Content Marketing For Online Businesses
Do I have your permission?
To be the 1078th blogger to talk content marketing with you?
Exhausted? I get it.
Everyone has something to say about content marketing. But you're probably confused if you have listened to just about every opinion on the topic. The more you read, the more you ask.
How does one conduct a content marketing campaign?
What's the difference in executing a content marketing strategy for a service provider, a retailer, or a SaaS founder?
What's the connection between content and the buyer's journey?
This article attempts to answer these questions and simplify content marketing for you. We'll explore the content marketing landscape together, mapping out the wild jungle of tips and tricks, carefully avoiding pitfalls in execution while inching towards your business goals.
If you're up for the adventure, let's start with a landmark definition of content marketing.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is the strategic use of education and entertainment to convince consumers to buy your product or service. It means showing up for a prospect throughout the buyer journey. I'll add that content engages prospects, and marketing manages the relationships that follow.
But if you’re skeptical of the power of content marketing, its widespread adoption and effectiveness will surprise you. In a study conducted by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), 73% of B2B and 70% of B2C marketers use content marketing for customer acquisition.
A Semrush survey of active marketers shows that 97% of participants have achieved success with content marketing in 2023. Statista has put the revenue from content marketing at $107 billion by 2026.
Why Businesses Need Content Marketing
Here are some additional commercial benefits of content marketing.
I. Content marketing is a cheaper and more effective approach to customer acquisition in the long term.
II. Content marketing can be a competitive advantage when you reach out to prospects early in the decision-making process.
III. Content marketing can be a powerful tool for creating a market for your product (aka demand generation).
Let’s examine the content marketing funnel.
The Content Marketing Funnel
A content marketing funnel visually displays the relationship between content marketing and the buyer's journey, from problem awareness to purchasing a solution. It represents how content marketing works. The funnel is divided into three segments.
Top of the Funnel: Content educates prospects on the general problems of their niche. Some ToFu content pieces include blog posts, social media posts, YouTube videos, and Podcast episodes. ToFu metrics include website visitors, podcast downloads, YouTube views, and social engagement.
Middle of the Funnel: Content helps prospects explore niche product options. Some MoFu content pieces include product reviews, white papers, case studies, and software demos. MoFu metrics include survey and form submissions, signups, and downloads.
Bottom of the Funnel: Content persuades prospects to buy a product. Examples of BoFu content pieces include product descriptions, landing page copy, email sales campaigns, and customer reviews. Some BoFu metrics are product sales, paid subscribers, abandoned carts, course enrollment, and customer acquisition costs (CAC).
Let's explore content marketing in the context of marketing platforms, content formats, and online business models.
Marketing Platforms
Search Engines
Social Media
Email
Content Formats
Text
Audio
Video
Business Models
Services
SaaS
eCommerce
Media
1. Content Marketing On Search Engine Platforms
Content marketing on search engine platforms is about selling expertise. It involves Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Content Architecture, and Engagement. Some search engine platforms include
Pinterest (Image-based)
Google (Text-based)
Spotify (Audio-based)
YouTube (Video-based)
Search engines are algorithms that help searchers find the content they want in a sea of information. A good search query example is ‘How to repair a loose door handle.’.
Here's a glimpse of the sheer size of content published on the web. Ankit Singla of Master Blogging suggests that as many as 7.5 million blog posts are published daily. If these are blog numbers alone, you can only imagine the total number of content pieces online. And this leads to the question below…
How can you successfully run a content marketing campaign on these busy search platforms?
Here's a three-step approach.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Start with your customers’ search queries and create content that satisfies them. This process is called keyword research. You can find these queries (keywords) with search engine suggestions, sales and support interactions, and keyword tools.
To generate content ideas for these keywords, consider product experiences, consult experts, and examine competing content in the search engine results page (SERP). Search engines will broadcast your message if you research and create content correctly.
Content Architecture
Search engines bring traffic to your site, but you’re responsible for retention.
Good Content Pieces Arranged Well = Good Traffic Retention.
