What is Content and How Can it Help Your Business Grow?

When talking about content with clients they sometimes have a hard time understanding what it is and how it fits into their website or business plan.

We live in an age where content creation is in our hands and that’s where some of the disconnect comes from. We are used to being spoon-fed content by big movie, music and TV companies. Now we control content creation and traditional media is scrambling to find the best way to monetize it. You could even say that TV is slowy dying as we are immune to commercials and are no longer forced to watch them.

All of those traditional forms of media were content channels that companies would use to share the content they created. Now we create the content and we have the power to share them on our own channels through social media. Social Media are the new content channels. We have some measure of control as to who sees and interacts with them.

To get a better understanding of content marketing let’s breakdown what the different forms of content are – The content mediums below can be utilized in your very own content marketing plan.

Music is Content

Music has been around since human beings first felt the strong urge to be entertained. It’s just a series of sounds done in an appealing and rhythmic fashion meant to entertain, inspire and enhance your moods. Music could be considered the original content but there was no real medium in which to place it in. It’s entertaining and evokes a strong emotional response depending on the type and the person listening to it. It’s art form and a different form of expressing yourself beyond words or emotions.

It’s also very shareable. Music is something that touches on our feelings of nostalgia like nothing else. We often reminisce of our favorite songs and the period of time of which it reminded us. Music provides a soundtrack to our lives and it’s often times very relateable.

Articles Are Content

Of course people have been drawing on rocks for as long as they’ve been using them as drums. It wasn’t until the printing press came around when you could mass produce books, articles or random decrees in medieval times. Articles are what most people consider content. It’s text based and works great with text based search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. Articles are the best way to speak a search engine’s language and thus driving traffic back to your website.

Articles are often educational and provide us with information to make our own informed buying decisions. Articles are also important because it creates an opportunity to optimize your website for ranking. It is the easiest way to gain ground on your competitors.

Google can’t scan images without text either, so articles are still the most effective form of content around.

Radio is Content

Radio was the first chance that music had the opportunity of being shared with millions of people. While you couldn’t record and replay it at first people still cleared time to tune in and listen to their favorite shows, music and stories.

Radio has now morphed into a Podcast.  A podcast puts the listener in control of their listening experience.

While radio is still around more people turn to podcasts or streaming services to better control their listening experience. More people are into self improvement and podcasts are an easy and affordable way to get yourself on the right path.

A podcast for your own business is an excellent way to educate and guide your buyers to make informed buying decisions on your own website.

Television is Content

Television is arguably the most impactful medium for content of all time. Just about everyone now has a TV and we are arguably in the golden age of content for it.

The cool thing about the age we now live in is that we can control our content experience. The list above is still controlled by multi million dollar companies but the playing field has leveled out. We depended on them to both create and show us the content on their time good or bad. We had to suffer through hours of horrible shows and commercials in the process simply because there was nothing else on.

A TV used to be the most impactful way to not only share content but also to advertise for companies. We all remember the none stop barrage of Saturday morning commercials in between our cartoons. With each new commercial we’d say “I Want That!” In reference to new toys, cereal or candy. As children we are the more easily influenced and these commercials did a great job of forming our habits into adulthood.

Now the internet is the most effective way to reach people. Lets look at some of the tools you can use to create and share content for your own business. Content marketing should be a focus of your business, not an afterthought. Amassing a team of content marketing professionals can have a massive return on your investment in the long run.

WordPress is a Content Management System

WordPress is a content management system that is the most search engine friendly. There are other CMS systems in place such as Weebly and Tumblr but none have the customization that wordpress has. WordPress gives us the ability to create and publish our own articles whenever we’d like to. We don’t have to depend on newspapers to do it for us. We can do our own research and discover our own facts upon releasing them. You can come up with your own style guide and set of standards or even create your own company with your very own writers.

WordPress is arguably the most effective CMS tool to both launch and drive traffic to a website. It has a never ending amount of plugins created by developers to customize your website exactly how you like it. Starting a website on a wordpress is the best way to position your website for long term success.

YouTube is a Video Content Management System

YouTube is an incredible website that gives people the opportunity to create their very own movies, TV shows or anything else in between. It puts the power of visual content creation in your hands instead of having to depend on big TV and movie companies. There are now millions of people who solely depend on YouTube for their entertainment.

Some people even host podcasts on YouTube. YouTube is also the second largest search engine in the world just behind Google. Google owns YouTube. If you’re ignoring YouTube you’re ignoring a big piece of the SEO puzzle and missing out on a key revenue stream.

NetFlix

Netflixis a streaming service that allows you to control your viewing experience. You pay a monthly fee to by pass all the commercials you’d be bombarded with on regular TV.  Instead of passively watching TV you can manage a list and it also keeps track of your preferences to make suggestions depending on your taste.

Netflix is filled with entertaining and relevant content for you to browse through. Browsing is a big part of the user experience and arguably a big part of the fun. NetFlix has recently upped there game by releasing big budget movie quality shows directly to there library. They will eventually rival big summer blockbusters and people will stay home for movie premieres.

While you can’t just upload your content on NetFlix it is interesting how it’s flipped the way we watch movies on it’s head.

Soundcloud

Soundcloud is a place where up and coming artists can post and share their music. It puts the music production and distribution process in your hands instead of having to depend on big music executives who would otherwise take a massive cut of your royalties.

You can also host podcasts on Soundcloud.

Instagram For The Flashy Content Creators

Instagram lets you take photos and add your very own artistic touch to it. Photos can be adjusted using very filters and shading to go along with it. It adds a bit more flair to your regular, everyday pictures you’d post on Facebook or Twitter. As Instagram grows people are getting much more creative with their skills on the social network. Some use it to showoff themselves while others as an artistic outlet.

These are all mediums in which you can share and create content on. This list is by no means meant to be exhaustive in anyway. There are many other websites out there that also do simiar things with their own little twist.

When creating content it’s best to do so in as many different ways as possible. For example, if you’re doing content about how great the Denver Broncos are you can get your point across in multiple different ways.

You can write an article on your wordpress website highlighting all their greatest statistical achievements as a team. You can then post stylized photos of them on Instagram or make a fan video and upload it up to YouTube. After that you can make a rap song about the Denver Broncos super bowl run.

You can then crosslink all of them together boosting your search ranking in the process. The great thing about content is that it not only speaks directly to your customers but also boosts your search engine optimization efforts.

Releasing steady, consistent and helpful content should be the goal of any business. Talk as little about yourself as possible and create content that is informative and helpful. Let people make the buying decisions on their own. Oftentimes, if you make great content across multiple different channels the sales will take care of themselves.

If you’re interested in a full content analysis or would you like to discuss your own content plans, use the button below. One of our content marketing experts will follow up with you in the next 24 hours.