Are you a beginner in content marketing?

Do you want to create your own content empire to rule out your industry?

Do you have many thoughts running through your head about content and marketing?

Do you want to create good, valuable content for your audience?

Do you want to become the King of content?

Then you are at the right place to get all these answers in this blog post. So I’m going to give you a detailed overview of Content, Marketing, and all the important things included in Content Marketing. These are:

• Content Inception
• Content Incubation
• Content Manifestation
• Content Administration
• Content Influence

What Is Content Marketing?

According to Content Marketing Institute:

“Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

To understand it simply, let’s dig deep into the content first:

Content has been a key component in human development and an enabler of civilization.

It is very important and it may be a strong claim, but it is true that:

“If the world cannot live without the internet, the internet cannot live without content.”

It is the source of all attention, ‘Online’ or ‘Offline’. 

If you think about all the different channels of digital marketing, you will be able to realize that content is the foundation for every channel.

But there is another key feature of content that interests a marketer i.e. “Content attracts attention”. 

And for attention, you need Marketing, which is about sending the right message, to the right person at the right time.

And marketing is never about selling at all; rather, it is about keeping a customer happy and communicating with them so that they can remain a customer for life. (You can  read about Marketing later here.)

So in simple words, we can say that “Content marketing is a process of  educating the customers/audiences  by getting their attention to the point where they are convinced to buy the product from the brand.”

And this process can be simply defined into two steps:

• Attract the attention of your target customers using relevant, useful & quality content.
• Use that attention to convert all your prospects into customers through interest, desire, and action.

Why is content marketing important?

Content marketing is important because it takes priority in digital marketing compared to all other modules. 

There is no doubt that it forms the foundation of all digital marketing activities because it creates trust and Trust is the most important currency of the business world.

One of the most important benefits of content marketing is the trust it creates with customers. 

For example, the free content I publish on this blog has helped to create trust with you.

Apart from these benefits, content marketing forms the top-of-the-funnel content for any business, which drives more visitors to the funnel. So, more content means a wider top of the funnel and more visitors entering your funnel.

Content Marketing wouldn’t make much sense if it does not fit into the well-known marketing funnel AIDA. (Attention, Interest, Desire & Action).

Content is a tool to attract the attention of prospects. 

However, there is no use in attracting attention (generating traffic) if that attention cannot be used to convert prospects into customers.

So, You have to convert the “Attention into Conversion ”. And Conversion part includes the remaining funnel i.e. Interest, Desire, and Action.

Evolution Of Content Marketing

Now let’s dig deep into: How content has evolved over time…

Advertising needs attention.

Attention needs content.

Without content, there are no ads. Ads interrupt people with commercial messages when people are reading.

For instance, when you look at the daily newspapers, magazines, tv, and all other traditional media, all are creating the content.

When content is created then we all go ahead and publish ads in the middle of the content.

So the Publishers used to charge advertisers for putting the ads in the middle of the content but the content was the one that was getting attention in the first place.

Therefore publishers and media companies hadn’t done anything to sell or monetize the audience and then reinvest in content creation.

So they depend on the advertisers to keep the money rolling in for their living. 

And this is what was happening for a very long time until the age of digital startups.

And due to the absence of digital media Brands are unable to publish their content.

( Just imagine you are a brand at that time that was selling cars, instead of publishing your newspapers, you would obviously choose to leverage the content of publishers.)

What’s changed now is that today every brand can become a publisher and the internet has leveled the playing field.

Like right now I create content.

I don’t have a newspaper license.

I don’t have my own TV & Radio channel.

I’m just using the internet to publish Content.

So every brand can do that and become its own publisher.

When you get attention to Your brand with quality content(and marketing), there is no need for advertising.

You can advertise your content instead of your products.

( and this is what most of the brands doing today)

Content Inception: What comes before Content?

Content Inception is concerned with the source of all your ideas, your thoughts, etc.

Firstly, let’s talk about Creativity and Originality.

Writing need not be creative, You are not writing a noble or a fiction.

So there is no creativity and originality in non-fiction writing.

Non- fiction Writing is About facts and Usefulness, it is Assembled than created.