The measure of your retention efforts is the bounce rate. Bounce rate is the number of visitors who leave as soon as they click on your site rather than engaging with your content.
Content architecture influences bounce rate. You want a low bounce rate because it shows search engines that your content is suitable for the traffic they send your way. It's a signal to increase the distribution of your website or account.
So, what is content architecture?
Content architecture is how you structure content pieces that cover a select topic. For example, in a 3,000-article finance blog, a content creator has 10 - 12 content clusters. These are hundreds of blog posts published and structured around finance subtopics such as personal finance, investment management, and Fintech.
The content architecture process includes the number of content pieces published and the hierarchical approach to organizing them. That is why you hear about SEO practices like site navigation, pillar content, and internal linking.
Engagement
Build relationships with visitors who engage with your web content, podcast episodes, or YouTube videos. Engage your readers, listeners, and viewers in the comment sections of your published content. Also, add features for better interaction, like surveys for podcasts/videos and email signups for blog posts.
Invest in content to get customer feedback that shapes product development and marketing strategy.
2. Content Marketing On Social Media Platforms
Content marketing on social media is about selling your personality before products, ideas, and expertise. Brands treat social media platforms poorly and wonder why they get the cold treatment. Their accounts are either dumping grounds for paper-shredded blog posts or a megaphone blasting an incoherent story.
Social media platforms are too big to be neglected in that manner. Over 5 billion social media users average roughly seven social media platforms per month. It's time to understand social media content marketing as a different entity from search engine content marketing.
We'll look at the three categories of content marketing activity that can get you sales on social media.
Finding your customers and exploring where they hangout
Joining and starting relevant conversations
Selling products and establishing relationships
Finding Your Customers And Exploring Where They Hangout
This is equivalent to keyword research, a top-of-funnel activity for search engine platforms. But unlike search platforms where you're looking for search queries, with social you seek potential buyers, communities, and conversations (hashtags).
Joining And Starting Niche Conversations
You have to see social media platforms differently. Every social media post, hashtag, and comment thread is a party. Everyone is having conversations and building relationships. If you want to grow a social media following, host and attend as many parties as possible to establish visibility and contact with prospective buyers.
And just like in real life, show your social graces. For example, stand out in communities and comment sections with meaningful conversation. Don't go off-topic or push your products down the throats of other party attendees. Also, don't be a bore like the typical reply guy, dropping bland platitudes in comment sections of other social media posts.
Stick to the process; seeing significant results can take weeks, months, and even years.
Selling Products And Establishing Relationships
Gradually, your prospects will start checking your account out. Don't disappoint. Reach out to them and build relationships. Your social media content should tell two stories about your business: the story of customers moving from problem awareness to solution relief and the story of how your team caters to customers. Some refer to the latter as behind-the-scenes content.
Remember, you're building a relationship with prospects where they get to like and trust you as a person or persons behind a brand. Only then would they decide to buy your products.
3. Content Marketing Via Email
Like search and social platforms, email content marketing seeks to find potential customers and build relationships that lead to sales. However, email stands out from other marketing platforms for its high trust and control factors. This trust comes from an ongoing interaction between the brand and its prospects before they sign up for their emails.
Control is built into the features of email marketing platforms, so businesses can send emails when and how they want while subscribers can unsubscribe with just as much freedom. There is no need for algorithms and social media restrictions, and the results?
HubSpot’s state of marketing report shows that email marketing was the third most used platform for B2B marketers last year. Nearly 90% of marketers see email as playing a critical role in business success. Unlike the characteristic delay in distribution with search and social content pieces, email is instant.
So, how do you execute content marketing via email?
Engage Prospects With Trust Activities
Grow your subscriber base with high-trust activities. For a business, that high-trust activity could be a successful sales transaction, an email newsletter sign-up from your site, or a lead offer from a published blog post.
Lead offers are like gems that accelerate your progress in mission games. Your customers are on a mission to find a solution to their problems. Be that guide offering gems on the buyer's journey, and prospects will happily subscribe to your email list.
