Content Marketing Management and Strategies

Content marketing refers to a marketing approach that is used to make valuable content and distribute and share that content with the specific target audience. The content can be images, videos, blogs, etc. Content marketing is used to attract the attention of the audience towards the brand, to generate leads of the brand, to increase the online sales of the brand, etc. Many companies and brands prefer to use content marketing. Content marketing provides valuable information regarding the brand and creates the chances of willingness for the customer to buy or purchase products from any particular brand.

Content marketing is all about the standard of the content. More customers can be attracted to the brand with the help of content if its quality is up to the mark and is creating interest for the reader or viewer. Quality content is highly appreciated whatever the form of marketing it is, either it is Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, or Inbound marketing.

Content Marketing Management

Content marketing is not all about designing blog posts. It requires a plan and proper management as well as strategy. Creating effective content that can create interests in users and attract the post is part of all that process. Different tasks are handled during the whole process of content marketing. A content marketing manager is a person who should have all that responsibilities to handle the team, create a strategy, etc. the manager can assign different tasks to different team members who then can work on their assigned tasks for the completion of the project. Other than this, some major reasons ask for content marketing management.

• Cognitive Operations: It allows you to automate better decision-making operations. It helps the team to develop the right insights and act on them
• Knowledge Management work to enable intelligent decision makings. Quality information gathered by knowledge management helps to analyze and deliver insights in a user-friendly format.
• Information Management will help to provide a solid foundation of information accuracy, consistency, and completeness for users.

Content Marketing Strategy

Content Marketing Strategy is a plan to know about your content marketing, why, and how you are going to market your content. The perfect strategy shows why the content is being created? How is the content going to help others in a way no one else can? How will the content help you to get the outputs you want to have by this technique?

A right and well-designed strategy is vital for content marketing. This strategy helps a lot through the process of marketing in different ways. There will be a proper justification for spending the percentage of the budget that has been used for content marketing. On the other hand, challenges will be felt significantly less with every aspect of content marketing.

There is no specific template created for a content marketing strategy. It should be all about how a company is going to plan a detail about addressing customers with the help of content. However, some components are usually included while planning a strategy.

• Content Objectives: It shows what the content is all about? What results will it tend to achieve?
• Goals: It define the final destination of the project, where the team needs to reach.
• Brand Story: It shows the image of the brand that what the brand is about and what does it does. It’s a foundation by which a brand grows and keeps on going forward.
• Target Audience: It is the audience the team wants to target directly for the reach of content.
• Measurement and KPI:It is used to measure the accuracy level and marketing level of the project.

Content Marketing Tools

Hundreds of content marketing tools are available at different prices. Some are cheap, some are expensive, and some are free as well. They all are used for specific purposes in content marketing. Their uses include the production of the content, promotion of the content, optimization of the content, and much more. Given below are some of the content marketing tools defined along with their prices.

• HubSpot:

HubSpot is an inbound marketing tool that is used to automate marketing activity based on user behavior. That marketing activity could be an automated email, automated SMS, etc. HubSpot provides different tools to create websites, content, manage social media, etc and all that on one platform.

Price: 800$

• WordPress:

WordPress is a framework that is used to develop websites. Different themes are available on word-press, and those themes can be customized to design that according to specific requirements.

Price: 500$

• Google Docs:

Online platform to create documents using Google account. These documents include articles, details about any particular content, etc. All the work to create content is done on Google docs before its presentation.

Price: 5$ per month

• Airstory

A content marketing tool that is used to save the key points and information which can further be dragged in the original document to create content. Separate notes are created by using Airstory.

Price: 6.47$ per month

• Grammarly

Grammarly is a writing tool that is used to check out the grammar and punctuation mistakes in content. It also gives suggestions to correct the errors in content.

Price: 139.95$ per year

• Yoast

This tool is used to make website SEO-friendly. The website can be optimized without applying many efforts by using Yoast.

Price: 69$ per site

• Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo works as a research tool. It is used to search what type of content can create an impact on the reader or what type of content does a user want to read?

Price: 99$-499$ per month

• Ahrefs

Ahrefs is used for SEO analysis of the website. It will monitor the performance of SEO and will keep notified about the issues if any.

