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“Think Different “; you must have heard the phrase thousand times. Haven’t you? Actually this was an iconic advertising slogan for the Apple Company. It’s a very simple and striking slogan. But this had a significant impact on the brand’s success and reveals the role of content as an important contributor in building a brand’s reputation.

To begin with, let us discuss the term content marketing.

While glancing through the internet, you might have encountered this term, ‘content marketing’ and may still be pondering over it. A question then, arises, what is content marketing and what is its relevance? In a world largely driven by technology, businesses are trying to enhance their brand perception by employing varieties of marketing techniques. One of the most important strategies to build a brand identity is content marketing. Behind every successful brand, there is a wealth of highly valuable content that really resonates with the company’s audience. It also shows them what your brand is all about and what it represents.

To put it simply, content marketing is the marketing of a business or a brand by sharing wide range of information with the public through internet. It is one of the most effective and pragmatic strategies to engage with customers and generate more leads. Attractive content targeted at a specific audience, can take you ahead of the other competitors and help build more connections.

For instance, take the example of the Hollywood film ‘Dark Knight Rises’ directed by Christopher Nolan. It was one of the most interactive marketing campaigns ever conceived by Hollywood. The campaign for the film started 14 months before the release. To keep its audience engaged, a series of trailers, viral marketing, graffiti drawing campaigns etc. were unleashed. This highly integrated marketing campaign created an unprecedented level of buzz among the audience and contributed heavily to the success of the film.

Now, let us look at the benefit of this strategy

Every business will have a specific target audience. The value you create will determine the amount of trust you earn. By educating the audience through engaging and insightful content, you begin establish a certain relationship with them and building trust with the customers is the biggest challenge for any business to grow.

Discussing about trust factor, one can point out the case of Coca Cola. It has started a multinational campaign called Share a coke. What they did was personalization, thereby identifying with the product and get everybody talking about the brand. They simply printed individual names on cans and bottles and thus inspired the audience to do the marketing for the company.

All is well, but how can you create effective content?

The best way to create engaging content that can make an impact is by concentrating on issues that are pertinent to the needs and interests of your audience. The customers who read the content must realize your brand value and the qualities that sets you apart from other competitors. You can use various types of content formats like blogs, videos, social media, email, webinars, podcasts, etc. to reach out to the customers.

For example, we all know the victory of Donald Trump in 2016 president election. Trump effectively used social media especially Twitter to build relationships with the voters. Instead of old marketing methods like buying ads, he focused on creating quality content which include memorable messages that drew people towards him. So we can conclude without any doubt that this is the more productive and cheaper form of marketing compared to others. In this type of marketing, there is no need to ask the customer to buy products or force them to do something. In other words, one can say that there is no compulsion from the company’s side to facilitate an action.

In conclusion, I think its justified to say that content is the king as far as online marketing is concerned. Whether it is entertaining of informative in nature, a content that provide value can alter the perception of the people. One must realize the potential of content marketing and use it is as an effective tool to enhance your growth.