And You don’t create content when you consume it from other resources.

You have to apply it, digest it, see the results and then write about it.

Do not Consume Junk, Because if junk comes in then the junk is going out.

So always ask yourself this Question, “Is this content going to be useful for me or others?”

Always capture your content with caution because it is very important to always capture Good content. 

Don’t capture everything, Capture what inspires you the most.

Make notes and go through them again and again, refine them, delete the unwanted things and add new things to them.

Iterate your content regularly and convert your notes into blog posts.

Content Incubation:  The Process of Creation

Now Content Incubation is all about “Maturing your Raw ideas into content” 

If you have nothing to write then go to read and don’t write after your reading, It’s Plagiarism.

You have to add your own experience and then write something unique about it.

And content always improves in iterations, so always rewrite it and improve it.

Your audience/readers are your co-creators, you can create with them by making communities: Facebook groups, Whatsapp, and Telegram.

Just Always keep this in your mind “Internet is 2 Way Communication”

You must keep writing until you get all the bad words out. After that Good Words would start coming out.

Be consistent in the process of creation, and make quality content in quantity.

Because it is always your collection of WRITING which leads you to the best work of your life as a creator.

And the best way to do your best is to strike a balance between the Quality and Quantity of your content.

You can evolve your content by Repurposing it into different forms of content.

Write blog posts and convert them into videos, podcasts, and Social Media Posts.

Later you can take your different blog posts and collectively convert them into a book and by using a video collection you can make a course.

Content Manifestation: Giving birth to Content

Manifesting your content is moreover related to “Bringing your content into reality”

You can make content into various formats and bring them to the front of the world by involving true stories and true experiences of your work.

And make content for long-term servings like an Old Fine Wine.

Always ask yourself, “Is this content growing to  be useful 10 years from now?”

Again quality and quantity should go hand in hand, attain balance and create subtle content:( A Course, A Book) rather than sensational spicy content.

Subtle content is boring but useful and healthy for a long time.

( Don’t be a Social Media Butterfly :p )

You can use different formats of subtle content in your Content Marketing funnel.

So let’s divide this Funnel into three parts:

• Top of the funnel content.
• Middle of the funnel content.
• Bottom of the funnel content.

(You can get this funnel link at the end of the blog)

Always try to take your readers from the top to the bottom of the funnel by ruling them through your content.

And make them your lifelong customers by gaining their trust via your valuable content at different parts of your Content Marketing Funnel.

You have to always put yourself in a vulnerable position to manifest your content into this virtual world and make your content more engaging by providing value to your audience.

Content Administration: Distribution of Content

Content administration includes Distribution, Repurposing, and Feedback on content. 

You can distribute your content through various channels of communication according to your needs.

It’s always useful to distribute your content where your audience mostly hangout.

If your Audience hangouts on different channels then you can repurpose the same content for each one.

Read out a blog post and make a podcast, Create slides and make a video out of it.

Use blog posts as an email and it is best to create an email newsletter by using a series of blog posts.

Again you can convert the series of your Blogspot into Youtube playlists.

And use a series of newsletters to make a Printed Newsletter.

Always publish your content in a 2-way strategy and review feedback of every piece of content.

Content Influence: Content That Derives Result

Now here at this point, let’s talk about how we are going to use our content to get people to take action.

When you create content, never forget to add a Call to Action.

Every piece of content should lead somewhere else, when you publish a blog ask people to subscribe to your blog.

While creating a video ask people to subscribe to your youtube channel or you can ask them to visit a Landing page.

Ask people to comment after Blogspot.(And make sure to give your valuable feedback on this work:p)

Get people to purchase a front-end low-cost product to convert them from leads to customers.

And always move people down the funnel all the time and use retargeting if required so.

Now Go and Build your Content Empire and become a  Ruler of this Marketing World.

In the end, I only want to conclude that:

Content Marketing is the present and future.

It’s essential for your online marketing success.

And according to Seth Godin, it’s the only marketing left.

Don’t delay any further.

Start leveraging content marketing today.

(PS: Here is your BONUS LINK as promised by me during our conversation)