Definition: Content marketing is a strategy that involves creating and sharing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a target audience… It’s a long-term approach that focuses on building a strong relationship with customers1.

This is rather a long-winded way of describing what content marketing really is. The below might be an easier-to-digest description:

“Communicating without selling … That differentiates content marketing from a lot of other parts of marketing. It’s more about education. It’s about investing in the audience. It’s about answering questions and being a helpful resource for our audience.”

Monica Norton

Head of content marketing, Yelp

Content marketing encompasses the aspects of marketing which engage with the client but do not directly sell them anything. These can include:

  • Articles;
  • Newsletters;
  • Podcasts;
  • Blog posts;
  • Webinars;
  • How-to guides;
  • Infographics;
  • E-books;
  • Case studies.

Case studies help share useful and relevant information to attract and retain target audiences. Creating good case studies takes time, resources and skill, but they are an effective method for communicating and demonstrating your brand, knowledge and expertise. Using tangible examples in your case studies helps your audience identify with your brand so it's top of mind when they are shopping for your services. 

Is this necessary for my business?

Put simply, yes. Content marketing can – and should – be used by businesses of all sizes and in all industries. It is a proven way to put your industry authority at the forefront of people’s minds. However, this of course takes time, skill and effort, and in addition is a long-term plan. But sewing the seeds now will enable you to reap the success later, so now is always a good time to start.

In this article, we will guide you through setting up your content marketing strategy, advise you on the benefits of this for your business and inform you of the different types of content marketing that your business could undertake.

Content marketing is a great way to engage with potential clients, increase your visibility in the market, and show your business as an authority, so, if you aren’t already following a strategy, do read and follow this guide to start your journey.

In this article we will consider:

  • How content marketing can help to grow your business?

  • What types of content are there?

  • How to measure engagement and the importance of doing this.

  • The importance of consistency.

  • How to create your content.

  • Conclusions, including key points and actions.

So firstly, let’s look at the benefits.

1. How can content marketing help to grow your business?

You run a well-respected financial advisory firm that has a thriving client portfolio and a great client retention rate. But you know you can do more and appeal to a wider audience. So how do you get there?

You could undertake a recruitment drive to encourage referrals from your existing clients or advertise on social media sites. Alternatively, you could put into place a strategy to gain a steady flow of new clients, requiring an ongoing commitment of time, but one which is manageable and which could be outsourced if preferred.

The latter is a great option – and this is where content marketing comes in.

Before you start thinking about content marketing, you need to have your other key marketing components in place. Have you built your brand, is your client reporting software in place and have you considered how you are driving traffic to your website and social media pages?

If you have all these in place and working for you, then content marketing will be the fuel that drives this engine and optimises the delivery!

Content marketing can help your business to grow by:

Attracting your target audience: by providing valuable and relevant content you can engage with a loyal audience, leading to increased brand awareness and customer engagement.

Improving search engine optimisation (SEO): creating and sharing quality content improves a website’s search engine ranking, which makes it more prominent and easier to find.

Generating leads: demonstrating your knowledge and expertise in your field builds trust with potential clients, which in turn translates to increased leads and customers.

Demonstrating you and/or your staff as thought leaders: publishing, or commenting on, high-quality articles and white papers raises your business’s standing and sets you apart as a leader in the industry, thereby strengthening your reputation and credibility.

But what content do you need to create to achieve this?

2. What types of content are there?

There are many methods by which you can engage with your clients. These include:

  • Articles (including how-to guides, blogs, comments and case studies);
  • Videos;
  • Animations;
  • White papers;
  • Webinars;
  • Podcasts;
  • In-person events;
  • E-books;
  • Infographics.

 

  • Articles

    Articles could include blogs, a commentary (perhaps about something you have read, relevant to your industry), a view on a new product or a thought piece. These can be published on a variety of platforms, but one of the most effective ways is to put it on your website and link back to it within your post.

    Let’s look at the ideal parameters for publishing online:

    LinkedIn: for LinkedIn articles, the best length is 1,900 to 2,000 words1 and for a LinkedIn post, the ideal length (according to LinkedIn themselves) is 300 to 500 words.

