The web has its own place in content marketing

While print definitely has its role to play in a successful content marketing strategy, so does the web. With options that seem to be expanding daily, companies need to figure out the best way for them to reach customers across all platforms efficiently, while staying true to their brand.

What is content marketing?

Whether you call it content marketing, custom publishing or branded media, these marketing terms refer to the development, production and delivery of information designed to build a relationship of trust and loyalty with the sponsor’s customers, so they regard the sponsor as the vender of choice when they make purchasing decisions. This is accomplished by providing content that meets the needs and suits the tastes of the sponsor’s target market. It serves the interests of the audience, rather than overtly plugging products and services the way ads do.

The benefits of the web

Web content marketing generally involves providing information that is interesting and relevant to a specific demographic on a corporate website, social media, blogs, microsites, ebooks, white papers, webcasts, digital magazines and enewsletters.

The main benefits of incorporating the web into your content marketing strategy are interactivity and flexibility. Creating a web presence is relatively easy to start and frequently update, and it enables you to begin an ongoing dialogue with your prospects and customers.

By providing online forums, allowing people to post replies to your blog posts, and becoming active on social media sites such as twitter and facebook, you add an element of interactivity that isn’t available in print mediums such as magazines. You can display your personality, create a dialogue and establish bonds with your customers in a unique way.

Because there are no printing costs associated with adding content to the web, there is a greater flexibility in being able to update your content more often. You can do more testing and make changes as needed, thereby keeping things fresh and encouraging customers to visit your website more frequently.

Enewsletters are a great way to keep in touch with current and future consumers and drive traffic to your website and generate feedback. They can also be tracked to display behavior patterns and capture data.

As with printed elements of content marketing, the sales aspect the majority of your web content should be somewhat subliminal and the editorial overtly valuable. While product descriptions and sales pitches certainly have a place on your website,  genuine efforts to entertain or educate your client base with blog posts, enewsletters and twitter posts will be rewarded in a more loyal and profitable following.

Print has a place in content marketing

“Print is on its way to the grave,” proclaim some publishers, influential and otherwise, as the internet and mobile technologies continue to innovate at mind blowing speeds. Print is not dead, nor suffering a terminal illness. In fact, statistics from the 2009 Power of Print conference in Barcelona show that print advertising still holds the largest share of global advertising revenues.

Print definitely has a role to play in a successful content marketing strategy.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is the creation and distribution of content designed to engage current and prospective customers by delivering valuable and relevant information that prompts buying behavior. An effective content marketing strategy will integrate the strengths of the print and other mediums in one ongoing campaign.

The benefits of print

Print content marketing commonly takes the form of magazines, newsletters, whitepapers and books. People develop close bonds with their print companions. Magazines are a trusted friend that can be curled up on the couch with. They sit on the coffee table day after day and are flipped through more than once. Print’s relationship with its readers is intimate and loyal, the medium most like a marriage.

A 2009 study by Magazines Canada showed that magazines ranked number one over any other marketing medium when it came to providing ideas, being informative, containing important details, carrying the most helpful and trusted ads and being relevant.

As a business, you can brand your own print publication that creates this same relationship with readers if you keep it credible and truly useful. The sales aspect of content marketing should be somewhat subliminal and the editorial overtly valuable. Your genuine efforts to educate your client base will be rewarded in a more loyal and profitable following.