The mass adoption and availability of the Internet has dramatically changed the purchasing process for consumers. This disruption in how potential clients convert into customers has left many business owners baffled about how to market their company. Traditional marketing tactics just don’t work like they once did, and Internet marketing has left many business owners scratching their heads. One of the biggest issues for business owners is that there is very little information available that clearly articulates which Internet marketing tools are available, when it is appropriate to use them, and what type of results they should expect to yield from them.
In Part 1 of our series,”Understanding Content Marketing“, I want to focus on helping you learn a few things about marketing your family entertainment center. In this post, we are going to focus on two things:
- The difference between advertising and content marketing
- Why high quality content marketing is a great fit for local businesses
Advertising vs Content Marketing
Marketing your company is something that the majority of small business owners understand as a necessity. When it comes to advertising and content marketing, it’s essential to understand that they are entirely different so that you can invest your budget wisely.
Advertising is an event based marketing tactic where goals are measured and met in the short-term. As an event based form of marketing, it leaves little to no footprint for your business after the campaign is finished. You pay to create your ad, run your ad, and then it’s done. The advertiser’s strategy, timeline, and implementation are completely different from content marketing.
Content marketing is a long-term marketing tactic. The goal is to continuously and consistently engage with your potential customer, creating a stronger connection. When it comes time for them to look for something fun for their family and friends to do during their free time, they have already been touched by your business through content marketing via blog posts, email newsletters, and social media.
As the Web becomes a more dominant force in helping businesses grow and attract customers, the idea of content marketing only becomes more important. Content marketing is what allows you to be found in a sea of noisy competitors and to build a relationship with customers that you’ll be able to profit off later.
Lisa Barone, OutspokenMedia.com
How Quality Content Marketing Really Works
The very foundation of a strong content marketing strategy revolves around creating original content for your brand. One of the easiest and most effective ways of accomplishing this for businesses of all shapes and sizes is through a company blog. The blog is an area where you can create and publish valuable content for your current and potential customers. Your valuable content published on your blog, whether it’s entertainment, upcoming events or news about your awesome staff, creates lasting experiences with your target market. These experience truly begin to add up over time as you continue to create, publish, and share content.
They essentially grow this memory about your brand, about what you do, and they build up kind of what I’d call a positive bank account with you. But that bank account, there are not coins and money in there. There are experiences and touches with your brand. Those content touches, and those social media touches, and those touches that come through performing a search and seeing you listed there, those build up the capital in the account.
Rand Fishkin, Moz.com
As these experiences with your brand begin to build, a strong content marketing strategy will also include the long term value of high quality search engine optimization (SEO). This is a major benefit for family fun centers who want to make sure that they’re found in search engines like Google and Bing.
Because you are building experiences and a strong web presence that can easily be found in search, content marketing actually becomes more affordable as you continue to create. The same can’t be said about an advertising campaign.
Content Marketing for Your Business
A strong content marketing strategy is a smart choice for businesses concerned about the long-term. Marry your content marketing with SEO, social media management, and a well built mobile responsive website, and your family entertainment center has a well balanced web presence that can convert for years to come.
Continue with your content marketing education by jumping to Part 2: Owned vs Rented Online Real Estate
