What is content marketing? Definitions and practices!

What is content marketing It is a method of providing useful content in line with the user’s intentions to stimulate the user’s interest, curiosity, and purchasing behavior (acquisition of prospective customers) for the company’s products and services.
If you implement this content marketing well, you can approach potential customers who have a high affinity with your products and services due to the good effects of SEO.
As a result, you can attract “prospect customers” who are likely to apply or make inquiries.
In other words, you can expect an increase in conversions that are directly linked to sales.

On the other hand, even with content marketing, sometimes it fails.
To put it a little more, there are several types of content marketing, and among them, there are many cases where the method of content SEO is practiced as the main axis.
By failing in this content SEO, there are many cases where content marketing does not produce results.

To avoid this bad situation, craft your content and aim for quality content marketing.

With this in mind, what is content marketing? I would like to explain the basics such as the definition of and how to practice in an easy-to-understand and easy-to-understand manner for beginners.

What is content marketing?

What is content marketing It is a method of providing useful content in line with the user’s intentions to stimulate the user’s interest, curiosity, and purchasing behavior (acquisition of prospective customers) for the company’s products and services.
This content marketing is a concept defined by the Content Marketing Institute of America.

Content marketing is also a type of inbound marketing.
For example, content created according to the user’s search intent (useful content) is indexed in search engines and displayed at the top.
That way, your content can be found by searchers.
As a result, you can attract potential customers on the web and encourage the acquisition of prospective customers.
In this way, one of the pull-type marketing “inbound marketing” that allows online customers (consumers) themselves to find their own company is marketing “content marketing” that focuses on providing useful content.

By the way, the opposite of inbound marketing is push-type marketing “outbound marketing” that pursues offline customers through telemarketing, direct mail, mass advertising, etc.

Read Also: What is Anchor Text? How to write effectively for SEO!

Purpose of content marketing

The purpose of content marketing is It’s about driving profitable customer behavior.
This purpose is described earlier in the concept defined by Content Marketing Institute, a pioneer in content marketing.

For example, instead of offering free and informative reports, we require you to sign up by entering your email address in a form.
In this case, you can grow the list of user email addresses.
By doing so, you will be able to distribute mail magazines regularly to the list, nurture potential customers’ interest, interest, credibility, etc., and lead to an increase in prospective customers.
As a result, conversions such as applications and inquiries about products and services will increase, which will be directly linked to sales.

Benefits of content marketing

Content marketing requires content to serve your users.
The content you create to serve remains an asset unless you delete it.
Also, if you make good use of the created content, you can expect an increase in sales in the end, which is a big advantage.

• Content can be capitalized
• Expected to increase sales

Content can be capitalized

In content marketing you need content to serve your users.
Once you create that content, it remains an asset unless you delete it.

This property has value too.
For example, let’s say that several years have passed since content that was created based on the user’s intentions was left untouched.
In this case, users may not always have the same demand for the content you create.
If demand falls, the value of content will also fall.
In other words, even if you leave the content you created once, there is a possibility that the asset value will decrease along the way.
Such content is hardly an asset.

To avoid this situation, regularly review the content you create and provide useful content.
That way, you can keep your content while preserving your property value.
One of the benefits of content marketing is the ability to capitalize on content.

Expected to increase sales

If you do content marketing, You can expect an increase in sales.
For example, let’s say you worked on content SEO by creating a blog post that takes user search intent into account.
By doing so, you will be able to approach potential customers who have a high affinity for using search engines, which will lead to increased recognition of your products and services.
As a result, the number of prospective customers will increase, and you can expect an increase in conversions such as inquiries and applications for products.

One of the benefits of content marketing is the potential for increased sales.

In addition, in order to get more landings on the created blog articles, we will link advertisements, SNS, mail magazine distribution etc. to the list collected by free offers.
This will lead to more potential and prospective customers, which will lead to increased sales.