Build Intimacy By Understanding Prospects’ Needs
Email communication is personal, and your subscribers expect more nuanced content that speaks directly to their problems. This is where segmentation comes in. You need to group subscribers by how they got on your email list and where they are in the buyer's journey. Use feedback from your subscribers to help them along until they solve their problems.
Offer Solutions That Lead To Customer Success
Solutions (or value) in email marketing can include newsletters, cart abandonment reminders, search and social content updates, consultations, sales follow-ups, or discount offers. The goal is to make as many prospects as possible happy customers.
4. How To Engage Customers Through Written Content [Text-based]
The principles of good communication remain across different content formats: written, audio, and video. These principles are usually recognized by the acronym AIDA.
Attention
Interest
Desire
Action
However, some features are better explored in the content-writing process. These include critical thinking, information depth, and flexible learning. We'll explore critical thinking here.
Critical Thinking In Written Content
Content writing is the only format that accommodates robust research and deep thinking on the first try of a topic. Getting on a microphone or in front of a camera to deliver an impromptu speech for the first time can be daunting. This is why many content creators and business people struggle with audio and video content.
It's easier to talk about a topic for an hour on a podcast episode when you've spent 6 - 20 hours writing a 2,500-word blog post on the same topic. You have all the time to speak with your customers, subject matter experts, study books, and mull over your experiences.
Take advantage of this feature by making long-form blog content a foundation for your content marketing process. 79% of content marketers are consistent with their blogs. Borrow a leaf from their book; customers respond to it.
The robust thinking in content writing can boost your performance in other content marketing processes like imagination, keyword research, and customer engagement. Starting a conversation on social media or a YouTube video becomes easier.
5. How To Engage Customers Through Audio-based Content
Audio-based content is usually published and distributed as podcast episodes. There's ample opportunity to grow your business through podcasting. The podcast industry sits at $24 billion as of 2024 and is expected to hit $100 billion by 2030.
The Unique Consumption of Podcast Content
Half a billion listeners consume content in flexible ways. Nearly 60% of them listen to podcasts while doing other activities. These activities include household chores, quiet walks, the gym, work, and good old idleness. People seek pleasant and productive human companionship with podcast content. Never has boring activity been such a big billboard opportunity to sell. Get your podcast going now.
An Approach To Engage Podcast Listeners
An engaging podcast episode is actionable and fun. Here are some tips for engaging customers with your podcast episodes.
Research and Planning
Like the content writing process, researching and planning a podcast episode has the listener front and center of the process. You want to grab attention by recording content around topics your listeners care about.
The quality of your podcast should pique interest and stir desire in your listeners and eventually get them to take action. As we discussed earlier, the written content process can help you flesh out your podcast episodes.
Good Podcast Conversations
Podcast content can be improved through tangibles like storytelling, expert interviews, and listener feedback for content ideation and personalization. Stories that can't all fit in an article can be told on a podcast episode.
Instead of just having an expert quote on your blog, you can get more value from the interaction by having a conversation on a podcast episode. Listeners can contribute to the creative direction of the podcast via call-ins, questions, and polls.
Marketing Funnel Integration
Your call-to-actions (CTAs) should reflect your business's overall content marketing strategy. As you grow your podcast, ask the following questions…
How does your podcast content relate to both your blog and YouTube channels?
Do you have lead-generating magnets linking your podcast episodes to your email?
What is the role of your marketing and sales teams in your campaign?
That's how to integrate your podcast content into your marketing funnel and build deeper relationships with your listeners.
6. How To Engage Customers Through Video-based Content
Most video-based content is published and distributed on the YouTube video search engine. YouTube is the second-biggest traffic site after Google. Video content on YouTube evokes written, audio, and video content creation skills. We'll explore all three aspects below.
Video Description
There is space for 700 words of content to help describe what a video is all about. You can use your video description to write about the publishing reasons for the video you want to upload. Also, consider using time stamps for navigation.
