What is Content Driven Marketing?
Content-driven marketing is about creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a target audience. It combines useful information, entertainment, and storytelling to build relationships with customers and entice them to interact with the brand.
This approach has evolved from traditional marketing practices, where companies solely rely on advertising and promotional techniques to reach their target audience.
Content driven marketing integrates various digital marketing tactics, such as:
- SEO
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
- Influencer partnerships
To create a seamless and engaging experience for consumers.
The key aspect of content-driven marketing is understanding the needs, interests, and pain points of the target audience. This builds resonance with your audience and establishes you as a thought leader in your industry.
Content-driven marketing is about delivering the right content, to the right people, at the right time to drive profitable customer action. It is a strategy that requires consistent effort, creativity, and a deep understanding of the target audience.
And the effort is totally worth it. Let me show you:
The Benefits of Content-Driven Marketing
One of the key advantages of content driven marketing is its cost-effectiveness.
Compared to traditional advertising methods, creating and distributing content online is often much more affordable.
Additionally, content marketing has been shown to generate 3x as many leads as traditional outbound marketing tactics, such as paid advertising.
The key reason behind this effectiveness is the fact content driven marketing enhances brand recognition and establishes credibility within your industry.
Posting valuable content consistently positions your brand as a trusted source of information, leading to increased brand loyalty and customer retention.
Consumer preferences also play a crucial role in the success of content-driven marketing.
Customers are more likely to engage with and trust content, such as blogs, social media posts, and videos, over traditional ads. In fact, 82% of consumers prefer to learn about a company through content.
Another significant benefit of content driven marketing is its ability to drive lower costs with higher ROI. 89% of marketers claim content provides better ROI than traditional marketing methods
By now, you’re most likely convinced of the power of content (and if not, we have some extra content stats for you).
Let’s see how you should start implementing content-driven marketing into your business.
Creating a Successful Content Strategy
Good content happens only when it’s strategic. A well-thought-out plan will ensure that your content is targeted, relevant, and engaging, ultimately driving profitable customer action.
The elements of a good content strategy involve:
- Customer research: You must know who you’re trying to reach with your content and how to do so most effectively.
- Content Mission Statement: Here, you decide how ow your content will help the audience thrive
- Content Creation Strategy: This involves determining what types of content you will create, such as blog posts, videos, infographics, etc., and how often you will produce them.
- Content Distribution Strategy: How will you get your content in front of your audience? This includes choosing the right platforms, such as social media, email, or your website, to share your content.
- Content Calendar: A content calendar is essential for staying organized and ensuring consistent content publishing. It helps you plan what content you will create, when it will be published, and on which platform.
If you plan to create blog content, for example, you will also have to consider incorporating SEO to increase visibility and drive organic traffic to your website.
Finally, you have to measure it all and optimize it over time. Monitor metrics such as:
- page views,
- time on page
- conversion rates
To understand what content resonates with your audience and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Here’s a table of some key content metrics a company can track, broken down into categories for better understanding:
| Category | Metric | Description | Why It Matters |
| Website Traffic | Website Visitors | Total number of people visiting your site in a given period. | Baseline understanding of reach. |
| Unique Visitors | Number of individuals visiting your site (removing repeat visits). | Shows how many new people you’re attracting. | |
| Traffic Sources | Where visitors come from (search engines, social media, referrals, etc.). | Helps focus efforts on the most effective acquisition channels. | |
| Bounce Rate | Percentage of visitors leaving after only one pageview. | May indicate low-quality content or poor user experience. | |
| Time on Page | Average time spent on a page. | Suggests level of content engagement. | |
| Engagement | Pageviews | Total number of pages viewed. | Shows how deeply visitors explore your content. |
| SEO (Search Engine Optimization) | Keyword Rankings | Your content’s position in search engine results pages (SERPs) for target keywords. | Track visibility and search performance. |
| Leads and Conversions | Conversion Rate | Percentage of visitors completing a desired action (e.g., filling a form, making a purchase). | Measures how effectively content drives business goals. |
| Email Marketing | Open Rate | Percentage of recipients who open your emails. | Indicates effectiveness of your subject lines. |
| Click-Through Rate (CTR) | Percentage of people clicking on links or CTAs within your content. | Measures how well content motivates action. | |
| Organic Search Traffic | Website traffic coming from search engines with no paid promotion. | Measures success in attracting visitors organically. | |
| Cost Per Lead (CPL) | The cost of acquiring a single lead through your content marketing. | Helps gauge the efficiency of your lead generation efforts. | |
| Click-Through Rate | Percentage of recipients who click on links in your emails | Measures how well your email content motivates action. | |
| Unsubscribe Rate | Percentage of people unsubscribing from your email list. | May signal low-quality content or irrelevant targeting. | |
| Social Shares | Number of times content is shared on social platforms. | Indicates how well content resonates and potential for viral reach. | |
| Lead Source | Where a lead came from (e.g., a specific blog post, ebook download). | Identifies content that generates the most qualified leads. |
Important Considerations:
- Goals: The most important metrics depend on your specific business goals (brand awareness, lead generation, sales, etc.).
- Tools: To track these metrics accurately, use tools like Google Analytics, social media analytics, and marketing automation platforms.
- Context: Don’t track metrics in isolation. Analyze them over time, compared to benchmarks, and alongside qualitative user feedback to get a full picture of content performance
What type of marketing content you should create
There are two types of content a company can create. Here’s a deep dive into both of those types with their pros and cons:
Evergreen content
Evergreen content remains relevant and valuable to the audience over time. It is not tied to specific events or trends and can continue to drive traffic and engagement long after it is published. Examples of evergreen content include how-to guides, informative articles, and educational videos.
