Let’s let you in on a little secret: 

Anyone can become a content marketer. It isn’t reserved for the Seth Godins or Neil Patels of the world. 

You – yes, you – can take your business from under the radar to trending on social media.

But like most things in life…

GIF Source: Giphy

First, you need to come to terms with the fact that there’s noovernight success anywhere. You must be ready to put in the work to get the results you want.

Secondly, understand what the whole content marketing business is about before diving in. The same way you would research an investment before committing.

That’s what we want to share with you in this guide. 

We’ve created a detailed walk-through to help you understand content marketing so you know how to use it. 

Let’s start with the basics.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is creating and sharing helpful content like blogs, podcasts, videos, newsletters, social media posts, etc. to boost product awareness, get more leads, and retain existing customers. 

In this form of marketing, instead of aggressively telling customers how great your product is, you help them resolve their pain points with the content you create. 

You become a digital best friend they trust as they know you have their best interest at heart. 

This way, if they ever run into challenges in the future; you will be their first call. 

To help you understand better, let’s look at this illustration by one Reddit user called the plumber’s theory. 

“Let’s say you have a broken sink and two plumbers, Mario and Luigi.

The first plumber, Mario, comes in, fixes the sink, gets paid, and bounces. And all is well in the sink world again, no problem.

Then Luigi comes in. He takes the time to explain why your sink broke, shows you how to fix it, and offers tips to prevent it from breaking again. 

He even gives you the names of the parts to buy and warns you to always drain the water from the pipes before any future repairs.

Who’s going to be your first pick when something breaks next time?

Luigi, right? 

Both plumbers got the job done perfectly. But Luigi went the extra mile and took the time to explain himself. So, chances are, you consider him more of an expert. 

He also offered great customer service by educating you. Now next time, you’ll ask more intelligent questions when [you] talk.

Also, there is [...] little to no chance that you as the customer will try to do the repairs yourself, even if you know how.”

That’s content marketing.

Would you like to see an example?

Coming right up!

What is an example of content marketing?

As we pointed out before, content marketing can take different forms. 

Let’s use Harvard Business Review, a management magazine, as a content marketing example. 

You won’t see non-stop ads when you visit their website telling you to subscribe to the magazine. 

Instead, you’ll see a variety of long-form blog posts on skills managers would find useful to achieve their business goals.

Image Source: HBR

They also offer a weekly podcast featuring leaders in marketing and business to share insights. 

This way, HBR can capture its target audience’s attention and gain more subscribers with their content without being overly promotional and spammy.

And that’s the whole idea behind content marketing; giving people top value so you become their top choice when they’re in a jam, and putting out mouth-watering offers occasionally that benefit them and involve an exchange for cash. 

A solid advertising strategy, right?

Makes you wonder who brought the idea to life. 

Let’s pause for a moment and take a short trip down memory lane to see where it all started.

What is the history of content marketing?

Content marketing started in 1732 when Benjamin Franklin, a founding father of the United States launched the infamous Poor Richard’s Almanac.

It was a magazine offering valuable information like weather forecasts, calendars, and promotional content pointing folks to Franklin’s printing business. 

 That ☝️, set the stage for content marketing as we know it today.

Then in 1801, another pair of marketing gurus — John and William Galignani came to the limelight. 

This pair owned a bookstore and to advertise their store, they launched their newspaper featuring articles from reputable authors. This made them the talk of the town in the literary community and improved their business reach. 

From then on, it became rainbows and sunshine for content marketing.

• 1861 - Samuel Wagner started the American Bee Magazine, providing important information to beekeepers. And attracted advertisers as it gained popularity.
• 1904 - The Jell-O company created and shared free copies of their first recipe book which nabbed them over $1 million in sales within the next two years. 
• 1920 - Proctor and Gamble pioneered radio dramas where they entertained listeners and subtly promoted their products. 

…and the list goes on!

But you know why content marketing has a soft spot in people’s hearts?

It’s because of benefits like the ones you’ll find in our next section.

What are the benefits of content marketing?

Aside from the fact that everyone is using it, it gives your business a unique edge. 

Instead of advertising the common way, you create a value-based system that keeps your customers coming back for more. 

What do you get?

