You may have heard the term content marketing, but you really have no idea what it is. More importantly you have no idea how it’s supposed to boost your bottom line. Since there are so many different ways of marketing your business, it’s hard to understand and implement them all. Content marketing, however, is not a marketing trend but rather a part of marketing that is here to stay. Along with its presence online, content marketing also possesses offline components that too are in for the long haul.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is a broad term used to describe marketing techniques that involve the creation of information with the intent of sharing the information to attract and engage current and potential clients. There are several forms of content marketing, but probably the most commonly used and well-known formats are articles. The content used in content marketing is used to educate your target audiences and can include company news or industry news that is related to your business.

Content marketing is an indirect way of marketing your products or services. You’re providing high-quality, informative, valuable and relevant information that relates to your business without shoving your sales pitch down their throats. Using content marketing, however, can help boost your sales. Using your high-quality content, you’re positioning yourself as an expert in your industry and building your credibility with your potential and current clients. So who do you think they’re going to turn to when they need your products and services? Why, you, of course!

Types of content marketing

As mentioned earlier, there are many ways to create content marketing. One example is the use of online or print articles, but there are a multitude of other options as well.  Here are some of the ways you can share useful content with your audience by way of content marketing. Use it to your advantage to help you boost sales and build you as an expert of your industry.

• Articles
• Blogs
• Cell phone (smart phone) texts
• Trade publications or industry magazines
• Email blasts
• Special events
• Micro-sites/Wikis
• Newsletters/e-newsletters
• Press releases
• Videos
• Vodcasting/Podcasting
• Webinars/webcasts/teleseminars
• Websites
• Whitepapers

So which content marketing options can you use in your business? How can you use content marketing to give your bottom line a little boost? Only you can decide, but almost every business can apply almost all of these options to its marketing efforts.