The difference between content marketing and content SEO

content marketing is It targets all Internet users.
And it is a method of providing useful information (contents) that meets the needs of those users, attracting potential customers and prospective customers, and encouraging purchasing behavior.

On the other hand, content SEOTarget search users among users who use the Internet.
Then, it is a method of providing information (creating content) that meets the user’s needs, attracting potential customers and prospective customers, and encouraging purchasing behavior.

In this way, the main target audience is different, which is the big difference between content marketing and content SEO.

How to practice content marketing

To practice content marketing, first create useful content.
Then, we will publish and distribute the content to the media to try to increase user recognition.
This will help you acquire potential and prospective customers.
Furthermore, in order to encourage these customers’ purchasing behavior, let’s use those customers’ email addresses to distribute effective mail magazines.
As a result, the number of applications and inquiries about the product will increase, and sales can be expected to improve.

Also, what content and media did they convert to and how much did they buy? Let’s analyze specific numbers such as
Based on that, it is important to review the content and repeat improvements in order to proceed with content marketing.

• Create informative content
• Make content known to users
• Turn potential customers into prospects
• Motivate prospective customers to buy
• Iteratively analyze and improve content

Create informative content

To create useful content, Consider user intent.
For example, create a web page with answers to questions such as worries and troubles that users have.
From the SEO point of view, create a web page that answers the user’s question by referring to words related to the search query (search keyword) and Yahoo! Chiebukuro.
That way, it will contain the information the user is looking for.
As a result, it is finished with useful content that solves the user’s question.

Creating useful content is the cornerstone of content marketing.

Also, let’s say you ignore the user’s intentions and create interesting content that specializes in gameplay and visuals.
This kind of content can be hit or miss, but if it catches the attention of users and creates buzz, it becomes useful content.

• movie
• text
• image
• audio

Make good use of these materials to answer user questions or generate engaging and informative content.

Make content known to users

Creating useful content is useless if users don’t recognize it.
To make content accessible to users, expose to the media.
For example, you purchase a domain or server and upload your own content (owned media) on that server.
Then, we will enrich the content in the site, set up site maps and internal links, and utilize the URL inspection tool of the search console.
Doing so increases crawlability and makes it easier to be indexed in internet search results.
As a result, it becomes easier for search users to find the content you create.

In this way, making content known to users is the point of practicing content marketing.

• Owned media (blogs, product/service pages, case studies)
• Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Podcasts)
• Advertising media (Google Ads, Yahoo! Ads)
• Publication media (press releases, white papers)
• Live streaming media (webinars [online seminars])

Make good use of these web media and e-mail magazines to make more users aware.

Turn potential customers into prospects

If you make your content known, you can expect visits from prospective customers who are immediately interested and likely to purchase products and services.
But it’s not like that, potential customers also visit.
To turn these potential customers into leads, Make it manifest (make it a fan).
For example, we will continue to deliver useful content, or acquire e-mail addresses by luring members-only content and distribute e-mail magazines to that list.
By doing so, the number of visits of potential customers will increase and they will become repeaters (manifestation / fans), and their expertise, interest and interest will increase.
As a result, you can build credibility and turn potential customers into prospective customers who are more likely to purchase your product or service.

Turning potential customers into leads is the key to implementing content marketing.

You can also turn potential customers into leads by leveraging social media.
For example, I tweet limited and useful information delivered only on Twitter every day.
This will encourage potential customers to become repeat customers, increase their expertise, and increase their curiosity and interest in the operating company and person managing the account.
As a result, if the operating company or person managing the account is trustworthy, it becomes a prospective customer.

Motivate prospective customers to buy

Prospective customers include users who purchase products repeatedly and users who are interested in purchasing products.
To increase the purchasing power of these users, Offer an offer.
For example, we run campaigns on products with offers such as limited-time discounts, money-back guarantees, and purchaser-exclusive benefits (coupons, ebooks, points, etc.).
Then, we will post the campaign information on the web (top page, product/service page, around CTA, etc.) as a benefit or distribute an e-mail magazine.
That way, the psychology of users who recognize the campaign information will be shaken.
As a result, it becomes easier for users to purchase products.
Cross-selling and up-selling are also effective for these high-purchase users.