• Smooth lead generation 🌊 – Take a quick look at HBR’s content marketing campaign, and you’ll see this as true. Visitors log in to the site and find a database of useful information they’ve been searching for. 

It gets their attention and keeps them surfing for hours. Then, a pop-up appears saying, “Subscribe to have these sent to your email.” 

For a visitor who’s been having the time of their life on the site, do you think they’ll subscribe? 

Chances are they will because of the useful pieces of content you’ve provided.

Now, this isn’t just some fantasy scenario we pulled from thin air. It happens in real life – 67% of marketers say content marketing was a crucial strategy in their lead generation endeavors in 2023. 

• All eyes on you (AKA brand visibility) 👀– Content marketing will make your brand popular over time. Same way everyone knows HootSuite’s blog for social media marketing or HubSpot for brand growth. 

You just stick to creating content that meets your audience's pain points and all eyes will be on you. 

And before you know it, other brands would want to come hang around to get insider tips on how to be popular too. That’s what marketers have achieved using content marketing. About 83% of them have said this form of marketing has helped them create brand awareness.

• Strong relationships 👨‍❤️‍👨– Have you noticed how you mostly purchase items from brands or people you have a relationship with?

The relationship is so strong that you unconsciously refer people to them. 

Building strong relationships that lead to referrals is another benefit content marketing offers. You position yourself the way Luigi – the plumber in the example earlier – did, as a helpful friend; one who would go out of their way to make their clients happy. 

• Respect and authority 🫡 - You see the way Luigi explained his entire process to the client? Pretty sure you read that and said, “He knows his stuff.” Does it mean the other plumber didn’t know jack? 

No, but Luigi got the authority tag.  It’s the same with content marketing – position yourself as an expert in your field and people will respect your authority and come back for more.

And it doesn’t stop there. When people consider you an authority, they trust you and would feel more comfortable buying from you. 

You can’t wait to launch your content marketing campaign, right?

Before we show how it works, let’s talk about the types of content marketing you can use. 

What are the different types of content marketing?

Content marketing is marketing with, well, content. And as you know, that comes in different formats. 

Almost any kind you think of can work, but here are some common types:

• Blogs – An example is this piece you’re reading! It’s written text used to share valuable info visitors can read, the way you’re doing now. 

Source: GIPHY

With blogs, you can share insights based on your experience or invite other experts to contribute. It’s a pretty good way to build that respect and authority we mentioned further up.

And it’s quite a popular content marketing option because it:

1. Is cheap and easy to create. 
2. Is accessible to readers.
3. Puts your business on the search engine radar.
4. Drives traffic to your page. 

MarkUp’s blog is a good example of this type of content marketing. 

Here, you’ll find high-quality, SEO-optimized, and helpful content on topics like UI/UX design, collaboration, web design, and creative team management. Guests can always count on getting solid materials that meet their pain points. That’s why they’re always visiting. 

Based on Ahref’s reports, the MarkUp blog gets about 5k visitors per month on average. 

So, it’s a win-win situation for MarkUp and visitors. 

• Video – Did you know that videos are one of the most effective types of content online? According to a report by HubSpot, videos yield the highest return on investment (ROI) for social media marketing. 

And it’s because of how captivating it is. How many times have you said, “Just two Reels and I’ll leave Instagram?”

An hour later, you’re still there trying to convince yourself that it’s all for research. 

That’s what video content does. Use it as part of your content marketing and you’ll build a strong connection with your audience. It’s such a great way to draw them in and get them hooked to your brand. 

Now, your video content can range from product demos to origin stories, employee stories, testimonials, or even new product alerts. If you publish it on social media, you’ll set yourself up for increased brand awareness at the same time. 

Once they watch it and it passes their vibe check, the share button comes next.

• Podcasts – These are audio programs centered around a specific niche; marketing, leadership, education, etc. you name it.

The idea is to talk about the pain points your audience is dealing with. You can invite industry leaders to the show, interview them, and give listeners quality information. 

Talk about everything - industry trends, case studies, and spice things up with some controversial topics every now and then. 😉

Podcast marketing is a great option for people who prefer listening over reading or don’t have the time to watch your video.  They help you increase your reach and influence on audio platforms such as Spotify or Google Podcasts. 

