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Companies often ask themselves the following questions about content marketing / content marketing strategy:

How does content marketing work?

When potential customers have a question, a wish or a problem, they immediately reach for their mobile phone on the spot and Google for an answer or solution. This should be quick and easy to find and as informative as possible. It is precisely at this point that it is important for companies to satisfy their target customers with suitable content, which is perceived as unique, interesting and helpful, and to get in touch with them. Especially in this day and age of sensory overload and aversion to offensively promotional content, it is particularly important to apply an authentic communication strategy such as content marketing, entirely without advertising.

An example:
On the package of a food product there is a recipe idea and a link to the manufacturer's website. There, one learns the story of the origin of the ingredients and further recipe ideas/tips.
Here, consumers are not only provided with helpful information, but also with added value beyond the purchased product. This added value is what content marketing is all about.

What are the benefits of content marketing? What are the advantages of content marketing?

Content marketing not only serves to increase sales success, customer loyalty and the generation of new customers and leads, but good content also yields higher visibility and thus a more significant increase in brand awareness.

What is a content marketing strategy?

In order to create an effective content marketing strategy, it is absolutely necessary to consider the following steps:
Companies should know the target audience and their needs - and furthermore, this should be completely transparent. For this, the creation of buyer personae is essential. These personify the potential customers and not only show their needs, but also provide information about their information and buying behaviour.

A buyer persona could include the following, for example:
Customers who bought the following products came through the following channels, and have the following interests in common, etc. It is important to use these insights to deliver content to the right touchpoints.
Determine the content play out in the different channels, such as social media, newsletter, landing page, apps, etc. Because the next time customer XY searches for something on e.g. Google, he will directly be shown a suggestion "this could help you" with a personal salutation and a nice greeting.

The goals of content marketing should be defined in advance. It should be noted that these should always be SMART:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time bound

So a realistic goal might look like this:
"We want to increase the conversion rate for our new product page by 20% in the next 6 months."

Brainstorming initial content ideas is already the first step in strategy development.
In addition, regular status analyses and reporting should be carried out for sustainable future-oriented strengthening of the company's market position, whereupon search engine-compliant (SEO) content refinements are made.

How do I create good content / How do I create content that is suitable for the target group?

Content in different formats, such as text, images, or video, should first and foremost be unique, authentic and up to date, so that companies have any chance of being competitive in the Google search engine. When creating the content, it is important to create awareness in advance for which phase of the customer journey it should be. Based on this, the platform through which the content is to be distributed must also be selected.

At the beginning of every content creation is the research. Through keyword research and the search results on the Google Result Page (SERP), you learn which topics really interest your target group and can define relevant topic areas accordingly. Also, define which content formats are best suited for presenting the specific topics and at the different points of the customer journey. In the end, only one thing counts when writing content: stay authentic and don't write for yourself - the persona counts.