Evergreen content is essential for building a strong foundation of valuable resources for your audience. It can help improve your website’s search engine ranking, attract new visitors, and establish your brand as an authority in your industry.
Timely content:
Timely content, on the other hand, is content that is relevant to current events, trends, or specific seasons. This type of content is often time-sensitive and may have a shorter shelf life compared to evergreen content.
Examples of timely content include holiday promotions, industry news updates, and product launches.
Timely content is important for staying relevant and engaging with your audience in real-time. It can help you capitalize on trending topics, drive traffic during specific periods, and show your audience that your brand is up-to-date and responsive.
Which content is best?
Incorporating both evergreen and timely content into your content strategy can help you balance creating lasting value for your audience and staying current and engaging with current events.
However, if you’re short on time for content creation, I recommend prioritizing evergreen content. This type of content is a long-term investment into your marketing. You’ll reap its benefits over years to come.
For the timely content, save it for smaller, less time-consuming formats, such as social media posts. This will prevent you from trend-hopping and churning out lots of content with a short lifespan.
By understanding the differences between these two types of content and strategically incorporating them into your content plan, you can create a well-rounded and effective content marketing strategy that resonates with your audience and drives profitable customer action.
Implementing Content Across Platforms
You might have heard the phrase “content has become a commodity.”
While I don’t think it’s entirely true, I agree that trying to focus on one platform alone is too little to tap into content marketing’s full potential.
Implementing content across multiple platforms is essential for reaching and engaging your target audience. Each platform offers unique opportunities for connecting with customers and driving brand awareness, making it crucial to tailor your content to suit each medium.
Social Media:
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are powerful tools for distributing content and engaging with your audience. When using social media for content marketing, consider the following strategies:
- Create a content calendar specifically for social media to ensure consistent posting and engagement.
- Utilize a mix of content formats, including images, videos, infographics, and user-generated content, to keep your audience engaged.
- Tailor your content for each platform by considering the unique audience demographics, preferences, and behaviors of each platform.
- Use social media analytics to track engagement, reach, and conversions, and adjust your content strategy accordingly.
For example, Rare Beauty is utilizing stunning visuals on their Instagram while keeping a more conversational, laid-back tone on their Twitter account:
Blogs:
Blogging is an effective way to provide valuable information, establish thought leadership, and drive organic traffic to your website. When creating blog content, consider the following strategies:
- Conduct keyword research to identify topics that resonate with your audience and align with your brand’s expertise.
- Incorporate SEO best practices, such as optimizing meta tags, headers, and content structure, to improve search engine visibility.
- Include internal and external links to relevant content to boost SEO and provide additional value to readers.
- Encourage reader engagement through comments, social sharing, and calls-to-action to drive conversions.
Our fantastic client, VeryCreatives, is using in-depth blog content to explain the complex world of building a SaaS:
Video Content:
Video has become a dominant force in content marketing, with platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels offering opportunities to engage with audiences through visual storytelling. When creating video content, consider the following strategies:
- Choose the right video format based on your goals, audience preferences, and platform requirements (e.g., live videos, tutorials, product demos).
- Optimize your videos for search by using relevant keywords, tags, and descriptions to increase visibility on platforms like YouTube.
- Incorporate storytelling elements, visual appeal, and clear calls-to-action to keep viewers engaged and encourage action.
- Promote your videos across multiple platforms, such as social media, email, and your website, to reach a wider audience and drive traffic back to your site.
When implementing video content, Nike created workout tutorials, motivational clips, and behind-the-scenes content to showcase its products and engage with its audience.
Cross-Channel Promotion:
Cross-channel promotion involves leveraging multiple platforms to promote your content and reach a wider audience. By integrating your content across platforms, you can amplify its reach, engagement, and impact. Consider the following strategies for cross-channel promotion:
- Share blog posts on social media and in email newsletters to drive traffic and encourage engagement.
- Repurpose video content into blog posts, social media clips, and email campaigns to maximize its reach and effectiveness.
- Use social media platforms to promote upcoming webinars, events, or product launches and drive registrations and attendance.
- Collaborate with influencers or industry partners to expand your reach and leverage their audience to promote your content.
By implementing cross-channel promotion, a fashion brand could share its blog posts on social media, feature influencer collaborations on its website, and include video content in its email campaigns to create a cohesive and engaging brand experience across platforms.
Tailoring Content for Different Media:
To effectively engage with your audience and drive brand awareness, it’s essential to tailor your content for different media. Consider the following strategies for adapting your content to suit each platform:
- Create short, attention-grabbing social media posts with eye-catching visuals and concise captions to encourage engagement.
- Craft long-form blog posts with in-depth analysis, detailed information, and actionable takeaways to provide value and establish thought leadership.
- Produce visually appealing and dynamic videos with clear storytelling, engaging visuals, and compelling calls-to-action to captivate and inspire your audience.
By tailoring your content for different media, a wellness brand could create bite-sized social media posts highlighting quick and easy wellness tips, detailed blog posts exploring the science behind different wellness practices, and informative videos showcasing workouts and healthy recipes to cater to various audience preferences and behaviors.
Conclusion
Content driven marketing is a powerful strategy for engaging with your audience, building brand awareness, and driving profitable customer action.
By creating valuable and relevant content across multiple platforms, tailoring your content to suit each medium, and implementing cross-channel promotion, you can reach and engage with a wider audience while establishing your brand as a trusted source of information and thought leadership.
If you’re ready to get started and unlock the full potential of content driven marketing for your brand, let’s plan it together! Grab a spot from our calendar below and book a free content strategy session with me:
