The document provides an overview of content marketing fundamentals. It discusses that content marketing involves creating valuable, relevant content to attract and engage an audience in order to boost sales. It should not be confused with traditional marketing or low-quality content like outsourced SEO copywriting. The document outlines steps to develop an effective content marketing strategy, including defining target audiences and markets, creating different types of content, publishing and promoting content, and continuously optimizing efforts based on data and testing.

1. CONTENT MARKETING
FUNDAMENTALS
Amit Singh
Digital Marketer |
Business Advisory

2. WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT
There’s a study out there that shows 70% of marketers are less than
satisfied with the success of their content efforts. There seems to be
much confusion about what Content Marketing is. So I thought I’d
write up some basics to clear up some of the confusion.
Below you will find my selected pearls of wisdom regarding
the following topics.
o Does Content Marketing Mean Writing Good Content for My
Website?
o What Is Content Marketing?
o How Is It Different from Traditional Marketing?
o Why Do It? Why Does It Boost Sales?
o How Does It Work?
o Content Strategy
o Marketing Plan
o Go for the Low-Hanging Fruit First
o Content Development
o The SEO & PPC Angle
o Content Publication and Audience Building
o Analysis and Optimization

3. FIRST THING
FIRST
Let us be clear that low level content
development, such as outsourced SEO
copywriting, is usually NOT content
marketing at all.
It is the opposite of it!
It is NOT about finding lists of free-for-all
sites where you can "submit" trashy
articles and press releases. It is not about
content spinning, guest blogging
opportunities, or any kind of "SEO content
link-building." (By the way, all of these are
obsolete SEO techniques, they have zero
positive impact on your SEO today and
can only hurt your site after the latest
Google updates. But Content Marketing is
now the correct way to do SEO, so read
on.

4. DOES CONTENT MARKETING
MEAN WRITING GOOD CONTENT
FOR YOUR WEBSITE?
No!
In fact, you can stop writing good content: you are
wasting your time. Nobody needs "good content,"
"quality content," it’s worthless. The Web is already filled
with redundant information. Don’t waste your resources
on content copywriting unless you have done the right
research, have a solid strategy, and know why it will
work.

5. SO WHAT IS CONTENT
MARKETING?
Practically all the internet marketing that we
should care about (as distinct from advertising,
and from spam), is content marketing.
The most successful method of B2B marketing
online, and one that also works great for B2C
marketing, is all about intelligently providing
ample, free, extremely useful information and
resources relevant to your business offering, in
which your marketing message is embedded in
clear, yet subtle, optimized ways. That is what real
content marketing is.
And once you have set it up, you continue to
optimize all the parts of your marketing operation
by split-testing them every element and every
action and applying principles of Conversion Rate
Optimization.

6. HOW IS
THIS KIND
OF
MARKETIN
G
DIFFERENT
FROM
TRADITION
AL
MARKETIN
G?
Of course, it's nothing new: there has been content marketing
as long as there has been content. What has changed in digital
marketing, compared to traditional marketing, is that it has
become a science, since the impact of any marketing activity
online is precisely measurable if things are set up correctly.
Alas, too many corporate marketing departments are still run
by old-school traditional marketers who are clueless how to
develop a content strategy online. Their idea of online
marketing is the old-fashioned company blog and the
brochure.
Traditional marketing is about generating desire. It is boastful,
and it's about closing. Savvy content marketing is about
removing obstacles to fulfillment. The relevant desire is already
there on the Web, in what people search for. Internet marketing
is helpful, it's about providing free value.
Lastly, a technical difference: the very structure of marketing
and advertising copy in traditional media is totally different
from the content structures that are optimal for digital media,
and traditional people are often unaware of the differences.
(This is why traditional advertisers often write poorly
performing AdWords ads, for instance.)

7. WHY DO IT?
Done right, content marketing
helps build your brand, visibility,
reputation, and trust.
At its best, it makes your site go
viral, taking your business to the
next level.
It brings natural links, and Google
rankings and referred traffic
through them.

