Content Marketing offers tremendous opportunities for businesses to boost their results by delivering valuable and relevant information to users. With content marketing, you can improve your online reputation, build a community and grow advocates of your brand.
In the words of Ian Lurie, “Content is anything that communicates a message to the audience.” To create a successful content marketing strategy you’ll need to start thinking of it that way, instead of focusing solely on your site’s blog.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material such as videos, blogs, and social media posts that do not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services.
Content Marketing is not just creating and distributing content. It is an entire strategic approach that allows you to attract and engage a clearly defined audience and, ultimately, generate profitable customer action.
Why is content marketing important?
In addition to expanding your audience reach, content marketing helps your business:
- Educate your leads and prospective customers about the products and services you offer.
- Build relationships between your customers and business.
- Boost conversions.
- Connect with your audience to show them how your products and services solve their difficulties
- Creates a sense of community around your brand
Types of content marketing
- Social media content marketing
There are a number of social media networking platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Snapchat to work with and several ways you can create and share content on each of them such as photos, live, videos, and stories.
All of these platforms and ways to share your content, provide you with plenty of opportunities to connect with your audience.
- Infographic content marketing
Infographic display content, information, and data in an easy-to-understand, graphical format with a mix of simple wording, short statements, and clear images.
Infographics are a great way to effectively communicate your content.
- Podcast content marketing
Podcasts have become a popular content medium because of their convenience. It is also the reason why so many businesses have started creating podcasts. They help to improve brand awareness, build relationships with audience members, and promote their products, services, and partners.
- Blog content marketing
Blog is a powerful type of content for inbound marketing. Blogs can be used to convert readers into customers, boost brand awareness, and/ or build relationships with your audience.
Depending on your goals for your blog posts, you may choose to promote other blog content by linking to various posts either internally or externally. Good high-quality backlinks help increase the authority of your page, and it will in turn help you rank better in search engines.
- Paid ad content marketing
Paid content ads can help you reach a vast audience and allow you to position yourself in all of the places you want to be seen. There are many ways you can create and publish your paid content ads. You might share paid ads on social media or publish digital ads on websites in the form of banners or sponsored content.
- Video content marketing
Video marketing can help boost conversions, improve ROI, and help you build relationships with audience members. You may choose to share your video marketing content on social media platforms, site pages, or on your partners’ websites.
By following the guide below, you will have the in-depth information needed to develop a great Content Marketing strategy for your business :
1. Set SMART goals
The first part of your content marketing strategy is to set SMART goals. These should be specific to your business goals.
SMART stands for: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Based. You want the goal you set to meet each of these criteria.
That’s why using SMART to define your goals is essential. So here’s how to develop your goal into the SMART framework:
- Start with the basic idea of what you want to achieve.
- Then take that information and work it into the SMART framework
- Finally, be sure to write it all down into a cohesive goal.
2. Determine your KPIs
It is important to set key performance indicators (KPIs) for your SMART goals as KPIs are quantifiable data points you can use to measure your actual performance against your goal. There are many ways to measure your success. Here are a few key performance indicators to measure your content marketing efforts.
- Unique page visits
- Number of downloads
- Time spent on page
- Inbound links
- Cost per click
- Cost per lead
- Shares, comments and other interactions
- Lead generation
- Followers and/or subscribers
Select the KPIs that apply to your content marketing strategy and put them into a single, comprehensive report and use those metrics that matter most.
3. Empathize with your audience
True brand empathy is about creating a shared journey between your brand and its audience. It involves a deeper connection to and understanding of that audience on an emotional level, as well as rational and transactional ones. Here are a few pointers to strengthen the content’s emotional relatability and personal resonance:
- Understand emotional and logical triggers
- Impart insights that help them succeed
- Embrace emotion to make your insights more memorable
- Humanize the complex buyer’s journey
4. Decide on the type of content
In deciding what content you want to create you have to consider what the content is, who it is for, and where you will put it. Everything you create can be used on various platforms and optimized for specific audiences. You can increase conversions and build your brand by providing useful content to educate your potential audience members on how your products or services can effectively address their injury points and challenges.
5. Market your content efficiently
If you want your content to serve its purpose and drive your SMART goals, you need to be proactive with your content promotion. Here are a few ways you can do just that:
- Send out an email broadcast.
- Share your content on social media.
- Engage in social media groups with your community.
- Undertake paid advertisements to boost your content.
- Build backlinks to your page
6. Analyze and measure your results
Lastly, analyze and measure your results. This will allow you to make any necessary changes to optimize your content marketing efforts and reach more audience members.
Take a look at your SMART goals and KPIs to determine the success of your content marketing strategy.
Conclusion
With effective content marketing, you can reach your target audience and increase your conversions drastically. There are several ways to market with content to boost revenue, grow your brand awareness and recognition, and build relationships with your prospects and customers.
Determine the kind of content that works best for your business as well as your audience, and further develop a content marketing strategy to begin boosting your bottom line today.
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