In this way, if you shake people’s minds with words and plans that grab people’s hearts, it is possible to increase their willingness to buy.

In this way, increasing the willingness of prospective customers to purchase is the point of implementing content marketing.

On the other hand, if you do not clearly state the benefits or implement a plan, you will not be able to shake the hearts of users.
As a result, prospective customers will not be motivated to buy.

Iteratively analyze and improve content

Is the content you provide your users really useful? Need to analyze.
This analysis Basically use tools. For example, for content created by content SEO, we use Search Console to analyze it with an emphasis on search rankings and search traffic.
Also, for content that ignores the SEO point of view (interesting content, case study content, etc.), analyze with Google Analytics, focusing on user behavior other than search inflow (referral inflow, stay time, bounce rate, exit rate). .
If you find a bad part of the numerical data on average, there is a possibility of shortcomings.
This means that you may be providing low-quality content.
In this case, improve the low quality content to make it higher quality.
At this time, the use of heat maps is also effective.

In this way, repeating content analysis and improvement is the key to implementing content marketing.

On the other hand, without analysis, we do not know the quality of the content.
This can lead to uncontrolled low-quality content.
As a result, the number of prospective customers will not increase and the increase in sales will be suppressed as much as useful content cannot be provided.

By the way, if the analyzed numerical data is bad, there is a possibility that there is a problem on the media side.
So can you access the influx source site, not just the content? Also check the operational status.

Content marketing case study

Practicing content marketing does not guarantee success.
Especially if you are a beginner, you will have to repeat a lot of failures before you get results.
Concrete analysis and improvement of this failure will lead to an increase in the success rate of content marketing.

I will introduce an example of this blog “Infowikiz” that is actually implementing content marketing.

• Overview of this blog “infowikiz” and the reason for starting content marketing
• Details of content marketing implemented

How this blog “infowikiz” started content marketing

As the name suggests, this blog “infowikiz” is a blog that distributes information on the main theme of SEO (search engine optimization).
This blog was launched in June 2014.
The reason for launching At that time, blogs were popular, and effective examples of content marketing using blogs began to appear on information sites and search results.

Details of content marketing implemented

At the beginning of the launch of this blog “infowikiz”, we did content marketing in a fumbling state.
For example, I posted blog articles centered on SEO experiments we were doing, Google algorithm updates, and SEO news distributed on other sites.
And at this time, the term content SEO itself had not taken root, and the specific method was trial and error.
Therefore, the number of accesses was unstable, and the number of users such as potential customers and prospective customers did not accumulate well.
as a result, Days continued when conversions such as applications and inquiries did not increase.

I reviewed these failures, analyzed the content, improved it, and also studied content SEO.
When I started to focus on content SEO, search inflows suddenly increased from around May 2017, and the number of accesses to the entire site began to grow significantly.
Then, the number of accesses stabilized, and the number of users such as potential customers and prospective customers began to accumulate well.

Summary: Craft your content and improve your content marketing

content marketing is It doesn’t start without content.
So, first of all, it is necessary to create content that incorporates the user’s intentions.
Then distribute the refined content to multiple web media and let many users recognize it.
That way, you can attract potential and prospective customers to visit your site.
At this time, consider listing customers on your site with free offers, sending email newsletters, and optimizing CTAs.

As a result, the number of prospective customers who have increased interest in, interest in, and reliability of products and services will increase, and sales can be expected to increase.

Also, iteratively analyze and improve your content to refine it.
If this is neglected, is the content really useful? I can’t judge.
In this case, it is more likely that you will continue to serve low-quality content.
As a result, you won’t be able to attract potential or prospective customers well, so you won’t expect to increase your sales.

To avoid such failures, it is important to refine your content and improve the quality of your content marketing.