(Take an idea and buy tomorrow) is a phrase used by shopkeepers in the Levant to attract potential customers, and I think it is the essence Content Marketing This simple seller does not ask you to buy, but asks you to give him the opportunity to show you the content and features of his goods and convince you of what he has. By this he builds a relationship with his customers, which makes them return to him when they need his goods. 

Many companies in our Arab world still do not pay attention to Content Marketing And they tend to focus on advertising and other marketing strategies, and this causes them to lose a large number of potential customers 

So according to Content Marketing Institute The 70% of consumers prefer to learn about the company through content rather than ads, as it generates Content marketing Three times more leads than ad-only marketing, and costs 62% less. 

Still not convinced of the importance of content marketing after these statistics, or have you changed your mind? If you have changed your mind, let us know 

• What is content marketing
• What are the types of content marketing 
• What are the benefits of content marketing 
• How to create a content marketing strategy 

What is content marketing? 

 

It is a marketing strategy based on creating relevant content that provides value to the target audience and answers their questions and inquiries. Usually, the goal of content marketing is to increase brand awareness, build trust in potential customers, convert them into real customers, and then retain them.  

 

What are the types of content marketing? 

Types of content marketing include:

 

1. blogging 
2. Graphs
3. E-books and research papers
4. Social media posts
5. Video clips 
6. podcast 
7. Case studies and success stories
8. Email newsletters
9. Interactive content such as opinion polls
10. Live broadcast across various platforms 
11. Visual content such as photos and graphics.

What are the benefits of content marketing?

The benefits of content marketing are countless most sustainable growth And the least expensive, and among its most important benefits: 

• Increase brand awareness: 

High-quality content that delivers a clear and valuable message to the target audience helps increase interaction and engagement with the brand and thus increase brand awareness. 

• Generate leads: 

By creating and sharing content that answers the target audience’s questions, attracts their interest, and works to educate them, which creates confidence in the customer in this brand, so that it becomes his first choice when making a purchase decision. 

• Customer retention and loyalty: 

Brands can establish themselves as a trusted source in the field and develop a positive relationship with their customers which leads to

Increase their loyalty and this is by providing educational and informative content or Exclusive content for subscribers By its mailing list and its customers.

 

• Increase brand authority: 

Through the content, the brand can prove its experience and establish its image among its customers and potential customers as the main source of information and solutions in its industry.

• Reduce marketing costs: 

With content, the brand can attract, interact with, and retain customers without the need to spend huge amounts of money on ads, and content marketing has the ability to achieve a higher return on investment than any other marketing method in the long run. 

How to create a content marketing strategy: 

 

Now that we know what content marketing is and what its types and benefits are, let's dive in deeper and explore together how to create a content marketing strategy: 

  1. Determine the goal of the content marketing strategy? 

There are many goals behind a content marketing strategy, including: 

 

• Increase traffic on your store or website
• Generate leads 
• Increase brand awareness 
• Thought leadership 

 

Before starting a content marketing strategy, you must define your goal, but remember that the goal must be characterized as: smart goal  That is, to be: 

 

• Specific: Increase traffic on the online store or website 
• Measurable: Store traffic increased by 15% 
• Realistic: In order not to disappoint you or your team, make your goal achievable and realistic 
• Relevant: The goal should be relevant to what you want to achieve 
• Time-bound: Goals that are not time-bound usually extend to infinity and are not achieved (increased traffic on the store at a rate of 15% during the second quarter of this year)

 

  2. Study the content of competitors: 

Studying the content provided by competitors to the same target audience provides a deeper understanding about this audience and the content that interacts with or impresses them,Discovering gaps in competitors' content and the gap between what you offer and what your competitors offer, and how to create content that outperforms them.

It also shows key parameters of a content marketing strategy such as the number of posts and the channels they use. 

 

Tools to help you study competitors: 

•  Google Alerts A free service provided by Google that notifies the user of events and alerts him of facts and changes. The service works by sending emails to the user when it finds new search results related to your industry. 

•  SEMrush This tool provides you with a comprehensive view of your competitors' content, search engine optimization (SEO) strategies, and paid advertising (PPC) and backlinks. 

• BuzzSumo This tool lets you see what types of content are popular with your competitors' audiences and enables you to search for an entire industry, brand or specific industry to find out which content is the best performer. 

• Hootsuite It is a social media monitoring tool that helps you track your competitors' social media activity, including their posts, shares, and followers.

 

     3.Study the target audience: 

 

In order to create content that impresses your target audience and prompts them to interact with you, you must understand this audience and address them in the language they understand and love, and go to them in the place where they are located. To study your target audience, ask yourself the following questions: 

• Who is the audience that I want to target?
• What are the geographical areas in which it is located?
• How old are they ?
• What is their gender (men/women)
• What are their interests and purchasing habits 
• On which platforms do they hang out? 
• What are the problems they face 
• What are their pain points? 
• What are the pre-purchase steps?customer journey)

Answering these questions helps you understand your target audience and determine their needs and preferences to create content that interacts with this audience, which leads to increased conversion. 

 

How can I study the target audience? 

 

• Opinion polls: You can do them online or through personal interviews.
• Monitoring the audience's behavior on social media platforms and noting their pain points 
• Monitor the conversations potential customers have in industry groups on social media platforms.
• Use analysis and tracking tools such as google analytics  To understand audience behavior. 

 

  4. Determine which content marketing channels you will use: 

 

After you got to know your audience well and studied the competitors, you should have noticed the most channels on which your customers are present and the most effective channels for competitors.

Here comes your role by defining the channels that you will work on to reach your customers in the place where they are 

If your target group is mostly teenagers, you will work on instagram and tiktok

If your customers are older, they are likely to be on facebook 

Also, the geographical region plays an important role in choosing platforms, as we find that facebook is the most widespread in Egypt, while snapchat is widespread in the Arab Gulf countries.

And there are several other things that depend on your choice of marketing platforms that you will work on, so the best way is to determine where your target audience spends most of their time. 

 

  5. Distribute roles and create a content calendar: 

 

The final step in a content calendar strategy is to create a content calendar 

 

• Create a detailed content calendar specifying topics, formats and publication date.
•  Determine who is responsible for content creation and who is responsible for publishing and advertising, whether from team members, freelancers, or external agencies that you deal with.
• Constantly monitor and evaluate your content marketing efforts to see what works and what doesn't.
• Make your plan flexible and subject to change from time to time.
• Take advantage of the data and information you get to develop content.

 

These steps will help you organize your work and constantly publish new content. Monitoring the performance of the marketing plan and the data issued will help you understand your audience more deeply. 

Conclusion : 

Content marketing plays a big role in the success of a business. Suffice it to tell you that  97% of the major brands used Content marketing as an essential part of its marketing strategy.

 

Today, companies can build a strong emotional relationship with their customers and their target audience by creating valuable and attractive content, and thus they will reap the fruits of this content by increasing their brand awareness, consolidating their image in the market, attracting visitors to their website or store, and ultimately increasing sales and profits.