Have you ever read an article on a company’s website or watched a video on their blog that had you thinking about it later and perhaps even revisiting their site later to see what else they may have posted?
Have you participated in a company’s interactive content or learned a new skill from reading or watching its content?
That’s just some of what good content marketing can do.
By creating brand awareness and engaging users, good content marketing can transform your business and bottom line. It can take a blog, website, and social media posts and create a cohesive and effective marketing campaign that will position your business as an authority in your industry. When readers perceive you as an expert, they will turn to your business when they need the product or service you sell.
What does a content marketer do?
A content marketer is someone who creates engaging print, visual, and video content that can be used by organizations to engage with their audience.
They get involved in all aspects of content creation, from planning what to say to deciding where to post the content for maximum impact.
While a content marketer may outsource the actual writing or producing of the content, he or she is directly involved in outlining the message and communicating to the content producer what the finished product should look like.
Content marketers can be in-house employees or partners from outside of your company.
What are content marketing skills?
To be successful as a content marketer, a person needs to first be a great communicator.
Not only will they be communicating with their online audience, but they also need to communicate to team members and freelancers what they want to see in the content.
A content marketer also needs a comprehensive knowledge of the nuances and audiences for each social media platform as well as the company’s buyer personas for each product or service it offers.
Content marketers also need to be familiar with the many different types of content and know where to use each effectively.
What makes a good content marketer?
A good content marketer has all of the traits of a good marketing partner. He or she is reliable, has strong communication skills, and works well independently without the need to be micro-managed.
In addition, however, he or she is creative and can take somewhat mundane information (dare we say boring) and make it interesting and easy for readers to digest.
Examples of effective content marketing
Good content marketing comes in all shapes and sizes. Just a few good examples of effective (and fun) content marketing include:
1. Canva’s Design School
Canva, the Australian graphic design platform, teaches users how to create engaging images without a lot of skill or expensive software. It showcases all of the design possibilities Canva offers in a non-sales, educational format.
The campaign also features the #CanvaDesignChallenge, which offers awards and prizes for the top-five weekly unique and original images submitted by users.
2. Chewy’s YouTube videos
Chewy, the online purveyor of pet food, toys, and other related items, has created a series of excellent how-to videos on YouTube, covering topics from “How to Teach Your Dog to Go to Bed” to “A Day in the Life of a Pet Rescue”.
The channel, nicknamed “ChewTube” goes a long way toward establishing Chewy as the go-to company for all things pet-related. Many of the videos have more than one million views. Of course, all of the videos include links to where users can purchase related items on Chewy.com.
Watch Chewy on YouTube:
3. “The Washington Post” on Tik Tok
You wouldn’t necessarily think of the venerable “Washington Post” newspaper in the same sentence as Tik Tok. However, the news outlet has created a fun content marketing campaign and engaged a whole new segment of the population on the trendy social media platform.
The “Post’s” Tik Tok videos offer a light and humorous look at history, current events, and politics with links to the newspaper’s website. They must be doing something right. They currently have more than 1.5 million followers.
4. Jake from State Farm
Who isn’t familiar with Jake? The insurance powerhouse, State Farm, has created a likable, relatable “spokesperson” in Jake and promotes this long-running campaign across all of their marketing channels, from cable TV to Facebook.
Jake answers common insurance questions and makes an often-confusing product (auto insurance) easier to understand.
Watch Jake from State Farm:
5. Indeed’s “New Beginning” commercial on YouTube
You don’t always need dozens or hundreds of unique posts to make an impact. Indeed, the job recruiting platform created a single commercial title “New Beginning” to appeal to companies looking to hire new employees.
The commercial has little dialogue but uses images to emphasize the stress that goes into a face-to-face interview and how potential employees who are “different” may be overlooked, causing the company to miss a great opportunity.
Since we’re all “different” in some way and all have been on that stressful interview, it’s a message that’s universal and very relatable, both for businesses and individuals.
Watch “New Beginning” on YouTube:
6. Wordle by the “New York Times”
The digital word game, Wordle is a “New York Times” product that seeks to engage new users to the century-old news site. The game, which gives users five chances to guess daily word puzzle isn’t binge-worthy like some online games. It only occupies a few minutes of a user’s day.
Yet, it keeps them returning each day for a new challenge… And perhaps clicking through to a news story or two. In its short history, the campaign has received more than 15 million organic views and more than 170,000 backlinks.
What a content marketer can do for your business
As we mentioned briefly above, a content marketer will make sure that your content is sending the same message across all of your digital channels in ways that will appeal to that channel’s audience.
For example, while a long-ish “how to” article may be effective on your company’s website, an image is the preferred content on Instagram.
They also make sure that everyone on the content team – whether that’s in-house or outsourced – is pulling in the same direction, thus increasing your marketing department’s efficiency and productivity.
A content marketer is also charged with accountability and how to monitor and quantify the success of a marketing campaign. They are your go-to person or team for how well your content is meeting its goals, whether that is increasing sales, generating leads, or getting people to sign up for a webinar.
Successful content marketing with WriterAccess
Good content marketing can make all the difference in your business and can set your company up for success.
However, you don’t have to do all of the work yourself. A good content marketing partner like WriterAccess can help you meet your content goals, whatever they may be.
We have a stable of more than 15,000 content creators with expertise on a huge variety of subjects as well as content marketing specialists who can help you keep your marketing on point and on track.
We think our track record speaks for itself. To date, we have produced more than two million projects for customers with a 99.97% success rate. We make it easy for you to give us a try with our two-week trial period. Visit us today to get started.
