Part 3 of 3: Content marketing - What type of internet marketer are you? (or how to choose your online business model)

We’re at the close of my three part guide on how to choose your online business model. In part three, I’m covering the reasons to be a content marketer. If you’ve contemplated the affiliate and product (or merchant) marketing areas, a valid question at this stage might be, “So why would I want to market content?”

In answering this it’s important to correct a common misconception.

Content marketing doesn’t mean selling content; it means providing content (which must be useful, quality information) to an audience you can later sell to. The intention of a content marketer is to engage the target audience in a dialogue or an interaction (for instance, blogs allow readers to make comments).

If your audience thinks you offer quality content and finds it useful, you build trust and loyalty. So when someone wants to buy a product or service related to your content area, chances are they’ll want to buy from you.

Want.

…think about that.

That’s the way major online players like Google and Yahoo! have done it. And look what they’ve achieved.

The ‘nothing to sell immediately’ concept really works: let’s explore why.


Part 3 of 3: Content marketing

The best part

Every time you distribute a newsletter, display an article, post to your blog, upload a video, send a mass email message, broadcast on internet radio, make an audio podcast available, tweet on Twitter… you are content marketing. And because you’ve probably been content marketing before you may have really considered marketing at all, you are already using this business model.

You may have nothing to sell now but you are talking to an audience. So ease of use definitely plays a part in selecting this type of internet marketing.

You’re already doing it.

However, many people believe that having ‘nothing to sell immediately’ isn’t a business strategy. And conventional wisdom agrees. “You want to buy what I’m selling now”, is how many of us understand business.

But, hold on!

The internet clearly changes that thinking.

Consider the process most internet users go through BEFORE the decision to buy is made:

• Interest in a product to solve a problem
• Get information from the web; read about it, watch video, listen to radio or podcasts (reviews, comments, recommendations, complaints) which is really the same as asking your family, your neighbor, a friend, your work mate or a specialist
• Check for price/quality of service, etc.
• Find a reason to buy now (usually well written copy which answers all the questions, solves the problem and provides a call to action)

And finally…

• Pull out the credit card! 

So what stands out here? Absolutely right: it’s the recommendation. The recommendation to buy comes in many different forms. But the fact that someone else had the same problem and it’s been solved is the key. So, you can now see why the content marketer wins trust and loyalty… and much faster than any other type of marketer.

Look, this is the same concept as having a product featured on Oprah! It’s the immediate availability of the internet that makes this so.

If you can create quality content… lots of it… and enough to make your audience return to your site, you become the specialist (see the process above). That’s a very powerful way to grow a target market.

Very powerful.

Your opinion has value.

Your opinion, of itself, is a product. People pay for premium content.

Your opinion is sought after and, if only by implication, the products you recommend are sold.

Bam!


The downside

So how long does all this take? The time it takes to build your audience can be considered a downside. And at first glance, selling your own product may seem incompatible with this business model. But the truth is… that really depends on what you are selling, doesn’t it? It’s perception.

I can’t think of any reasons to knock this business model.

I wouldn’t. It makes such sense.


Content marketing pros and cons

Pros

• Builds huge trust and loyalty from your audience, Oprah-style
• Valuable audience participation (you can easily and immediately take the temperature of your market)
• You are not selling anything immediately (you are the specialist and friend, getting you very close to your audience, which is strong)
• Valued opinion (builds credibility)
• Your content, even when free, is a valuable product
• People will pay for premium content
• Generates inbound links (a crucial factor in search engine rankings)

Cons

• Takes longer to build an audience (I think the trade-off in trust and loyalty is worth this)
• Possibly issues with selling your own product (some people may be hesitant to buy a product they know you own)

In conclusion, this is a great internet marketing business model. The ability to create serious, multiple, passive revenue streams exists, right here. Whether you can make more money as an affiliate or product marketer is a moot question, I think, because a content marketer must incorporate something of the other two to make money. So this business model overlaps.

Also, you’ll realize that time invested is probably not the best criterion to use when comparing the three business models we’ve looked at. They all require a time investment.

Which one best suits you?

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this three part guide as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.

Be successful