All About Content Marketing Software: Part 1

Content is King. Meh…we already know that! Content marketing is vital to boost revenue, generate leads and create brand awareness. We know that too! So, what's new? Well, most marketers get content marketing wrong. Content marketing is not about selling your product; it is about creating and delivering content that adds value and engages through the right channels. ultimately guiding prospects through the marketing funnel toward conversion.

In the 1900s, Michelin – the tire manufacturing giant, realized that people were really into buying cars for exploring nearby destinations. You see, the concept of road trips was reasonably new. Michelin came up with the idea of publishing a travel guide about Europe's best destinations that gave information related to traveling, such as the best lodges to stay, best inns for food and wine, etc. The content proved to be useful and hence, an immediate hit with people. Michelin subtly piqued interest in self-owned cars and thus towards tires, which were their product. To date, the Michelin travel guide is revered across the globe and restaurateurs compete for the coveted Michelin star rating. So unknowingly, Michelin started reaping the benefits of content marketing.

That was then and this is now. With marketing going digital, things are different. More than the content, attention time will be the game-changer.

Data giant Seagate estimated that by 2025, over 75% of the global population would interact with data every 18 seconds. This data can be in the form of videos, GIFs, memes, infographics, Instagram reels, vlogs, blogs, newsletters, podcasts and everything in between.

However, we don't need to wait until 2025 because we are already consuming content like "Hungry Hungry Hippos". You will see Millennials and GenZ population continuously scrolling their feeds, catching glimpses of everything out there. How often do you think they circle back to the content? Not a lot, right? That is why marketers don't just rely on great content but also on adequate and in-depth data. Where can you get this data? – Content Marketing Software.

Read on to learn some interesting facts about Content Marketing Software or your next Insta Reel awaits as well.
 

What Exactly Is A Content Marketing Software?

 
Content Marketing Software is a powerful tool that empowers marketers to channelize their marketing efforts to optimize awareness, create demand and drive revenue. Ok, sorry, that was boring and not the most TechDogs way of explaining things.

Let's say you are Edward Norton, "The Narrator" from Fight Club. (Yeah, we did break the first rule but bear with us!) Then Content Marketing Software is your Tyler Durden, subconsciously bringing your ideas to life. Simplifying it further, the software will do all the legwork for you but with the precision and agility of a leopard. It will help you with everything, right from finding your target audience, organizing your content, designing it, distributing it and even the final analysis of results. It is essential to understand how people consume your content and what marketing channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) are most effective with current digitalization trends.

Let's go back to our Michelin example. In the pre-digital era, they only measured their content's success by the number of subscriptions, sales or any fan mail that came through. Safe to say, that's a lot of manual work! Now imagine them doing the same thing through Content Marketing Software (we don't know what they used, though). Heck, Michelin can even choose the exact time and place their content goes out to their users. For example, a vlog about a new travel destination or restaurant can be sent to a consumer in the USA and Australia at 8 a.m. local time in both countries. The software is intelligent enough to identify the local times and send the content accordingly. For the consumers, though, it means that Michelin gives them the content they want and when they want it, which, of course, will lead to higher conversion and build brand loyalty.

Now that we know what Content Marketing Software is about, let's dive a bit into its history.
 

History Of Content Marketing Software

Content marketing is not new. However, marketers worldwide have, in the last decade or so, discovered its superpowers. Content marketing is simply and subtly blowing your own trumpet without making it seem so. Brands such as Michelin, P&G, John Deere invested in content marketing as early as the 1900s. Yup! Content marketing existed more than 100 years ago. So, when did the concept of a point solution software emerge?

The answer is Google. No, you don't have to Google the answer. However, Google opened Pandora's Box and with search engines, emails and the dot-com boom, marketers suddenly found themselves sitting on top of a goldmine. Digitalization opened a deluge of channels to distribute content. The new software allowed organizations to send people emails, get them to subscribe to their newsletters, guides, organize contests, quizzes, etc. To say that marketers went berserk would not be untrue. E-commerce sites, for instance, Amazon and eBay, just added to the frenzy. SEO, keywords, backlinks – 
all became the new cool words in the marketing world. As the dynamics changed, the need to swiftly create quality content grew. Ultimately, the need to get some analytics for all the content arose – this led to the birth of Content Marketing Software.
 

So, How Does Content Marketing Software Work?

Content marketing platforms focus on a single thing - automation. However, it's not just your plain Jane automation; we are talking about intelligent and scalable automation. CMS brings together all the requisite marketing tools under one umbrella.  businesses targeting international markets, many platforms also support multilingual content marketing capabilities, helping teams create, manage, and distribute content tailored for specific linguistic and cultural audiences. It has features that help you with various marketing efforts, including measuring website traffic increase, distributing content to the right channels, calculating and optimizing conversions, measuring ROI (Return On Investment) and many more. Content marketing platforms enable you to create content, collaborate with members in the process, schedule the content to be distributed (also called calendaring), streamline content creation workflows, manage teams using role-based access control and maintain a single repository for all your content – images, logos, videos, GIFs and you get the point. Furthermore, most Content Marketing Software today are based on the SaaS (Software as a Service) model, so they need not be installed as a program or a computer application.
 
Are you with us? Great. Let’s learn a thing or two about the software features.
 

Features Of Content Marketing Software

Typically, content marketing does not follow the one-size-fits-all motto for the software. Marketers may have different requirements and will look for a software that is more aligned with their goals and vision. However, there are a few features that are must-haves in any Content Marketing Software. We've listed the top ones down for you:
   

• Email Marketing: One of the best channels to reach out to prospective customers. Your software must provide options like personalized email, email workflows, email analysis and sadly, the unsubscribe option- to be compliant with the famous CAN-SPAM Act.

• Team Collaboration: Another essential feature that your Content Marketing Software must have is the ability to allow for easy collaborations. All of us have a workflow that leads to the final piece. Content writing, editing, designing, distribution, promotion, all require precise teamwork. Your content marketing platform should allow you and your team to collaborate on a single project in real-time.

• Multiple content channels: Gone are the days when only text blogs were a rage (hey, that rhymes!). Well, content is now videos, GIFS, vlogs, Insta stories, reels, heck even webinars and infographics. Your Content Marketing Software should have the flexibility to easily support various content types and publish your content on multiple channels.

• SEO & Keywords: Another feature that marketers swear by SEO is to content marketing what salt is to food. Both are low cost but enhance the end product like no other.

• Intelligent Reports & Analytics: There can be nothing more convincing than truth and data is the ultimate truth. Don't just give us the bland numbers; tell us the story behind it. Marketers want to know the inside story, which will help them ask for a big fat raise.

• Lead Capturing: Everyone may not need this feature. Still, it is a must-have for those who use content marketing to generate leads exclusively. Most software will provide easy-to-integrate submission forms and lead-capturing capabilities.

That's that, folks! All good things come in parts…so we have just provided you with the snapshot of what Content Marketing Software can do but how can you use it to your advantage? Find out in Part 2 of All about Content Marketing Software.