Audio Quality
Good audio is the foundation of a good Podcast or YouTube channel. Invest in a good microphone alongside other content practices so your audience hear clear, fun, and actionable content.
Video Quality
A good YouTube video has an attention-grabbing thumbnail, a convincing title, and valuable video content. YouTube uses all these factors to distribute videos to the right crowd. Remember these three factors when creating and uploading videos to your channel.
7. Content Marketing For Service-based Businesses
The service-based industry consists of consumer and business service enterprises. Did you know the global pet care service business is worth around $700 million? And that's just the pet care industry. Service businesses take up over 60% of the global economy. So, what does content marketing look like for service businesses?
In selling intangibles, content marketing strategy tilts towards user experience. Here are two ideas on how to build a content strategy around user experience for service-based businesses.
Make Content Part Of The Offer
Extend your service offer to include your content assets. That means your content is part of your service. It should bring solutions and improve the experience. For example, let's consider a hair stylist salon.
Their content marketing strategy becomes potent when what one would consider a paid service offer is created as free content for prospective buyers. Here's a content asset that can move the needle for their customers—a cost-cutting guide on how to wash and condition 4c hair.
Manage Variation On The Personnel and Customer Sides Of Service
Maintain consistent quality service on the personnel side of the business transaction—and tune variations on the customer side for a personalized experience. As with product-based businesses, high-quality service is the bedrock of an effective content marketing strategy.
8. Content Marketing For SaaS Businesses
Content marketing for SaaS businesses is basically using content to sell software services to a market. And as a result, emphasis is placed on product education and user experience. We'll discuss them below.
Product Education
Good product education makes adoption easier for new users, and retention higher for advanced customers. Here are 3 ways to use product education to improve content marketing efforts in SaaS enterprises.
Customer-centric Content
Create learning material that solves specific problems for your users. Avoid generic content that discourages product adoption.
A 2-way Learning Resource Center
Your resource center isn't just for your customers to learn about your product. It's an avenue for marketing, sales, and engineering teams to better understand the user.
Performance-based Assessment
Whatever customers learn should be put into practice and assessed for concrete results. Such a measured approach to product education makes it potent.
User Experience
Good user experience is about the user's interaction with the product. It's expected that products transform. Good products change problematic situations into desired solutions.
Everything that happens in between is the user experience. Good user experience triggers word-of-mouth marketing, the best way to exponentially grow your business.
9. Content Marketing For Online Retailers [eCommerce]
Content marketing for ecommerce requires a hyper focus on all stages of the buyer journey. There's top-of-funnel content for awareness, middle-of-funnel content for shopper experience, and bottom-of-funnel content for sales. Let’s explore what content marketing might look like for an ecommerce store, shall we?
Driving Shopper Awareness
Content at this stage spreads word about the existence of your online store. But as earlier discussed, the content here is about educating the shopper about solutions to their problems.
Think of a content piece on the type of chairs for interior decor instead of one on why you should get a blue oakwood rocking chair.
Better Shopper Experience
Middle-of-funnel content should help shoppers explore product options. There are opportunities in user-generated content like use cases and comparisons for products.
Shopping Cart Decisions
Bottom-of-funnel content is all about helping shoppers make the best buying decisions for them.
10. Content Marketing For Media
In an online business model where content is both product and service, what exactly does content marketing look like?
Content is both product and marketing. Take for example a blogger whose business model solely relies on readers subscribing to their paid newsletter. The more refined their blog posts and social media engagement are, the better they're at generating traffic to their paid newsletter.
In a simple content-creator business model like the one described above, platforms play different roles in the buyer journey. Social media tends to be the platform for awareness, and search engines, like Google and YouTube, become education or entertainment-based.
As content is created and distributed on these platforms, sales will grow as well.
Conclusion
We've examined content marketing across different marketing platforms like search engines, social media, and email. And then we've looked at the different formats of content creation like text, audio, and video.
Before we finally addressed content marketing in its different forms across 4 major online business models. They're services, SaaS, ecommerce, and media. If you have further questions, leave a comment below.
