content into people’s eyeballs, some websites even have their own blog posts, and marketers are producing great content for search engines.

Though some may call it ineffective, the reality is that it offers the widest possible reach for marketers with just about any goal.

So let’s look at the different types of content marketing and how they offer different solutions to marketing challenges.

How content marketing is an optimization strategy

Image of content marketing landscape. Image courtesy of TubeMogul.

Content marketing differs from other marketing strategies because it involves the creation of only non-premium quality content that is aimed at attracting potential customers to a particular website. The concept behind this is simply that the number of customers you get will determine the value of the content you create, and how far you can go will be determined by your competition.

What’s interesting about the content marketing strategy is that it has the potential to help any business to increase their income. Even though the approach is new, it works to produce the best results even if you do not have a high-end marketing budget.

This means that if you believe that your company can produce a better product and make a greater customer base, then you should invest in effective content marketing strategies. The key is to find the best people you can hire to produce your content for you. Otherwise, it is going to take a lot of time to produce quality content that you are going to be able to share on your website.

Going step by step through the content marketing experience

Image courtesy of content marketing website.

Not all content marketing endeavors are alike.

The most popular iteration of content marketing is that which revolves around a particular topic, such as B2B content marketing, SEO/PPC optimization, social media posts, and so on.

These topics tend to be the easiest to learn about and to understand because they carry all the elements needed to find potential customers and convert them to your customer base. Another reason why customers can easily learn about a topic is because it is already covered in business magazines and journals.

On the other hand, more difficult topics such as crowd sourcing or social media privacy issues are more difficult to learn. Consequently, it takes much more training or investment on the part of marketers to learn these topics.

These topics can be found in trade journals, courses, training tools, and professional associations.

Failing to educate yourself on the topics you are going to be teaching your customers will be costly to them because they will be much less likely to convert to your client base.

Many companies also hire external consultants to teach their customers about certain topics. These usually cost the company a bit more money.

One of the many ways to learn about a topic, including the ones mentioned above, is to find out the blog posts from the business magazines and journals referenced above.

Once you have found those, make sure you search for “blog posts” and “content marketing” to get referrals from experts. People who are learning more about content marketing and sometimes even have useful content related to the subject will link back to them.

Like most things in life, there is a “right fit” when it comes to selecting the right content marketing strategy for your company. The more specific you are, the better it will be for you.