8. WHY DOES IT
BOOST SALES?
Buyers are 3/5 of the way through
their deciding process before they
reach out to provider companies.
Roughly 4/5 of all business decision
makers prefer to learn about a
provider from a series of articles
instead of a pitch.
The methods of modern content
marketing allow you to architect,
implement, and optimize a wide and
effective sales funnel, serving
prospects at all stages of the sales
cycle, as well as a broader audience.
Your marketing is mixed into a free
public service, and this is your chance
to improve this planet a bit, at least in
your area, so don’t take it lightly.

9. HOW DOES
IT WORK?
You can research many viable
approaches. I’ll tell you about
my own comprehensive
approach, based on experience.
My biggest criticism of most
marketing efforts that I have had
occasion to review, is that they are
incomplete, insufficiently integrated,
failing to achieve a synergy of the
various parts and channels of the
marketing cycle, and largely
oblivious to optimization. To me,
the major parts of an internet
marketing operation are:
1. Content Strategy
2. Marketing Plan
3. Content Creation
4. Audience Building
5. Content Publication

10. CONTENT STRATEGY
a. If you are in business to begin with, you have already done your market research and
have a business model – and that’s your first strategy. Your marketing strategy derives
from your business model and your offering.
b. Begin with a close description of your product or service offering. Make sure to write it
down as accurately as you can.
c. Identify the specific areas of information and knowledge associated with your offering.
Make a list of those subject areas. What needs does your offering fill? What problems
does it solve? In what markets?
d. For each important market segment, describe the problem and the solution in the
language of the market. That’s a classic tenet of all marketing: "Speak to the dog in the
language of the dog about what’s in the heart of the dog."
e. This is the foundation of your long-term content strategy. While in business, expect to
develop outstanding content that covers all the relevant areas. This will ensure that
your sales funnel is seamless and as wide as it needs to be, in the long run.
f. Most accounts of content strategy begin with "keyword strategy" -- and notice how I
have not even mentioned it yet. Do not bother about keyword strategy until it’s time.
[As an aside to SEOs, we need to break out of the traditional SEO way of thinking, it has
become too limiting. A strong keyword strategy is a place, but it is not the begin all and
end all of content marketing.]

11. MARKETING PLAN
First, define and describe the content that you'll need to create closely
describing your product or service. Your will need to start with a
description that has the relevant market appeal. It should also name your
top markets as well as your lesser markets.
Second priority: define in detail the main marketing pages of your site,
thinking of them as funnels leading your site visitors from the gateway of
broadest relevant appeal (your home page) to specific interests and
applications (internal pages) and on to eventual conversion – all in as few
steps and clicks as possible.
From this core of your website, you will keep widening you marketing
funnel by creating layer upon layer of relevant valuable content. From here
on, planning, developing, and constantly improving and optimizing your
marketing content becomes a perpetual, ongoing process.
Now we are ready to approach keyword research. No, I am not yet talking
about a "keyword strategy," just in-depth keyword analysis concerning all
relevant needs and problems and associated areas of knowledge that you

12. CONTD…
In addition, generate a list of search terms for each market / knowledge area that you
have identified, thinking "in the language of the dog about what's in the heart of the
dog." (Talk to your sales people, they are often best aware of the true language of their
market.)
Collect the search volumes for each relevant term. That’s the gist of your market
keyword analysis.
You will need to determine the various marketing channels you can use, the optimal
market mix. Besides your website and your blog, there are press releases, social
media, email marketing, etc. All of them require powerful content to work well.
Within the relevant knowledge areas that you have establish, determine the types of
content that will be most useful to the customer. What genres of writing would suit
them best? You can think of free downloadable guides and manuals, free research
data, free tips and so on.
Perform an Online Information Competitive Analysis. Use your important search terms
to run searches and examine the information that your competition has deployed.
Make a list of the main free resources available for each search.
This is your long-term marketing challenge: to create content that is not only "of a
high quality" but in fact immensely better than the rest of the content you find on the
Internet in the knowledge areas immediately surrounding your product and service.