    Facebook: you should aim for 40 to 80 characters (a figure which is based on Facebook’s algorithm and research, showing posts of this length tend to receive higher engagement rates). For longer articles, it is best to provide a quick synopsis and then a link directing your audience to your website where they can access the full copy.

    Twitter: the length of a tweet is set to expand to 4,000 characters. In its present form, research says that to ensure maximum engagement, 71-100 characters is the optimum length.2

    Blogs: naturally, the length of a blog post will vary depending on the topic, the depth of information and your audience, but aiming for at least 300 to 800 words is generally recommended. Longer posts of 1,000 words or more can enable you to rank higher in search engines, so there is a benefit to writing these, but you may find shorter posts are easier to engage with.

  • Videos

    These work well on many platforms including Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and TikTok. As with written content, try not to make them too long and keep the content engaging and focused. You can measure your success through shares, likes and comments to track your success with this format.

  • Animations

    These are a brilliant way to explain more complex topics, enabling the audience to understand and take away the key messages easily. They are also great to share, so work well on the same platforms as the videos. Try to keep them to the point and easy to engage with. You will most likely need to contract with a professional company to make your animation. Look at sites like Dribbble, Behance or Vimeo for suggestions of animation studios.

  • White papers

    Publishing a white paper is a great way to demonstrate authority in your industry. A white paper often takes the form of an in-depth report or guide which educates and informs potential customers about a particular topic, issue or new technology. Of course, writing a white paper takes significant time and research, so an alternative to publishing your own would be to comment on a paper written by another asset manager and use this to support and educate your clients.

    To promote your white paper or your commentary on an asset manager’s white paper, LinkedIn Articles are a great option, but publishing it on your website, too, enables you to link back to it through shorter Facebook posts, Tweets, or Instagram posts or reels. After writing the paper or commentary, you want to make sure it is read – so promote, promote, promote!

  • Podcasts

    Creating a series of podcasts focusing on different topics is a brilliant way to engage potential customers whilst demonstrating your industry knowledge. Podcasts can be any length, but the important aspect is to ensure that the content is engaging so that your listeners don’t switch off! You can publish your podcasts on numerous platforms, including iTunes, Spotify, Google and Soundcloud to name but a few. Keep track of the number of downloads and subscribers to see the impact and audience. 

Action: Think about your business and what style of content marketing would reach your target audience.

Consider:
Your available resources – what capacity do you have and what budget is available?
Your audience – be clear on the demographic that you are looking to reach
Your content – what sort of content is most appropriate for your target audience? Your reach – what platforms would your target audience engage with the most?

Write down this information to use when engaging with your in-house content marketing team or external partner to design your content marketing plan.

3. How to measure engagement and the importance of doing this

As with all changes you make to your business, it is important to measure their impact and ensure that the changes have positive results. You need to know that there is a benefit to the actions.

There are certain metrics that you can track which are clear indicators of engagement with your audience.

  • Traffic to your website or blog

    You can track these using tools like Analytics which provide detailed insights into your website traffic, including the number of visitors, where they are located, which pages they visit and how they found your site. Use this information to make informed decisions on how to optimise your content marketing strategy.

  • Engagement

    On certain platforms you can easily track the number of likes, comments and shares for your posts. Determine which posts generate the most engagement and then analyse which content is driving people towards these.

  • Brand awareness through tracking tools

    These provide important insight into your brand’s online presence and performance. Using the data they provide will ensure you can monitor, measure and maximise your content marketing. Tools to look out for include Hootsuite Insight, Brand24 and Mention.

  • Lead generation

    Track the number of newsletter subscribers, meeting requests and contact form completions to see how many leads your content marketing plan has generated.

  • Conversion rate

    By knowing how many visitors you had to your website, for example, you can then work out the percentage conversion rate by seeing how many of these completed a desired action – for example, filled in a contact form, or requested to go on your email list. 

Action: Look at online measurement tools to become familiar with them.
The data for many of these measures is easy to find and quick to set up, so take a little time to start looking at Google Analytics (or other similar tools) and track which sort of posts gave you the most likes, follows and shares. These tools and platforms have been designed to be as instinctive an experience as possible, so don’t fear them, but take the opportunity to engage with them and understand the value of their information.

4. The importance of consistency

You’re keen to get started with your content marketing plan, by posting an article, a video or recording a podcast, but before you begin there is one key message which cannot be highlighted enough: be consistent.

