Content marketing is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the marketing industry. It’s estimated to be valued at around $36 million in 2018 and is expected to grow to $100 million by 2026. It’s currently experiencing one of the industry’s biggest compound annual growth rates, making this year the best time to join content marketing. But what is content marketing exactly, and do you get started?
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a type of marketing strategy that relies on stimulating the interests of consumers through the use of various online mediums such as blogs, videos, pictures, and many more. This marketing strategy has become an industry in itself throughout the years, with thousands of digital companies relying on producing content for various companies. Major companies such as the Colgate-Palmolive brand relies on content marketing to drive consumer sales into the company.
Content Marketing isn’t SEO
Many people who think about content marketing think of it as mainly SEO. This is not true. SEO is only a part of content marketing. Content marketing optimizes your ranking in search engines, but content marketing aims to captivate consumers about your products and services primarily. It’s all about getting them interested and saturating your target audience with content that they are interested in. So how do you get started as a content marketer?
Don’t Build a Company Just Yet.
You don’t need a company to get started in content marketing. You can mainly be a freelancer for a couple of years before starting your business. The best part is that you don’t need a degree to do it. Although it’ll be helpful to have a degree in marketing when it comes to starting your company, it’s not entirely required. Content marketing has many forms, such as blogging, animation, video, images, courses, e-books, and so much more. Here are some of the better forms of content marketing that you should join.
SEO and Blogging
Search engine optimization is no longer the same as it was many years ago. Because of various changes in search engine optimization, many companies are no longer relying on quantity to get themselves on top of the list. It’s all about quality.
It has been found that quality and engaging blogs can drive consumer interest than just being at the top of a search engine. This makes SEO a profitable business model when combined with other marketing strategies such as affiliate marketing. Additionally, the best part about joining is in this market is that you can become an experienced SEO consultant in the future. This can be a lucrative career as many more marketers join the industry. You’ll essentially run your SEO business running while also getting paid to help others reach their SEO goals.
You can start by being a guest writer for various companies. Sure, it doesn’t pay much, but it’s a good experience that’ll help you get into the field. Generally, you can also start blogging on various sites such as Word Press, Medium, and Hubpages, to name a few. Once you’ve understood how the content works and how the business model functions, you can start creating your own SEO company. The experience you get from blogging will certainly help your business grow in the future.
Animator
If you are creative and have some experience and knowledge regarding animation, you can start creating animations for potential clients and get a lucrative sum for it. If you are willing to learn a thing or two about animation, you can still do the same thing, but you’ll be late to the party compared to others.
Animations play a big role in content creation nowadays, and the best animations can captivate any audience better than any advertisements on the market. Many companies are willing to pay top dollar for animations they can post on their websites. Many more are willing to purchase animations based on their products and services. It’s a rewarding form of content marketing that also plays on your creativity.
Influencer
Lastly, the most common form of content marketing on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube: the influencer. Influencers are found in every country, and most of these influencers are content marketers who usually have affiliate programs with different companies. They subtly add their products into their content masterfully that you won’t even notice that you were watching an ad this entire time.
If you want to be an influencer, you need to start letting the world know that you exist. Start by posting various pictures and videos of your life (and practically anything about yourself). Once you get enough followers, you can apply for influencer programs on various social media sites. This is one form of content marketing you can get away with by just working with yourself.
Content marketing is a growing industry in marketing that anyone can join. It’s also one of the industries that don’t require you to start a company to be profitable. You can get through this industry by simply working all by yourself. So, start investing some time into this sector of marketing by doing your research and writing down blogs that you’re interested in.
