What is Content Marketing: Brief Explanation
Content marketing is a marketing technique where companies publish content intentionally to offer added value to the target group. Besides, it helps to improve the public perception of a company and bind customers with the company.
Relevant content instead of advertising
Advertising companies target their audience with helpful, entertaining, and informative content using Content marketing. Content marketing is a sub-part of Inbound marketing.
Content marketing offers relevant content to potential customers, unlike outbound marketing. Instead, Content marketing relies on providing the user with relevant information so that customers can easily find themselves in the right place (pull marketing).
Content marketing is a sub-part of Inbound marketing.
Inbound marketing strategy attracts customers by providing them with valuable content and experiences. In other words, inbound marketing is a process of helping potential customers find the products. Inbound marketing is all about making connections, answering questions, and solving problems.
The content used in content marketing offers added value to the target group and influences the perception of the company positively and its products using email marketing or direct marketing. Companies avoid direct advertising messages in content marketing. They barely highlight the performance characteristics of products in detail and do not directly intimate their target group to buy products.
Examples of content marketing in practical use
Many companies rely on storytelling as part of their content marketing. For example, The Coca-Cola group replaced its corporate website with its online magazine – Journey.
The company described its online magazine as “a journey into the world of joy of living, refreshment, and responsible action. The Coca-Cola group classified the content into the categories like Happiness, Entertainment, Society, Brands, Company, and Myth.
It was not primarily a matter of placing clumsy advertising measures. It was about to arouse the targeted group’s interest through clever storytelling in the context of content marketing and evoke positive associations with the brand.
In the end, Coca-Cola relied on content around the core topic of “happiness” on its platform. The entire website aims to link the coca-cola company with positive feelings in consumers.
Emotional approach with touching stories
In terms of content, the articles dealt with topics such as health and nutrition, sports, society, and entertainment. In many “stories about people who make others happy”, Coca-Cola addressed its target group emotionally. For example, the website presented the story of a young woman from a sheltered background who gave her gifts to children in hospices and homes as a toddler.
Coca-Cola skilfully combined the touching story of the young Briton with the tour of its own Coca-Cola Christmas truck under the motto: “Help Santa: Make others happy!” For every customer wish user submitted to the company’s website, Coca-cola will donate one dollar to an aid campaign for children.
Of course, the latest magazine was shared on Facebook and other social media platforms. Coca-Cola also relies entirely on the feel-good factor on Facebook: On the social media platform, the company presented touching quotes, various photo shoots, and stories about its brand.
But not only beverage manufacturers such as Coca-Cola or Red Bull use the Internet for their content marketing. Companies from various industries distribute high-quality and target group-relevant content on the Internet using social media channels such as Instagram, Twitter, or their blog.