By being consistent across your marketing, you will:

  • Build brand recognition;
  • Establish trust with your audience;
  • Enable SEO to improve search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your website;
  • Increase engagement and traffic, which should then increase leads and therefore sales.

Let’s consider these in more detail:

  • Building brand recognition

    Using consistent content will help you to demonstrate a clear brand identity and unified message. Using the same colours and fonts, along with tone and hashtags, will make your company easily identifiable and your content stand out.

  • Establish trust with your audience

    Being a consistent provider of reliable, high-quality information shows your audience that you are a go-to knowledge source for your industry. With this base of trust, you can hope to gain more business leads, which may translate to an increase in your customer base.

  • Enable search engine optimisation (SEO)

    Providing regular and consistent quality content can raise your SEO profile, meaning that your website ranks higher in search engine results, you reach a wider audience and traffic to your website increases as a result.

  • Increase engagement

    More followers and a larger audience can lead to greater customer interaction with shares, comments and likes on your posts.

    Your objective, when designing your content marketing strategy, is to be uniform and provide high-quality content. Keep branding consistent, keep your message and company values at the forefront of everything you produce and enable your business to be seen by as large an audience as possible.

5. How to create your content

You can create your content or use external partners to design this for you, and there are pros and cons for each.

Using an external partner to create content:

Pros:

Expertise: An external partner will be skilled at creating quality content.

Timesaving: Passing the design and creation of content to an external party will free up capacity for you and your staff to concentrate on the elements of business in which you are an expert.

New ideas: Using an external partner or agency may bring fresh ideas and different perspectives to your content process.

Cost-effective: Outsourcing may prove less expensive than recruiting new permanent staff or paying for training.

Cons:

Lack of insight: Your new partner may not fully understand your business, its tone or its message. The content they create may not align with your desired style.

Dependency: You may become dependent on the partner, which could prove difficult if the relationship ends.

Communication: Inefficient communication can lead to delays, increased expense and frustration.

Creating your content can provide a welcome break from business as usual, but is it a good idea? Let’s have a look at the pros and cons for each:

Pros:

Brand consistency: Using a team in-house can ensure that your brand image and message can be consistent across all content throughout your business.

Knowledge: An in-house team will have full knowledge of your company’s products, services and quality that you deliver. They can ensure accurate, tailored content that aligns with your business objectives.

Control: Creating content in-house enables full control at every stage of the process.

Cons:

Time-consuming: Your content team will have to be removed from other tasks, meaning that you may need to redistribute or delay these.

Lack of skills: An in-house team may not have the expertise to carry out content creation to a high standard. You may, therefore, need to invest in training, which will carry cost and time implications.

Cost: Whilst it may seem initially that producing content in-house is less expensive, the investment in time, training and redistribution of tasks may mean that it is more expensive than you first anticipated.

Action:
Consider the above lists, thinking about your priorities, capacity and skills, to determine whether you create content in-house or outsource to a partner.

Conclusion

Content marketing is one of the key ways to engage your audience through the creation and sharing of articles, videos, podcasts and other media. In doing this, you will establish your business as a trusted expert in your industry. Through brand promotion, content media will ensure that your business is at the top of your audience’s mind when it becomes the time to buy.

Putting this into action: next steps

The theory is useful but putting it into practice may feel quite daunting. Here are five straightforward steps you can take to begin your content marketing strategy.

  • Define your target audience

    Consider the mediums and platforms they would most likely engage with and focus on these for your content marketing. Ensure your business has a presence on these platforms.

  • Content

    Decide whether you will be creating content in-house or engaging with an external partner. For an in-house team, you will need to consider capacity and reallocate work as needed, and if you're working with an external agency, you can use our briefing form. 

  • Create a content calendar

    Create a content calendar with your in-house team or external partner so your marketing strategy has a clear purpose and goal.

  • Create content using various formats

    Create content using various formats (for example articles, videos and podcasts) but always keep them aligned with your brand and values. Distribute these through multiple channels (including social media platforms, publishing on your website and emailing newsletters).

  • Measure

    Measure how your strategy is performing by checking tools like Google Analytics and recording likes, shares and comments.

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1 Shapiro, P., How to Post on LinkedIn, 2022 

2 Source: Track Social

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