• Infographics – This type of content marketing is like a mix of content, data, and visuals to share information. 

Infographics come into the picture when you want to break down complex information or share a presentation in a very engaging way. 

Blending everything together makes it easy for your audience to consume and share.

• Case studies and ebooks – Case studies are very much like testimonials, but a more detailed version. It involves you spilling the tea about how your product saved the day for a customer.  You go all in talking about the issue, the method used to address it, and the result the customer got. 

Using this content marketing format gives potential customers social proof, especially if it’s something they’re dealing with. It positions you as an authority who can help solve their pain points. 

Want to see an example? Click here.

For the record, case studies can be in text format, videos, or even audio.

eBooks, on the other hand, are similar to blog posts but way more comprehensive. They typically cover one topic that’s in your area of expertise. 

In an eBook, you provide readers with very specific ways to solve their pain points, positioning yourself as the authority they’ve been searching for.  In exchange for all your hard work, you can use it to grow your email list and draw traffic to your site. 

• Webinars – Picture this: You’re scrolling through LinkedIn and see a Zoom event with some of your industry faves speaking on issues you’re facing. Intrigued, you click on register and sign up with your email. 

Well, you just got webinared. It was free helpful content you needed, and in exchange, the organizers got new leads. That’s the idea behind webinars. 

• Memes – Memes are similar to emojis, they help capture emotions in a comical, fun way. It combines popular funny GIFs, images, and videos alongside short text.

Using it shows your audience they can relate to you and it makes them want to see how you can be of help. Here’s an example of meme content marketing from Clean Skin Club:

Image Source: Instagram

They used a popular meme their audience would know to guide them to take action. 

• Social media assets – Social media posts are another effective type of content marketing. It involves creating content that reflects the human side of your brand. You can post images, text, videos, and GIFs that keep your audience informed, educated, and entertained. 

With social media marketing, you can truly connect with your audience, improve your brand’s perception, and get more engagement.

• Interactive content – This type of content marketing keeps your audience engaged. You go beyond just entertaining them and get them involved in the content. For instance, you could create a series of designs with a quiz attached. 

New designs get unlocked as they respond to the quiz. This way, they’re not just viewing but actively participating. The end game?

1. It helps you capture and hold their attention. 
2. It makes your brand unique. 
3. It lets you form a deeper connection with your audience. 

Normally, you’d need to be an expert programmer to create interactive content for your campaign. But with a tool like Ceros, life is much easier. 

It comes with features like Studio that lets you build interactive experiences using templates. You can also build from scratch using the built-in drag-and-drop editor.   

First, you create the content. Then, decide if you want hovers, clicks, or views as triggers. And lastly, choose the actions you want to be triggered.

***

Now if you’re interested in adding these content types to your marketing strategy, read on to see how it works.

How does content marketing work?

As we’ve hinted throughout this piece, content marketing is positioning yourself as Luigi. 

But to do that effectively, understand that your audience has different needs. 

In content marketing, those ‘needs’ are split into three stages. If your content tackles them,  you’ve hit the jackpot.  

Let’s start with the first stop. 

Awareness stage

At this stage, customers understand they have a problem like Luigi and Mario’s client. 

But the extent or severity of it is where they’re a little fuzzy. Heck, they don’t even know how to handle their business.

Now, that’s where you, the cavalry, swoops in. 

You come in, firing on all cylinders with content that solves their problems and answering questions they might have.

You get them to see you’ve been where they’re at. You understand their struggles.

GIF Source: Giphy

And then let them know you’ve got the solutions to all their problems. After all, you’ve been there. 

But the trick isn’t to start advertising your products just yet. You want to save that for the other stages. 

Best content type to use at the awareness stage: Blog posts, social media posts, videos, podcasts, interactive content, and webinars. Now, here’s why:

• Blogs and social media posts allow you to provide detailed, engaging information on platforms the audience is used to. 
• Videos and podcasts offer an immersive experience that easily captures their attention. 
• Interactive content like quiz, calculator, and games are fun, visually appealing, and engaging. They help you capture people’s attention, show how the challenges they’re facing affects them, and vividly explain how your solution comes in. 
• Webinars provide a live opportunity to get your audience’s trust. 

