When most people think of advertising they picture a billboard, a double page spread in a magazine or a TV commercial. This is an easily understandable business model. A brand pays an advertising agency to promote their product: a beautifully shot picture of a car with a witty strapline or a model who we aspire to be like can make a designer brand desirable. An advert is clearly selling us a product.

Online content can differ immensely from this model. This is not always easy for people to understand. The best content marketing does not appear to be advertising at all, as there is often no mention of a product.

A car company might commission a blogger to write about ‘Road trips in the UK’ or ‘Breathtaking highways in Scotland’ with no mention of the brand at all.

This can be hard for both consumers and companies to get their heads around.

Some brands do still have the urge to publish content online about their products. When this is the case, there is little difference between content and paid advertising. Not that there is anything wrong with this. Giving a customer access to as much information about a product or service can be useful. The trouble is there is only so much that can be said. Put yourself in the consumer’s shoes: would you read an article that was little more than a sales pitch?

For example, would you rather read an article that told you about the benefits of taking out insurance on a bike or see an interactive map of hotspots in your area that bikes have been stolen from?

The fact the internet allows anything to be published virtually for free means brands have the opportunity to create an abundance of media that their audience can choose to consume rather than adverts they are forced to look at.

When a brand creates content to entertain rather than to sell, it builds a relationship with the customer and becomes viewed as an interesting friend.

How a brand benefits from publishing content

If content doesn’t advertise the product or brand, how does the company profit from it?

Well, there are numerous ways this can work. Take the Innocent Drinks example. This simple piece of content was shared over 1,000 times as it was clearly a statement that resonated with its audience. This resonance builds a relationship with the audience as they interact with the brand and develop positive associations through engagement.

If the content is published by the brand on their own site, it should make the website more discoverable through additional search terms.

Google runs on links, so offsite articles that link back to the brand’s main site will boost the search ranking. As with most advertising, it is about visibility. The beauty of digital is that this can be measured and sales conversions can be identified.

If you’re looking for a London based Content Marketing agency to help boost your brand then why not get in touch with Quad!

According to a recent survey of 700 business professionals conducted by Adobe and Econsultancy, the top priority for marketers this year is content. And 52% of marketers say the ability to target and personalise content is fundamental to their online strategy. However, only 18% say they have the marketing technology to succeed.

So, how can content marketing help your business?

Well, if done exceptionally, it doesn’t feel like marketing to the audience. The ultimate aim is that the user will be so mesmerised by the content you’ve created that they’ll unwittingly devour it as useful/interesting/emotional rather than as a marketed piece of branded material. They’ll organically be introduced or exposed to your brand or company without being plied with tacky advertising material which can deter potential customers.

The more you offer your audience in terms of great content and useful information, the more they’re going to trust, respect and want to use your business.

In the same way no one likes a door-knocking salesman, no one wants to feel bombarded with advertising while they’re surfing the web. The content has to feel natural – the complete opposite of forced – so that the audience organically finds and consumes it.

The thing is, if your agency led content marketing is successfully applied, your audience is not only going to find and consume it, but they will also SHARE it. This is why content marketing can be (if done well) so beneficial to your business. Digital ‘word of mouth’ (sharing) is an effective way of driving sales because, to the audience, it feels like a natural exposure to a brand rather than a forced one.

The point of content is that it gives something to the audience. People head online to search for endless amounts of information, and if you can give them some form of the information they’re searching for, you’re going to grasp their attention. The aim is not to directly sell them something, but to give them something of interest that in turn will lead to sales.