13. GO FOR THE LOW-HANGING
FRUIT FIRST
Much of importance could be added, but I
will focus on how to prioritize your content
development to get the low hanging fruit
first, for fastest profits.
When running Google searches to find out
what free resources are already available on
the internet, try to identify areas in which
the information and resources available are
not redundant.
Try to discover what I call information holes
(i.e. missing important information). That is
the information that your content creation
ream should probably provide immediately
after creating your site's core pages.
Especially if you can show that there is
online demand for this information,
expressed in Google searches. (Once you
have created this missing content, invest in
promoting it intensively and extensively to
the right audience. If your information is

14. CONTD…
At last, we are ready to talk
"Keyword Strategy." Perform
competitive analysis on the
search terms in your list.
(That’s technical stuff, I won't
address it here other than to
say, don’t use the KEI – the so-
called Keyword Efficiency
Index: it is wrongheaded and
pretty useless, there are much
better ways to gauge the
competitiveness of keywords.)
Make a selection of the most
relevant, least competitive
keywords with the highest
search volumes. By creating
landing pages and killer
content relevant to these terms
and optimizing the pages for

15. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
There is a lot of expertise that goes
into effective and viral content
development. For now I’ll make the
following points”
Do not assume that content is
cheap. Its pricing ranges on the
market from almost zero per page
to thousands per page, and the
expensive content is worth every
penny.
Hire the best content experts you
can afford. Understand the reasons
why expensive content is expensive.
Your writers and marketers must
outshine those employed by your
competition.
Always place the call to action
above the fold both on the Web and
in email. (Not doing so is the worst
common mistake I can think of).

16. THE SEO & PPC ANGLE
SEO and PPC remain indispensable parts of your marketing
operation. You need an expert to develop, test and evolve your
keyword strategy correctly. Extensive experience is gold in this
area. Your whole site and any content that goes on the Web
should be SEO’ed by experts. In addition, AdWords provides an
unparalleled method of testing the converting efficiency of
various keywords quickly.

17. CONTENT PUBLICATION AND AUDIENCE
BUILDING
Distribute and share your content through all necessary channels. Always invest in
promoting it. (There is redundant information about this on the Web; I will skip it.)
Find out where the users you care about hang out on the Web; target them; give them
reasons to follow you. People love it when valuable info is given away free.
Having a signup center on your site, an opt-in email-marketing list, and engaging the
social media are great engines for audience building.
Keep in touch with your audience by sharing more and more freebees. Do not bombard
them with overtly commercial information or they will leave. Be tasteful.
Reuse uniquely written email marketing content on the Web. That’s great Web content for
you at no extra cost. Copyright everything you publish. This helps deal with situations
where your content is plagiarized.

18. ANALYSIS
AND
OPTIMIZATIO
N
1) From the launch of your content marketing project,
split-test various parts of it, starting with those that
most directly affect your sales: the landing page the
submission form etc.
2) The elements of a landing page’s content that have
the greatest impact on sales are
1) the heading; and
2) the call to action. Split-test them vigorously.
3) Avail yourself of all the wisdom of marketing
science, whether through rigorous study or by
engaging the right people.
4) User behavior data in Google Analytics, AdWords and
other analytics software can provide meaningful,
precise feedback about every element of your
internet marketing. It would be foolish not to use it.
5) Once you collect enough data, you may even need to
fine-tune your very business model based on this
feedback.

19. ANALYSIS AND OPTIMIZATION
1) From the launch of your content marketing project, split-test various parts
of it, starting with those that most directly affect your sales: the landing
page the submission form etc.
2) The elements of a landing page’s content that have the greatest impact on
sales are
1) the heading and
2) the call to action. Split-test them vigorously.
3) Avail yourself of all the wisdom of marketing science, whether through
rigorous study or by engaging the right people.
4) User behavior data in Google Analytics, AdWords and other analytics
software can provide meaningful, precise feedback about every element of
your internet marketing. It would be foolish not to use it.
5) Once you collect enough data, you may even need to fine-tune your very
business model based on this feedback.