How does a content marketing agency help businesses grow?
Let's be real: doing your own content marketing isn’t for everyone.
Writing blog posts? Worthwhile, but time consuming.
Making content for social media? Also time consuming.
SEO? It’s mysterious - why does SEO seem like such a black box?
It’s ok to feel this way. But just because you feel this way doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use content marketing to grow your business.
Instead of completely opting out, you might want to consider hiring a content marketing agency to work with you.
"Wait a minute," we hear you saying, "that sounds like it costs money. I want to get my money's worth. How is your business going to grow mine?"
We're glad you asked! Keep reading to find out how a content marketing agency can help grow your business.
What is a Content Marketing Agency?
If you’re like me, you weren’t born digital. I didn’t have social media growing up, and my first few jobs in advertising still involved lots of faxing, if you can believe it.
So, you might be wondering: what on Earth is a content marketing agency?
A content marketing agency is an organization dedicated to helping you get your real message across. We're not like traditional advertisers: we don't fling your products in people's faces and hope something will stick.
Instead, we offer consumers an experience. A piece of content marketing might not mention a particular product at all, but it will feature your brand and its values.
One riveting example of this is “The Hire”, a series of short films from BMW that watched like action-adventure films but showed off the very best features of BMW cars. Guess what? It worked, because in 2001, the year BMW first put out this content, sales went up 12% over the previous year. If you haven’t watched the series, I highly recommend you do. They’re 20 years old at this point, but stand the test of time, in my opinion.
People hungrily consumed those films as soon as they came out. They were flat out entertaining. They featured Madonna. But they also made you want to buy a BMW.
Now, maybe you don't want people to associate your brand with evil villains and unlikely heroes driving too fast. That's valid. What is on brand for BMW is probably not on brand for you. We’ll work with your brand and build your content marketing funnel to create the content and the vibe you want your audience to get.
What's a Content Marketing Funnel?
We go into more detail about that here, but the gist of it is that a content marketing funnel is a way to bring in customers, including having your newly-acquired customers bring others into the fold. We:
Gauge and increase awareness of your brand;
Go about creating further interest in it;
Get customers to seriously consider it;
Lead them to purchase from it; and then
Convince them to advocate on your brand’s behalf.
So, if you want your brand to be a hit with edgy, disillusioned Millennials, we'd orient your content funnel that way. If you want a consumer base of cheerful, pink-loving university students, we'd aim your funnel another way.
Types of Content Marketing
There are all sorts of content marketing tactics out there. Here are just a few of the ones with which we can help you.
Blogs
If you're reading this post, then that's testament enough to the power of blogs. They're informal, informative, and accessible; they hook readers right in. You'll want your posts to reach as many people as possible. That's where search engine optimization—SEO—comes in.
A content marketing agency can not only maximize your posts' SEO potential, but they can even write posts for you. With Kafen8, you don't even have to come up with the ideas yourself (though you certainly can)! Once we get a sense of what you want for your business, we can come up with the rest.
As you continue to regularly post smart content (that, of course, utilizes keywords that your audience searches for), your audience will grow. As your audience grows, so will your prospective customers.
eBooks
Let's say you’re doing great with blog posts, but you realize you need something meatier and even more valuable to use as gated content. Gated content is content that is only available once someone requests it by giving you their email address.
Why not try something like an eBook instead? With an eBook, you can expand the value you give to your website’s readers. Ebooks should reflect your brand’s expertise and should contain content that gives real help to your target audience.
When you share content that’s truly valuable to your target audience, they begin to see you as a trusted resource. When they do become ready to buy, guess who gets into their consideration set? You, the brand that has been giving them valuable resources and information.
Content marketing agencies can (and we, specifically, will) write eBooks for you. We can interview you, one of your team’s subject matter experts, or bring our own research to the topic so that your brand's message will come through loud and clear with our writers’ strategic and skilled help.
Whitepapers
A relative of the blog post and the eBook, a whitepaper (or "white paper") is a report. It's objective and doesn't try to sell anything, but it's also a compelling document. Content-wise, they're more formal than a blog post or an eBook. Whitepapers are for people who are serious about getting deep into your brand.
Whitepapers generally report and distill data. Kafen8 can help do it in a way that’s useful, easy to understand, and is consistent with your content strategy. Are you unsure about writing your own? Don't worry about that—leave it to us.
Lead Magnets
People like getting things for free. It's a proven fact! Why not give something to your potential customers for free? That might sound a little wacky, but hear us out.
Any content you put behind a gate is considered a lead magnet. Whitepapers, eBooks, toolkits, videos, guides, really almost any kind of valuable content can be considered a lead magnet.
When you use a lead magnet, your potential customer gets valuable content, and you get a new member in your audience. As you build your list of subscribers, you can email them to keep them informed of your latest offerings, promotions, and drive more sales.
How Does Any of This Help Your Business?
By now, you've seen what content marketing is and what it can do. An effective content marketing plan will speak to an audience's minds and hearts. It doesn't advertise a product, per se, but it defines you and your brand to the world.
You could go that road alone, or you could hire a content marketing agency to help you. Kafen8 has the skills, experience, and resources necessary to make your brand unforgettable. You'll see that any investment you make in us is an investment in your business—one that'll give you your money's worth in no time flat.
Do You Have Any Questions?
We hope this post has shown you how helpful a content marketing agency could be for your business. Have anything you'd like to ask us? Read a little more about us.
Are you ready to take the leap and trust us with your content marketing plan? Come on over and schedule a meeting with us.
Is there anybody in your world who'd be interested in growing their business with us? Please, share this post.
