Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach that is focused on the creation and distribution of relevant, consistent and valuable content to target, attract and retain a clearly-defined audience, looking to drive profitable customer activity.

To look at it another way, traditional marketing sells a product, while content marketing sells the idea of a product. It plants a seed in the mind of the consumer, so when they come to make a decision about a purchase, are thinking about changing suppliers or are looking for a business solution to a specific problem, it’s your business that pops up first in their mind. As they like to say: content is king. But the reality is good content is king. A lacklustre approach to content marketing can actually damage your brand.

Blogs

Blogging is the number one most used content marketing tactic by both business to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) marketers. Blogs have tremendous value in building authority, particularly with search engines. Google loves blogs, and a well-structured, regularly-updated blog on your website will quickly become a highly-prized source of traffic from search queries, boosting your SEO (and ranking) accordingly.

Blogs also build authority with your website visitors, too. By showing that you are an expert in your field and knowledgeable enough to be publishing content on a consistent basis you will quickly start to be seen as a thought leader.

Blogs are owned media – the content is yours, and yours alone. But through social sharing, comments and guest posts, blogs can become an important component of your broader social marketing strategy, enabling you to build a loyal, online community. For best results, use a consistent brand voice in your blog articles and try to be personable (and never personal). Don’t use the platform as a sales tool – talk about brand vision, industry trends, offer analysis and predictions, publish “how to” guides and deliver value to readers.

Blogs are a commitment – at Identity we recommend a minimum of one blog post per week to maximise return on investment – but it absolutely pays off. Indeed, the “long tail” value of blogging is such that over time the collective weight of all of your blog content will establish itself as the primary source of interest in your business website.

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