Content marketing allows businesses to build trust and credibility with their audience. But it’s important to remember what content is not:
- Content is not advertising.
- Content is not product information.
Content is more like a classroom, a place where people go to learn. To the content provider, this is good because they can build an engaged audience.
It’s good for content users too. People want information that helps them make buying decisions. Smart businesses are filling that need by becoming publishers of solution-oriented content.
To understand exactly what customers want and need to know, companies have to listen. That’s become a lot easier now because of social media. In the interaction that takes place, content marketing is ideally situated to attract customers with their knowledge-based content.
In Junta42’s white paper How to Attract and Retain Customers with Content Now, content marketing is defined as:
…the art of understanding exactly what your customers need to know, and delivering it to them in a relevant and compelling way to grow your business.
This requires actively engaging with your audience of potential and actual customers, either by soliciting their questions and feedback, or by tuning into the conversations people in your target market are having on social media.