Price: 99$ per month

• Vidyard

It is used to market the video content on the website. Video content can be shared, host, and promoted on the websites by using Vidyard.

Price: 1500$ per month

• Loom

The loom is the tool for content marketing, used to create or edit videos. You can develop video content for the websites with the help of Loom. Also, it can be used to communicate with team members without any meeting.

Price: 8$ per month

• Trello

Trello is the best option for task management during content marketing. Different cards can be made on Trello having tasks defined on them to complete for content marketing.

Price: 9.99$ per month

• Air table

Another tool that can be used for task management. It is a sort of mixture of spreadsheets and Trello. It is complicated though it can be customized.

Price: 12$ per month

• Google Analytics

Google Analytics is the platform of Google, which is used to analyze the statistics of SEO performance. These stats are analyzed digitally and graphically.

Price: 150,000$ per year

• Hot Jar

This tool is used to check out the behavior of the users of the website and give you feedback through different platforms such as heatmap, etc.

Price: 29$ per month

• Google Optimize

It is a sort of testing tool that is used to test different variations of a website so that its performance and conversions can be improved.

Price: 150,000$ per year

• Mutiny

Mutiny is designed for B2B marketing. It is used to build different marketing tools that further help marketers to show different landing pages to different customers.

Price: Free

• The Stocks.IM

This tool consists of many kinds of images that are free to use. To add any picture on the website, The Stocks.IM can be used to have an imagery website.

Price: 0$ (Free)

• Canva

Canva is the best tool for images to add to the content. It contains many kinds of images that can be edited as well. Free and paid photos are available in Canva.

Price: 9.95$ per month

• Adobe Photoshop

The best tool for web developers, designers, photographers, etc. is used to develop any image, logo, edit the image, etc. All you need is to be the best creative designer.

Price: 49.99$ per month

Digital marketing has become a growing trend since the last decade. Though, a new tactic of marketing, its success advocates its continuous use. Digital marketing is precisely the use of digital technologies and virtual platforms to market a good or service. Different mediums are used to market products; though the primary instrument is the internet, marketing on mobile devices through online advertisements and display advertising also fall under the umbrella term of digital marketing. 

The introduction of digital marketing has changed the preface of brands and how businesses make use of modern technology in order to increase their revenue and turnovers. Digital marketing campaigns have become more efficient over the course of time. This is due to the fact that the virtual world has become synchronized with our daily lives more than ever. 

There are various digital marketing methods that are tailored and used in accordance with the requirement of the business and the product it deals with. Depending on the niche, a marketing method that may not seem plausible for one type of product can show higher potential for another type of product. The commonly used methods for digital marketing include search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content automation, social media marketing, Email direct marketing and much more. But how does one decide upon which method to choose? How does one become a successful Digital Marketer? This is where digital marketing courses come into play. How do you adopt a digital marketing strategy? This is where these courses become helpful. It may not be important to attend an institute in its physical form, but online digital marketing courses become mandatory in this context.

Why study digital marketing?

The dominant misconception about digital marketing is that it is related to learning social media marketing, though social media marketing falls under its wings, digital marketing is the name of a giant hawk. Why do I call it a hawk? Because it is high flying and can detect its prey from a distance. Not only does it detect the prey, but it makes a successful move to capture it. 

Digital marketing on its own is a high paying job and a fast growing business. For an individual, the prospects of employment grow diversely once they establish strongholds on the subject. The demand of digital marketing has grown exponentially. This is owing to proved reasons. It has become obvious that digital marketing has a good impact on business revenues and thus the individuals who make it possible and effective become lauded. 

Has this article so far urged you to opt for a digital marketing strategy course already? Let us help you through!

People have been setting foot in the field of digital marketing. Not only in virtual locations, but people are also opting to attend universities to have exclusive exposure in the field of digital marketing. 

Online Marketing Courses and institutes in Canada:

1. Fanshawe College
2. Humber College
3. Herzing College
4. Canadian Business College
5. Centennial College
6. McMaster University
7. Morgan International College
8. George Brown College
9. Sprott Shaw College

Digital Marketing Courses and institutes in the USA:

1. The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)
2. Arizona State University
3. Azusa Pacific University
4. California State University – Northridge
5. Sacred Heart University
6. Georgetown University
7. Northern Illinois University
8. Towson University

Top digital marketing institutes globally

We understand that you may be new to this field and thus, require guidance to opt for a viable digital marketing institute. There are many digital marketing courses and institutes in the USA and Canada for you to choose from, but since the options are diverse, you need to be wary! You will find below a list of institutes and online courses noted for masters in digital marketing online and can opt for the one which offers a close match of what you are searching for in this field. 

