Content marketing is the critically important for any business to engage in.  Not just for the sake of producing content however, but to create valuable, informative, and highly SEO’d (keyword rich) content can make the difference between being found on the web, or nowhere to found!

Along with content production (blogging, article marketing, etc…) is social sharing.  That is, taking the content you produce and sharing it across a wide range of social media outlets.  Finally, I’ve recently adopted the habit of paying a little bit for Facebook social ads (sponsored posts to be exact) in order to promote each new post / piece of content on Facebook.

By the way, the way that you can target profile demographics on Facebook is nothing short of amazing!

So do you use content as a marketing tool in your business?  If so, what are some strategies that work well for you?  And what are some major challenges you’ve come up against?

@robertholland

I’ve been using and offering content marketing for clients as well as my own business for years.  Content marketing is a relatively new term however it’s been around for a long time.
It’s all about creating great content, like Kristi said.  What many people miss with content marketing is the ability to use it to reach your customers no matter where they are in the buying cycle.  Creating content while keeping what’s relevant to your target market and their buying cycle will help you streamline the sales funnel.  As Kristi mentioned, there are several different types of content and each of these can be used in various areas on the buying cycle to capture your prospects attention and help make the decision to buy a much easier and less confusing process.

My strategies vary but are based largely on the content audit results.  There are often holes in the content strategy that need to be filled, so I look for what’s missing.  

The biggest challenge is when working with a large group of people and trying to get everyone on the same page.  With large corporations, many departments need to included, everything from legal to sales.  My role is usually the ambassador, getting everyone to understand the different points of the other departments, explaining importance and then putting it all together.
One thing to keep in mind is content marketing really isn’t about selling.  You’re arming your prospects and customers with the information they need to make the right decisions.

@robertholland One thing I didn’t see mentioned here is that no one can take away your content. – With all the shakeups that Google does, (Panda, Penguin) the one consistent thing that we’ve seen is … if you have good content that is congruent with the subject of your site, that these updates most likely won’t touch you and may help you. 

So building your internet home (website) on a solid content foundation will allow you to exist and succeed when everything around you is crumbling.