What is Content Marketing?

Content Marketing, as defined by Wikipedia and explained by Martin Shervington, is any marketing format that involved the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire customers.  We break down that question in this post about using content marketing on Google+ and how it can help anyone achieve the opportunity to create and build their own global network.

This 6 step guide can help you get started with sharing your content through “Authorship” (which connects your profile to the web) and about the process of Content Marketing in different cycles. 

• Listen - Learn the ability to listen to what applies to you and your content.
• Deciding on Themes and Topics - Using the listening process, you can decide what content will relate to your business. This process will also help you stay up on relevant themes and topics whether it be seasonal content, new trends, etc.
• Create Content - Once you have decided on your theme and/or topic, you need to create your content. You content can be created in any format (text, images, videos, infographics, hangouts on-air or PDF’s); your focus is not on the format but on your audience. 
•  Promote Content - Now that you have created your content, you then need to promote it.  Creating content but not sharing it is like opening a business but not telling anyone; let people know your content exists instead of letting it sit. You can share content via your Google+ profile or Plus page as well as other social platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Stumble Upon, Pinterest, etc). 
• Measure and Evaluate - How do you measure your content marketing strategy’s performance? Some great focus points are:

a.       Key Metrics (such as the number of visits)

b.      Social shares or Google+ Circle shares and/or follows

c.       Sign up to your newsletter

d.      Enquires related to the content

e.      Sales conversions

Google Analytics is a great tool to directly measure engagement on a post; such as the amount of times people have “clicked on a link”.

• Re-Purpose - Give that same old dress some glitter! Don’t make the mistake of believing that just because your content is old it is not relevant, especially if it is great content. Google offers some great tools to allow re-purposing. Mr. Shervington gives a personal example of using old content from an on-air hangout into a ‘New’ video. Do key word research for your content objective in search, edit and/or add intros/outros to complete video and edit the video to target key words. Re-upload your video as private and add content into a blog post that only link holders can view. Lastly, share your link to a post on Google+. When ready, release it publicly as “New” video. You can also use the audio to create a podcast and add it to iTunes. This is a perfect example of “Re-Purposing” your same great content.  

There are plenty of ideas shared around the internet that give more tips on how to use Content Marketing to create more traffic to your website. The end result of our efforts is for Google + to become the platform that allows you to reach and build a relationship with people who matter. For tips on Content Marketing and more, keep up with the Tandem Blog! Until next time, Christina.