Meaningful content is the heart of your digital marketing strategy.

Traditional marketing is often less effective than digital marketing and content marketing is a strategic and effective way to communicate with your target audiences.

The definition of content marketing is a form of digital marketing that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content over different channels. Its purpose is to distribute valuable content to customers in order to strengthen your position as the leading player in a specific business area. The main focus in content marketing is about putting the company at the centre by creating editorial content. By looking at the company's needs and helping their customers absorb the content, you find new customers while retaining existing ones.

Content marketing is a strategy that is increasingly used by large brands but also smaller start-up companies because it is a method that works and is cost-effective.

When you build a website, you need to have top quality content. The texts created must be readable and distribute valuable and interesting content to potential new customers. You also need to constantly go back to old content and update it, so that the pages are of good quality. Google's algorithms rewards freshness of your content and through good content, profitable customer journeys are created.

Do you have the right content?

Information can be presented in a variety of formats, including blogs, news, videos, eBooks, infographics, case studies, how-to guides, etc.

Many companies build information from the inside out and do not think about the visitors on the site but structure their information according to how they are organized. An informative website gives you more visitors and strengthens your brand. Current content with quality means that more users visit the site, which strengthens the business goals. Only 6% of all B2B marketers believe that their content marketing strategy is effective according to the Content Marketing Institute.

Do you know your target audience in depth?

Traditionally, marketers have tried to define their target audiences and create content based on target audiences.

In the inbound methodology, people usually talk about different personas where they try to give the target group demographic data, psychographic data and sometimes even a name. It can become very complicated, especially when you start spreading information on social media to create virtual dissemination.

Other popular concepts are that the marketer looks at the customer journey. In order for this to be done effectively, measuring points may be needed and sometimes marketing automation tools are used.

If you want a lot of visitors to your site, you should research and start from search volumes and do search behaviour analysis. By researching the search volumes before writing content, your website becomes significantly more efficient and has the opportunity to meet the right and larger target groups. You can identify competitors' search traffic and even perform gap analyses to identify content that has not been done. One method that is also extremely effective is to create content and talk to customer service and those who have customer contacts to identify and answer the most common questions.

Channels

There are many marketing channels that can be included in a content marketing mix, such as websites, social media and newsletters which we also shortly mentioned above. It is often about creating information that arouses interest or in some way solves your customers' problems. Your content marketing takes place on your own platforms and under your control, which provides fantastic opportunities that are not found in traditional marketing.

There are many channels to choose from such as:

• Websites
• Blogs
• Newsrooms
• Newsletters
• Social Media
• Digital magazines
• Apps
• eBooks

Physical channels can also be part of a content marketing mix, a few examples are:

• Print ads
• Brochures
• Other printed material

Create content that can be used in many different channels. This means that you speak with one voice at the same time as it becomes less resource-intensive. The more content that is created, the more difficult and important it becomes to stick together to the content strategy so that all devices have one and the same message.

Content marketing strategy

In some cases, you create, a website or a Facebook page just "to have one". This is not the way to go if you want to get results from your content. Content marketing requires an underlying strategy, where you at least answer why you take a certain action. There are already too many abandoned blogs and social media profiles. Do not create one of them!

Long-term

The challenge with content marketing is that it rarely has an immediate effect. Results often grow slowly over time, which can be difficult for many organizations and companies. You simply want to see a quick return on your investment. Content marketing is not something you do in project form, or something that can be seen as "finished". More or improved content is always needed to maintain the required quality. A true content marketer is never satisfied. There are always improvements to be made.

Content marketing in different industries or verticals

Finding the right content marketing solutions is very much about understanding your target audience. All target groups have different preferences. They also have different online habits, and stay on different types of platforms to take part in their areas of interest. You also need to find a suitable tone for your content. Finding the right tone often requires a copywriter who can write correctly about that specific topic.

Leads and conversions

As a marketer, of course, you do not just want to offer the target audience interesting content but to engage them with your brand. Every contact is positive, but there is often an opportunity to drive the customer one step further. Define clear conversions (such as a purchase, newsletter subscription, or anything else appropriate), and place a call to action (CTA) links in the content where appropriate.

Here you need to strive for a good balance so that the content does not feel like advertising. If you present your product as a solution to a problem in the right part of the content, a lot is gained. It also opens up interesting opportunities to drive traffic between its various channels. A website can be a great way to redirect traffic to your Facebook page, and vice versa. If you have a strategy that utilizes the various channels in the best way, a lot will be gained.

Conclusion

That is content marketing in a nutshell for 2021. We have looked at a few content marketing trends that you can prepare your business for in 2021. Although, many areas in business came to a halt in 2020, one area that has grown significantly is content marketing and this area is going to continue to grow as more people are looking for valuable content. By being on top of the major trends, you and your business will be prepared to leverage these trends so you can grow and expand your own business.