• Google online marketing challenge: 

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but Google is a name synonymous to marketing and thus acquiring a Google certified digital marketing course comes with its pros. There cannot be anything that matches the Google online marketing challenge. This is an online training program which will award you a certification. It comes with video tutorials on a range of subjects which include:

1. Digital marketing – an introduction
2. Tips and tricks to search for advertising 
3. Search engine marketing
4. Mobile strategies 
5. Analytics
6. Video advertisement techniques
7. Display advertising 
8. Social media marketing

It is always advisable to complete the pre-course preparation before signing up for the actual course itself. This is due to the fact that the course delivers an ocean of knowledge on which anyone signing up for it should have a command. The course material is available as per the capabilities of an introductory, intermediate and advanced level student. Upon completion, the candidates are recommended to take the globally recognized Google Ad-words Certification in order to pump their career prospects. 

• Knowledge hunt:

Established in 2011, it is known for the service it offers to people. This institute offers 100+ professional training courses for management and technology. These courses are not only useful for individuals but for businesses as a whole. This institute is affiliated with Global blended Model of Approach (GBMA), and this affiliation aids the understanding of students on various topics and makes their understanding of various topics easier. Among all courses, the highest opted courses offered at knowledge hunt include: 

1. Content marketing 
2. Web analytics training
3. Pay per click advertising 
4. Email direct marketing training
5. Display advertising 
6. Digital marketing training
7. Conversion optimization training
8. Mobile marketing 
9. Search engine optimization (SEO)
10. Social media marketing

The combination of these digital marketing courses helps emerging marketers to pave their way through the industry. These courses do not limit your understanding to the things taught in class, but this domain is most likely and closest in its ability to be applied to the contemporary world.

• Market motive – Masters in Digital Marketing:

Started in 2007, this program has been serving the industry ever since. It has a one of its kind curriculum that is structured and wholesome. This program gives you at least 250 hours of training where you are taught several things. It gives you hours for analytics, Search engine optimization, PPC, social media marketing, mobile, email marketing and much more. 

If this program had to be shrunk to its results, they would include the following:

1. 250 hours and up for remote learning content 
2. Training from the esteemed faculty of silicon valley
3. A contemporary approach to learning
4. A diverse range of courses
5. Access to digital marketing projects or opportunities 
6. Expert discussion forums
7. Money back guarantee

• Coursera Digital marketing specialization program:

This project includes seven courses and a field project to secure a certification from the course. The programs it covers include analytics, SEO, PPC, social media marketing and much more. Among the seven courses, few are as follow:

1. Marketing analytics for digital marketing
2. Marketing in an analog world
3. A capstone project in association with Grainger industries

• Udemy Digital marketing master class:

This class offers a range of 23 online courses which gives an end to end training from social media to email marketing. The master class teaches digital marketing strategies, tactics to improve brand identity, and brand engagement to name a few. The course includes 30 hours of on-demand video, guides, and checklists for the enthusiastic marketer. This class is priced at approximately $200 and entitles the student a certification upon completion.

• Hubspot Content Marketing Certification:

This is a free online content marketing course with 12 courses. Each of these courses include two to three videos. These courses are inclined towards developing good content strategy in order to attract new customers and keep the existing intact. Anyone can access the free courses once they have signed up for Hubspot services. Hubspot also provides a certificate upon completion of an end of course exam. 

• LinkedIn learning marketing training and tutorials:

Formerly, Lynda.com has much in the store. It offers a range of digital marketing tutorials and training initiatives for you to develop, implement and gauge any digital marketing strategy. On a whole, students get to study search engine optimization, social media marketing and much more. The tools offered by LinkedIn are indeed helpful in the digitized world. 

