Content Marketing is a broad term that relates to creating and freely sharing informative content as a means of converting prospects into customers and customers into repeat buyers. The primary goal is to obtain opt-in permission to deliver content via email or other medium over time. Repeated and regular exposure builds a relevant relationship that provides multiple opportunities for conversion, rather than a “one-shot” all of nothing sales approach.
While copywriting techniques are often applied to content created for marketing purposes, we’re not talking about advertising in the traditional sense. In contrast to “interruption” marketing such as television commercials or direct mail, content marketing involves delivering requested information with independent value that creates trust, credibility, and authority for the business that provides that value.
Content drives the Internet, and consumers are looking for information that solves a problem, not immediate sales pitches. The trust, credibility, and authority that content marketing creates knocks down sales resistance, all while providing a baseline introduction to the benefits of a particular product or service. The individuals and businesses that are having the most success online tend to take an approach that involves a high ratio of valuable content that seems to no sales agenda, mixed with periodic promotional messages.
There are many ways to profit with content: blogging, video tutorials, email newsletters, white papers, free reports . . . and yet many people are confused about the entire concept. So Copyblogger Senior Editor Sonia Simone put together this quick 5-part tutorial that lays out the basics in plain language.
- The Three Essentials of Breakthrough Content Marketing
- 49 Creative Ways You Can Profit From Content Marketing
- How to Use Content to Find Customers
- Content Marketing Gets Real
- Why Content and Social Media are a Powerful Match
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