At the start of the 20th century, Jell-O’s door-to-door salesman handed out millions of copies of a Jell-O recipe booklet in what is one of the earliest instances of content marketing. By providing useful, relevant and interesting content to homes across the country, these salesmen helped propel Jell-O to its status as an iconic, and highly successful, an American brand.
The heart of content marketing has changed little since those well-dressed men knocked on doors promoting their jiggly dessert with free cookbooks and Jell-O moulds. Content marketing still delivers results by providing a receptive audience with educational, entertaining and engaging information they can put to use in their lives today.
The desired result of any marketing effort is to turn a lead into a customer. Traditional marketing methods intrude upon customers, providing information a company wants the consumer to hear. The focus of this method is on the company.
Content marketing works to attract qualified customers because it puts a primary focus on the relationship between you and a customer. Relationships with companies matter to customers in today’s market, particularly after the rise in social media.
Content marketing also attracts leads who already have an interest in what you offer them so the potential to convert those leads into sales goes up significantly. Traditional marketing targets everyone. Content marketing targets those who are already looking for what you can provide and are ready to do business with you.
Content marketing puts the focus on the consumer, providing what the consumer needs not just what a company thinks they need. Potential customers find a company as they search for information to fill a need they have. And in this way, you build a relationship with customers and clients built upon interaction rather than an intrusion.
Take the Jell-O cookbook for example. A new product hit store shelves but people didn’t know how to use it. The free cookbook featured favourite recipes from celebrities and Jell-O promised to save time and labour. The cookbook filled a consumer need, providing the information they wanted and could use.
Content marketing takes on many forms but no matter the form, it must meet one criterion. The content must provide useful information to the customer. Content marketing mediums include:
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