• Skillshare Digital Marketing Training:

This course is best known for developing a content marketing and social media marketing strategy. The courses offered range from as low as 15 minutes and even range up to 4 hours and more. It is a go-tofor anyone who wants to learn digital marketing remotely. Better yet, it is safe to say that this is a good way to learn about digital marketing through digital channels. It helps people to understand various social media platforms and their strategies of marketing. Once an individual has signed up, a range of courses are available for free up to two months. This platform provides pricing on request and runs a monthly subscription program to let the marketer continue learning over a large span of time. 

It is no doubt that embracing the virtual reality and it being a world working in parallel to the real world has become imperative. The need of highly qualified digital marketer cannot be denied or ignored. The strategies that a business uses in digital marketing distinguishes a settled business from a successful one. 

Cannot attend an institute in the physical form? Don’t worry, you may opt for online courses.

Bottom Line: This field requires a high level of creativity and the knack to connect with people!!

1. Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is like Chess, you will succeed only if you know when you have to move which piece (king, rook, bishop, queen, knight, and pawn). There is a time when you move your pawn from his safe zone and risk the king’s life. (Your brand is the King here). This blog is a short but precise explanation of Social Media Marketing.

The advertisement is processed by using different social media platforms to convey your message or reaching your audience to develop your brand, increase sales, and obtain some traffic on your websites. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linked In, Snap chat, Blogs, YouTube, etc are used for digital marketing.

2. Why Social Media Marketing is Important

Now-a -days, social media marketing is working as the most crucial part of your businesses. It has a lot of positives as well as helps to reach a large community for the advertisement of our brand. According to 2019 social media stats, about 3.2 billion people are using social media platforms around the globe. It shows how beneficial it will be to advertise your brand using social media platforms. You will miss a big opportunity if you ignore this logic. It will make things easy for the brand about its awareness and vision.

Some of the important aspects that show why digital marketing is crucial:

2.1 Customer Engagement

Social media is the better platform if you want to engage with your customers. It provides two-way communication between the brand and the customer. The more you will interact with the customers, the more you will have the chance of a conversion. And by having two-way communication, you will better know about the requirements of the customer and the interest of the customer. It will help you to give your customers more attention and you will convey your brand message more easily to them.

2.2 Increased Traffic

Another benefit you can have by social media marketing is increased traffic. You can create quality content, and then you can share it on social media platforms. As much as your content will be shared, you will have more traffic on your content. It will be proved as a valid reason why a person should click to visit your website. So, in this manner, as much as you will have the traffic on your content, you will have many chances of conversion rates.

2.3 Cost-Effective

Social Media is the better option for brand promotion in regards to cost. You have to create an account on the platform you want to, and sign up with your I’d and password. And then, you can market your brand by posting ads, content related to your brand. Making an account on social media platforms is always free of cost, but you will have to pay something for your marketing. Conversion rates of your brand and a positive response rate from the customers can easily be increased by just investing a small amount of money as well as your time.

2.4 Enhanced SEO Rankings

Marketing on social media platforms is becoming a crucial factor for rankings calculation. The importance of SEO is continuously determined to have effective positioning these days. Consequently, it is never again enough to just update your content and enhance your site. Organizations uploading their substance via web-based networking media are delivering brand awareness to search engines that conveys your authentic image, respectability, and constancy.

2.5 Enhanced Loyalty of Brand

Customers can very easily reach you and come to you when you are present on social media. There are a lot more chances of customer loyalty when you have a connection with them through social media. Having loyal customers is also the goal of any business. Customer engagement is very crucial to have better brand loyalty. You don’t only introduce your product on social media, but you can also have promotional campaigns as well.

3. Social Media Marketing Courses

There are many institutions which are offering digital marketing courses. One should go and avail of these chances to enhance your knowledge regarding this field. We all know the importance of digital media and the digital world in today’s world. So, To build up a strong advertising background, you should go for the course and get knowledge of digital marketing.

4. How to Utilize Social Media Marketing Tools Effectively?

Some of the digital marketing tools which can be used to boost your brand are discussed below. It will also help you to engage with your customers.

4.1 Buffer

Buffer has a clear interface and uncomplicated features to analyze the data. Just a single dashboard can be used for your content to share it on multiple accounts. To make it easier, content can be shared on Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and Facebook by using chrome extension.