Consideration stage

Customers in the consideration stage are already feeling your brand’s rhythm.

You took the time to unpack their pain points and now they’ve been around for a bit; visiting your site and social media pages. 

Your job now is to get their trust and solidify the relationship. 

How do you do that?

Create content that informs them of how your product is custom-designed to solve their problems. 

That means taking the time to explain and not telling them to buy now. 

You can create a comparison post highlighting how your solution meets their needs compared to other options on the market, or write a case study of how your product or service brought a client’s dying business back to life. 

Overall, think of this stage as building to a crescendo.

Best content type to use at the consideration stage: Email marketing newsletters, case studies, interactive content, product demo videos, blog posts, and customer testimonials.

Why?

• Emails keep your brand on their mind and provide them with more information.
• Case studies show them real-life examples of people with similar problems and how your offering helped them. 
• Interactive content such as case studies or research reports allows them to explore and actively engage with your brand beyond liking or sharing content. It sorta takes them into the soul of your brand. 
• Product demo shows them different features and benefits your product or service offers, giving them an idea of how it can help them. 
• Blog posts again give them detailed info and insight to educate them.
• Testimonials let them know they’re in safe hands by showing other customers who’ve benefited from your product or service.

Decision stage

The foundation has been laid and it’s safe to assume your prospects have about 80% trust in you. 

Your focus now should be on bringing it home by closing a sale. 

Any content you create for this stage should be centered on that. It could be:

• Product walkthrough content.
• A post about your different pricing options. 
• An FAQ section that addresses objections they might have. 
• Step-by-step guide on the next steps to take. 

You also want to keep reiterating why you’re the best person for the job. 

Best content type to use at the decision stage: Personalized newsletters, customer testimonials, interactive content, client reviews, pricing pages, and reports.

And that’s because…

• Newsletters make clients feel like it’s all about them. You’ll be hitting points and issues they’re dealing with. 
• Testimonials and reviews increase their trust levels as they’ll see other customers who’ve trusted you too. 
• Interactive content like product demos or ROI calculators keeps them fully engaged and helps you highlight product features in a more creative way.
• Pricing pages let them know the cost of doing business with you.
• Reports show them what they’re missing by not taking advantage of your solution.    

***

Now, that’s how content marketing works. 

But the real question you need to answer is how to know if your actions are working. 

What are some common content marketing metrics?

It all sounds so exciting and you’re looking forward to starting your B2B content marketing campaign. 

But it’s one thing to start and another to know if your content marketing efforts are paying off. 

Here’s what to check to know if you’re doing a good job.

• Brand awareness metrics – This metric is how you know whether or not people are familiar with your brand.

  • Social shares – The number of times people repost your social media content. 
  • Follower count – Number of new followers you get over time. 
  • Unique pageviews – Amount of times a single visitor has viewed your website. 
  • Users - Organic traffic visitors to your page. 

• Engagement metrics – You’re creating high-quality content for the different stages but want to know if it’s hitting the solving-their-questions mark. Then, you need to look at these engagement metrics. 

  • Click-through rate – Number of folks clicking links on your social media platforms, email newsletters, and website. 
  • Comments, shares, and mentions – How often do people do these three things when they see posts on your social media channels? 
  • Total time reading - Amount of time spent engaging with your content. 
  • Bounce rates – Number of people who visit your site, but leave almost immediately. 
  • Average time on site - Amount of time spent on a particular page on your site. 

• SEO metrics – Search engine optimization is an important part of inbound marketing. If you rank well on the search engine results page (SERP) it means more people will likely check you out. So, here are a couple of metrics to keep your eye on:

  • Page authority – This is how well your page ranks on the SERP. 
  • Domain authority – Shows you’re a trusted site in your subject area.  
  • Backlinks – Number of external websites that link to your site. 

• Lead gen metrics – This is how you know people are responding to the great content you’ve been creating. So, you want to check:

  • Click-through rate – Number of people who’ve clicked the call-to-action (CTA) on your blog or landing page.
  • Conversation rate – How many people have followed through the CTA? Who’s signed up for the newsletter or downloaded the ebook? 

