We can describe content marketing till we’re blue in the face, but does it really sink in unless you see it in real life. Here are some global examples of how great content marketing can help your brand grow in today’s competitive market.
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Neil Patel
His blog articles are all centered on SEO and getting organic traffic. Neil’s content will go through advanced and technical detail, where it answers a lot of questions for people trying to get started with SEO.
How does he make money blogging?
Neil Patel is an SEO consultant. If he answers customers questions through his articles and solves their initial problem – then they will keep coming back and will get tempted to hire Neil’s consultancy products to improve site ranking further.
His consultation service is also popular among brands.
How successful is Neil Patel?
This source shows he’s a famous blogger with the reputation of being the king of SEO. Between Nov 1st, 2011 – July 31st, 2012 his total revenue was $2,341,285.
It’s not because he got lucky, he’s an SEO expert who knows the right formula for getting loads of website traffic.
However, it’s important to note that content marketing isn’t just about writing articles and putting in the right keywords – there are other factors to making an online business successful too.
Content marketing is only part of building a brand online.
Branding a business is defined as a practice of making your products stand out from others – creating recognition by your market, so you get remembered in the future.
It can be done through your business name, use of colors, design or symbol.
How brands can start
Example of good content marketing to a large scale – American Express
Amex may be a surprising choice to use for internet content marketing, but did you know that they have been content marketers for over 99 years? You may recognize them as giving traveler’s cheques or credit cards, however, let’s take a further look at how American Express built their brand.
First founded in 1850, Amex first offered the public an express courier service and didn’t start evolving into the company we know today until 1915 when they became travel agents.
The majority of their marketing came from publishing handbooks, leaflets, brochures, etc. and the images, logos, and content made the public see them as the world’s largest travel agency or the company who has the most expertise in traveling.
It didn’t take long after their brand launch to become internationally recognized.
It became the business people think about when they planned to travel or wanted to go on vacation. Today, the American Express brand alone is worth over $13.9 billion.
Branding is compelling and there is a lot you can learn from the success stories of big firms like Mcdonalds, Mercedez, Marlboro cigarettes, etc.
Ways to brand an online business
Remember, behind the logo, colors, and infographics, the key is first deciding what your message is to your customers. It should set an expectation, a promise and why you stick out from your competitors. Are you fast and reliable? The cheaper solution? Or the high-cost professional?
Be specific, pick one and then design your business appearance to speak that message through colors, slogans, infographics and the narration perspective. Does a top expert write your blog? Or is your content written by a funny light-hearted character who can relate to the audience? Remember people buy people, so the text should also extend your brand message and characterize it as a person.
Case study to consider
REI – Outdoor and travel blog
This successful blog offering endless articles about outdoors activities.
The homepage uses a lot of images of scenery, pictures of people camping and loads of woodlands. My first impression is of adventure, fun and getting to see the world. Examples of articles include how to stay warm in a sleeping bag, recipes for snacks and tips on skiing.
One photo includes a man and dog smiling while looking straight into the camera, so there’s also a sense of warmth and family as well. The site offers stories of their travels, which will inspire a reader with similar interests.
Audience’s who can relate or need outdoor ideas automatically engage, and they will be more tempted to buy products from their store.
The benefits of content marketing
It’s a win-win situation, as the potential customers genuinely want their problems solved and the businesses want to help them. Content marketing is bridging the two together and creating the desired relationship from both ends.
As getting customers to trust you has become so competitive, it has consequently made the information being shared on the internet a lot more useful and reliable – especially if Google’s now advanced enough to penalize any false or misinformed articles. The internet has evolved to be the source of all information, like a digital library.
SEO is getting smart too, as it not only searches for keywords but how also the text relates to the keyword and if it answers what the person wants to know.
This level of awareness from content markets is undoubtedly changing the quality of content that we read.
The bottom line
Missing out on content marketing when starting an online business would be like trying to fly a plane without wings.
You should have a good understanding of how content marketing is part of one method for building a business brand, the way big firms like Amex have used branding, and how successful bloggers have applied the same tactics – just on a smaller scale.
In comparison; social media and offline marketing are small-time in comparison, and the content marketing industry is only going to grow bigger. To keep up, many bloggers and businesses use a content writing agency, so they can keep up with the quick online pace.
To read other articles about content marketing and PR, to see how it can help your brand, visit our blog.
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This article was updated on 2 June 2020