Earlier this year, I wrote a post about the impact of content marketing in 2013. Since that time, more than a few people have wanted to know more about what I meant… what is content marketing? How can I use it to help grow my business? Is it expensive? So, I thought it would be a good idea to address these questions in a follow-up post discussing what content marketing means to me. Every day, thousands of blog posts are written, thousands of hours of content is being uploaded to YouTube, and millions of people are posting and sharing on social networks. Yes, it can be hard to sift through everything. The idea behind content marketing is that your customers won’t NEED to. If your customers trust you to provide leading, cutting-edge reports on trends, ideas and innovations within your industry, then why would they need to look elsewhere for the same content? If you can make this information accessible, fun and engaging, then this virtually eliminates the need to look to sources such as trade magazines, big media companies and RSS feeds to find the information that’s relevant to their area of interest. Content marketing is why Pepsi can offer an interactive home page that streams Tweets, video and content from a number of sources. There is seemingly no connection between Pepsi and the music industry, but Pepsi has honed in on the types of people it hopes to attract, and can thereby zero in on their interests. In a sense, it’s no longer about the drink (that’s always the bottom line), but it’s about the entertainment value and perceived relationship between the music fans and their soft drink choices. People can go to Pepsi Pulse to learn more about their favorite artists, watch video coverage of new and interesting things in entertainment, and potentially even see their own Tweets broadcast on the Pepsi home page. Companies that embrace that their brands aren’t just about the products that they sell will have much more success further down the line. The association may only be psychological, but with all other things equal, pop culture music fans regularly exposed to the Pepsi brand are more likely to choose Pepsi amongst competitors. Your content strategy doesn’t need to be limited to the product you sell. Writing, blogging and reporting about things that may be of interest to your followers is a great way to build relationships – you may run a small furniture store, but your funny cat meme you post early on a Monday morning will help bring smiles to the faces of your fans. [quote] Engaging with your followers on a personal level is extremely important. To learn more about our expertise in brand engagement, give us a ring at 407.839.8599. [/quote] One important thing to remember is that the content you’re pushing out should be high quality. If you own a small fashion retailer, writing uninformed, keyword-oriented posts about subjects you know little about will come across as fluff, and may even dilute your brand. Think you don’t have the finances to run an effective content strategy? Try hiring an agency like ours on an ongoing basis, and see if you don’t see notable returns after three months, which is the about the amount of time most companies report seeing increases in business upon implementing SEO strategies. The team at our Orlando advertising agency bets that you’ll see a significant bang for your buck in terms of more, higher-quality clients and sales.