The next big thing is here and it needs your attention.

Content. Think of your content as your baby, it needs a lot of thought and effort. You can’t just post a picture anymore. The quality of the image, fonts used, and graphic design all amount to how engaging the picture will be. You also need to know information about your audience: their needs, issues, and when they are online. Commercials and advertising on the internet is what we label as old school marketing. Here’s how you can enter the digital era of content marketing.

Content is exactly what it sounds like. Posts on Facebook? Content. Links back to articles? Content. Finding information related to your industry is easy, but what most marketers struggle with is creating their own content on a regular basis. Reposting someone else’s content isn’t a very strong strategy. Here is a definition of content marketing from the Content Marketing Institute:

              Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience – and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.              

Your main focus should always be your customer.

What are your customers’ pain points? What are their interests? You are no longer talking at your audience about how a product will fix their problems. You are selling products or services that aid in solving their problems. Build content around this idea. Eventually your profiles will begin to have “micro-moments” or moments that lead up to a big thing, or in our case, a sale. Social media has and always will be a conversation between brands and their fans. Listen to what your audience’s problems are and make content about how your business can help.

A common phrase with content marketing is that “Content is King.” Here’s the new bigger idea: context is king. “It’s all about the right offer to the right customer at the right time” or as Steve Dennis calls it, the Holy Grail of customer relationship management. You can have the best quote or image to post, but it doesn’t reach anyone. Why? You haven’t done enough research of your audience. It is not enough to know that your audience is on these social platforms. You need to also know when they are online. Analyzing the insights behind your profiles can be an easy, yet powerful, way to do this.

Marketing online is a chance for your customers to get inspired and learn more about certain products. That’s what your content can offer to your fans. It no longer just matters about the immediate sale. It’s also about cultivating an audience that eventually turns leads into sales. Your social profiles should expand on the knowledge you have of your industry with content that solves your customer’s issues. Then look to post your content when your audience is online. Before you know it, you will become the king or queen of content marketing in your office. Just don’t let it go to your head. There’s always a new marketing tactic coming out.