It’s a New Dawn, It’s a New Day: Feeling Good About Content Marketing

There is nothing like the promise a new day brings. You get to start fresh, try new things and be a part of our ever-changing culture. Embracing each day with this positive attitude provides an opportunity to learn and propel oneself further in life, closer to your goals and dreams.

Why not apply this to business?

Social media, the Internet and technology have changed your brand’s ability to communicate and attract an audience. And, it has equally changed your audience’s desire and ability to communicate with your brand. This paradigm shift in our culture is one of the biggest in history affecting businesses. It’s time to embrace this shift. It’s exactly what the promise of a new business day brings.

Differentiate Yourself From the Competition

Businesses that fuse content marketing into their strategy are differentiating themselves from the competition and it’s paying off. As a result, their customers are no longer just buying from them — they actually like them, share them, engage with them, pin them and tweet about them!

Say goodbye to an in-your-face sales and marketing approach and move towards a delicate balance of valuable content that has no heavy-handed sales agenda, mixed with periodic promotional messages.

Don’t be resistant to the idea. Once you grasp the basics, incorporating content marketing into your company’s strategy is creative, fun and rewarding.

As your audience grows, so will your business!

Here is an example of excellent content marketing in action:

Degree men’s deodorant wanted to align itself with active lifestyle coverage. To tap into this space, Degree created a web magazine called The Adrenalist, “Powered by Degree Men.” It features up-to-date news and information in the universe of adventure, extreme sports, racing, gadgets and travel. The only giveaway that the site is paid for by Degree is a small image of a deodorant stick on the right hand side of the page that links to the product line and their tagline, “Powered by Degree Men.”

Degree could have used traditional marketing strategies like buying ads on TV or in magazines and on websites to gain awareness to build their audience, but how passé! Instead, Degree successfully claimed the active lifestyle audience by offering relevant and engaging content. Remember, it’s a new day! An opportunity to embrace your ever-changing Internet-happy, technology-driven, social media-savvy audience.

How To Get Started Using Content to Attract Customers

Ready to take the plunge into content marketing? Here are three tips for getting started:

1. Let your hair down.Take into consideration that the content you are creating is sponsored by your brand but not about it. This allows you a greater level of creative and journalistic freedom — so let you hair down and have some fun with your content. Run with it like Degree did by creating The Adrenalist.

2. Share a lot, and mix it up. Share abundant amounts of relevant information with your audience and you will be recognized as a credible resource and industry leader. The Adrenalist shares a variety of inspiring images and publishes interesting articles and random information about extreme sports, gadgets and outdoor adventures.

3. Don’t forget who you are. Ultimately, the type of content you create must have a relationship to what you sell. In Degree’s case, as a catalyst for inspiration they used their audience’s lifestyle and interests in conjunction with their brand’s personality to develop content.

So as tomorrow brings a new day — a fresh start — how will you embrace your goals by integrating content marketing into your plans?