• Sales enablement metrics – You’ve been creating content for the decision stage and want to know if your current approach works. Look at these metrics:

  • Demo requests – Amount of submitted forms and calls completed.
  • Sales conversion rate – Percentage of prospects who become customers following your pitch. 
  • Sales cycle length – Amount of time between the first interaction with a prospect through to closing the deal. 

At this point, you can probably define what online content marketing is in your sleep. 

But that’s not all we’d like you to do. You need to know how to launch a campaign that aligns with your marketing plans.

How to start an effective content marketing strategy?

Welcome to the final lap of this guide, people. 

It’s time to merge everything you’ve learned to implement a content marketing strategy. You may want to get your marketing team involved at this point. 

But the first thing you want to do is…

• Set your goals – Set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound) goals that align with your brand’s objective. 

While your goal can be raking in millions of dollars in profit per month, it may not be achievable for a small business. A more realistic goal is increasing the percentage of organic traffic to your site.

• Identify your target audience – The whole idea behind content marketing is to help people. But the truth is you can’t help everyone. Your best bet is to find your tribe. How do you do that?

First, analyze your current customers and competitors. Then, answer these questions: 

1. How old are they?
2. Where are they located?
3. What problems are they looking to solve?
4. What platforms do they spend more time on?
5. What do they do?
6. How can you help them?

If you can answer these, you’ll be on your way to defining your target audience. 

• Decide on the right content types – Using the data from your recon, it’s time to pick the best content format that can help build trust with your audience. 

This could be blog content, video, user-generated content (UGC), social media posts, white papers, etc. 

Wondering how to decide which of the valuable content types to use?

Here’s what you can do:

1. Check out what your competitors are doing and add your sparkle to it. 
2. Interview your existing customer base to know what they like. 
3. Look at existing content analytics to determine what’s been working and what hasn’t.

• Determine your metrics and KPIs – Now before this gets more serious, this is an important step you don’t want to miss. As we mentioned above, metrics are the yardstick to measure how your content is performing. 

So you need to establish them to ensure you’re on track. 

Essentially, choosing which metrics and KPIs to track would largely depend on your goals.

If your goal is to increase your revenue, for instance, the KPIs you’ll need to track should be site traffic, conversion rates, sales cycle length, abandonment rates, etc. 

That’s the principle to go with. 

• Choose your distribution channels – Up next, is deciding the platforms you’ll launch your content marketing campaign on. 

There are different options: social media, email, websites, etc. 

But it all depends on your target audience and the content type they engage with. If they’re X (formerly Twitter) fans, you already know where your content will be shared.

• Set a publishing schedule – To get great results with your content marketing efforts, you need to be consistent. You can’t post once every two months and expect organic traffic to your site. 

So, how do you stay consistent? 

Create a content calendar where you note the days you’ll be publishing content. 

It should include the topic of the content, due date, progress status, content format, distribution channel, and who’s assigned to it. 

• Create engaging content – You know which content type to create for your campaign already. 

It’s time to create it and draw your tribe to it. When we say creating engaging content, that means it’s:

1. Original and packed with value.
2. Well-researched. 
3. Filled with everything prospects need. 
4. Appealing and easy-to-digest. 
5. SEO optimized. 

Wondering how to do that?

That’s our Ceros forte. With tools like Editor, creating engaging content has never been easier. 

Studio helps you create interactive content from scratch like designs, landing pages, infographics, and images, while Editor helps you scale with templates. A perfect combo, you know. 😀

• Track, analyze, and improve – For the last hoorah, take a moment to study how your content is performing against the KPIs. 

If you use Ceros, you can monitor analytics in real time and see what users are engaging with. 

The question to ask here is: 

Is everything going as planned? 

If it is, that’s your cue to scale up and probably branch out to other distribution channels.

If it’s not, identify areas where you’re failing, optimize the content, and go again. 

Do that again until you’re smashing your marketing goals. 

***

Now, it’s your time to shine.

Over to you!

So, how was content marketing 101?

Doesn’t look so hard, right?

We bet you and the team are already whipping something up, so we’ll leave you to it. 

But before you go, remember to keep Ceros in mind.

Not because it’s our tool but because we know how much it can contribute to your cause of creating helpful, engaging, interactive content. 

Schedule a free demo with Ceros to see how it works.