How Content Marketing Is Changing the Game for Success

Creating content without a strategy is like trying to drive somewhere new without a map: The chances of getting where you want to go, especially in a timely manner, are slim. You’ll travel down a lot of unnecessary roads, make a bunch of U-turns, and generally waste time while confusing your passengers.

Without a content marketing strategy, you’ll likely create a lot of material that doesn’t match your objectives (since you won’t know them), share on platforms your target audiences don’t use, and waste your staff’s time — all while confusing your core customers.

As an agency specializing in content marketing, we are excited to share the remarkable transformation that content marketing can bring. In this article, we delve into the profound influence of how content marketing is changing the game for success and explore how it can propel businesses to new heights.

So what is a content marketing strategy, and why is it so important?

Break It Down:

What Is Content Marketing?

Content is everything you produce to share your brand with the outside world. Blog articles, Reels, infographics, podcasts, you name it — whatever you produce, it’s all content. Marketing includes the methods you use to distribute your content. So: Content marketing strategy is the plan you outline, to help inform the decisions you make about the content you produce, and where/how you share it.

It’s important to understand what separates content marketing from just spewing out irrelevant tutorials and articles online. For your content marketing to truly be effective, it has a few more boxes to check than just sharing your brand here, there, and everywhere. Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, defines content marketing as “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

Valuable, relevant, and consistent are the keywords there. You want to create content that will be meaningful to your audience and reinforce your brand’s credibility. To quote Robert Rose, Content Marketing Institute’s chief strategy officer, “Traditional marketing and advertising is telling the world you’re a rock star. Content Marketing is showing the world that you are one.”

But it does more than just that. As HubSpot explains, “Content marketing is important because it answers your audience’s questions and helps you build trust, develop relationships, improve conversions, and generate leads. In today’s age, customers expect high-quality, consistent content from their favorite brands.”

And it’s working all throughout the industry. HubSpot’s recent State of Marketing Reports show 82 percent of marketers actively use content marketing, and 24 percent planned on increasing their investment in content marketing that year. In 2020, nearly 40 percent of marketers said content marketing was a very important part of their overall marketing strategy.

What’s In It For Me:

Understanding the Impact of Content Marketing

Putting together a successful content marketing strategy can be time and resource intensive. After all, you not only have to determine what type of content to make, how much, and where and when to distribute it — you also have to, y’know, make the content. That’s a lot to invest for any brand. So, the real question is, is it worth it?

The short answer: absolutely.

When you effectively implement a content marketing strategy, you’re making a long-term investment to reap some pretty big rewards:

• You gain your audience’s trust. When your customers consistently see quality content coming from you — for free, no less — they start identifying you as a credible source in your industry. Not only that, but they begin building a relationship with you. You provide them with what they need, when they need it, without investment on their part. They’ll start to return to you more and more.
• Your SEO, and thus your visibility, improves. Algorithms everywhere — whether it’s Google, YouTube, you name it — love it when you consistently churn out content. When customers seek out content that’s relevant to your industry, the platforms will serve up your content more and more. The value in getting your brand on the first page of Google is significant.
• It can mean more leads. As you rise through the ranks on search engines and content platforms, the audiences who find your content — and, subsequently, find your brand — will be higher qualified and more likely to convert. Place a well-positioned call-to-action in your content, and you only make it easier for those audiences to become customers. It’s a common goal for many marketers who incorporate content marketing in their overall strategy. According to HubSpot, over 60 percent of marketers measure the success of their content marketing strategy through sales, and Total Sales was named the most common measurement for success.

We’ve Got You

Alright, so the ends justify the means. But understanding that the return is worth the investment doesn’t mean you’re able to make the investment. Maybe you don’t have the staff. Maybe your staff doesn’t have the time. Whatever the specifics, we understand that outlining, developing, implementing, and supporting a robust content marketing strategy is a complex, resource-intensive process.

You don’t have to shoulder that weight alone. At Ideas Collide, we craft, launch, and maintain successful content marketing strategies for many of our clients across diverse industries.

After the pandemic, for example, Best Western Hotels & Resorts was eager to re-energize its bookings. We crafted a multi-channel content marketing strategy to let travelers know, when it was safe again, that Best Western would welcome guests back safely and enthusiastically. Having been our agency partner since 2005, Best Western knew Ideas Collide was up to the challenge. Through a combination of video, blog articles, social media influencer testimonials, and more, Best Western effectively reached travelers at every touchpoint in an organic, authentic way that supported its traditional marketing campaign. At a time that was critical for both the brand and the hospitality industry as a whole, the campaign results were significant.

And it wasn’t just a one-time-thing. We continue to consistently create valuable and relevant content for Best Western Hotels & Resorts every day. Check out the brand’s blog, Best Western Travel Zone, to see how we carefully craft blog content that not only stirs wanderlust in travelers at every point in the consumer journey, but also provides said travelers with insightful and meaningful travel content to aid their next trip and beyond. More of a visual learner? Head over to the brand’s YouTube channel. There you’ll find a veritable video smorgasbord to inspire, inform, and invite today’s travelers into the brand’s 4,700 locations in more than 100 countries worldwide.

We can help you, too! Our team of content marketing experts is eager to develop a content marketing strategy that helps you meet your objectives and create a roadmap to your success. Drop us a line today, and see how we can be an extension of your own team.

At Ideas Collide, we craft, launch, and maintain successful content marketing strategies for many of our clients across diverse industries.

Valuable, relevant, and consistent are the keywords there. You want to create content that will be meaningful to your audience and reinforce your brand’s credibility.