4.2 Feedly

Feedly is an incredible method to comprehend what influencers are discussing, to keep updated with the modern production patterns. Being updated with the most recent developments helps control your very own substance procedure and online content uploading plan.

4.3 Canva

Canva is the tool that is designed especially for non-designers. You can edit your pictures, content for your blogs. Canva can create stunning photos for social media platforms to upload. Using Canva’s multiple templates; you just have to drag the elements of the picture and set it where you need to.

5. Social Media Marketing Giant Sites

There are different social media marketing platforms that you can use to market your brand. However, some of the major areas are discussed below that will help you better choose any one of those sites and to market your brand on it.

5.1 Facebook

It should not be a surprising fact that Facebook is on the top of the list of great sites. With about 2.41 billion active users daily, Facebook is the platform that is used a lot around the globe. Whatever you want to achieve as a business goal, including increased traffic, lead generation, conversion rate, or brand awareness, Facebook can make a clear difference in approaching your goal when properly used.

5.2 Instagram

Instagram comes at number second in this list. After Facebook, Instagram is a widely used platform throughout the world. The owner of Instagram is the same person who owns Facebook. Instagram has 500 million daily active users.

5.3 Pinterest

If your business lies in a sort of creative industry or assembles more women, Pinterest is the social media platform you should consider. Pinterest has 291 million monthly active users. According to stats, out of 291 million users, 81% are women, 93% of users said that their basic reason for using Pinterest is to look for purchases and many of the users told that the reason for their purchasing is Pinterest.

5.4 YouTube

YouTube is a video platform where people can watch videos and can upload videos as well. YouTube is owned by Google. YouTube has a monthly 2 billion active users. You have the chance to share your content on YouTube with over 30+ million daily active users having the chance to watch it.

5.5 Twitter

Twitter has been used for a long time and has 336 million monthly active users. Twitter can be used to post photos, videos and a limited copy of characters. Twitter is most commonly known for its news of real-time happenings.

6. Social media marketing strategy

Before entering into the social media platforms, you should first make up a strategy. What should be your strategy to advertise your brand and how you could have traffic on your content? You should develop a plan to increase the conversion rates of your product.

7. What Are Your Goals?

In what manner can social media marketing assist you with accomplishing your business objectives? A few organizations utilize social media marketing for expanding their image of mindfulness; others use it for driving site traffic and deals. Social media marketing can likewise assist you with producing commitment around your brand, make a network, and fill in as a client service channel for your customers.

7.1 Social Media Platform to Focus On:

Many of the social media platforms are discussed above with the number of active users. Some other platforms are used like Tumblr, TikTok, Messenger and Whatsapp, etc. It should be your approach to customers that which platform is mostly used by your target audience so that you can target that social media platform as well.

7.2 Research the Competition

Odds are, your competitors are already using social media platforms. By visiting them, you can see what they are doing well? You’ll have the idea from their ads that what is expected from your industry and what to target directly and to spot opportunities.

7.3 Advertising

After setting up the goal and finalizing the platform, you will have to advertise your brand. Advertising is the area where there is a lot more chance of spreading your business on a wide range. You need funds for the advertisements. If you have enough options for funds, you better raise your business by investing those funds in marketing.

Social media platforms can make your target very easy. You can know and select directly the type of audience you need to target. These targets could be based on different interests, demographics, audience behavior, and much more. You can also use social media advertising tools when you are running more than one campaign at a time. It will help you to make changes, automate different processes, and will help you to optimize your ads.

8. Social Media Marketing Plan

Setting up a policy for your brand advertisement takes a lot of planning. You should plan a powerful strategy to get the reach of your target. You have to get clear of your target audience. Make a healthier plan for that. How to reach the audience? How to interact with the audience? How to get to know the interest of the customers? And in the end, how to increase the conversion rate? That is all about the planning you should have to make before advertising your brand.

Final Words

The fact cannot be denied that Digital Marketing has a lot of positives for businesses that are just getting the start and established newly. It needs updating the social media marketing strategy regularly. By regularly updating the strategies, your business will have a lot of positives like increased traffic, customer satisfaction, better brand loyalty, and much more. Competitiveness is increasing day by day on social media marketing. You have to go smart and make some healthier strategies to win the competition and not let other brands capture your customers.