Never Fear, Content is Here! 

As the leaves fall and fear creeps into the minds of marketers, stories of failed campaigns, lost revenue, and dissatisfied audiences begin to whisper along the wind.

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The world of content marketing can be spooky and sometimes anxiety-inducing. Content marketing is full of terrifying what-ifs, very few perceivable safety nets, and often a consistent fear of audience reception. But, Marketers shouldn’t be worried about rocking the graveyard with their bone-chillingly clever ideas or exploring content creation! Creating content to support or drive your brand's marketing efforts is one of the safest and most engaging ways to speak to your brand's audience. 

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What is Content Marketing? 

Simply put, Content Marketing consists of creating relevant, engaging, and consistent content that captures and retains a marketer's target audience's attention. Content marketing requires consistency and solid pre-planned processes. It requires clear theming and an understanding of the target audience. 

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But, how could content marketing be one of the safest and most engaging methods to manage brand marketing if it requires all of these pieces? 

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The answer is pretty simple but somewhat wordy. The consequence of a new brand engaging in content marketing for the first time is most often just low engagement. By sticking to some widely available advice and dipping your marketing team's toes into the chilly fog-blanketed lake that is audience research, marketing teams can begin to create quick introductory content that engages and delights audiences while expertly highlighting your product or service for nearly any market.

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Ignoring the Fear Knocking at Your Chamber Door

The most successful marketing teams that practice content marketing usually refer to and hire experts to help increase the overall quality of their content. This ranges from graphical designers drafting graphic assets or subject matter experts giving detailed explanations of the benefits and features of a product through things like email appeals and blog posts. 

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However, the big secret to content marketing is scalability. No expert on your new candy brand to shed light on its unique taste profile? No worries! Draft a blog highlighting the chocolatier's method of designing your product and his goals for the candy's scrumptious flavor. 

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The true key to content marketing is in the unique avenues that each brand has. Highlighting the unique pain points that a brand alleviates, describing a product's social impact, or engaging with fan excitement at a new service offering are all areas that even the smallest marketing teams can capitalize on and produce content for. 

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Content Marketing Brings Growth & Growth Brings Content Marketing

Besides a few basic best practices, marketing teams often run into unique challenges and use cases for each form of content they produce. While a blog may engage an audience to begin with, a more dynamic and fast-growing product such as an ever-evolving online video game may benefit from a faster and more responsive medium like social media. Legacy products may not need to engage in a speedy marketing cycle and could opt for an online ad campaign to spread awareness about the brand's newest innovations. 

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Content marketing can grow as marketing demands grow. When starting out small, consistent audience targeting can help fill in the gaps that initial research couldn’t fill. An audience tends to grow with a brand so initial content marketing efforts are a crucial time to learn an audience's preferences and demographical data. Opposite to this, an older company may have years worth of audience data that doesn’t have a clear focus. Using this older data with more recent studies could provide key insights into a legacy brand’s target audience and help the marketing team start a little farther ahead.  

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The worst way to engage with content marketing practices is to not engage with them at all. If you are struggling with content ideas, take a look at some Iconic Marketing Campaigns for inspiration. Fearing the content is the first step to making marketing mistakes! So get out there, brave the full moon, and engage your audience with your unique brand and powerful marketing.