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If there’s one thing that marketers agree on, it’s that content is king. A well-written piece drives more leads at a lower cost and produces better ROI than any other type of marketing.
But what exactly is content marketing? And how can you use it to drive more organic leads and sales for your business?
It can take many forms, including blog posts, eBooks, case studies, white papers, articles, videos, and images.
It is anything that isn’t an advertisement but provides potential customers with useful information about your products or services.
It is any marketing that focuses on creating and sharing written, audio, or visual content to drive brand awareness and leads.
To read more about 5 Tips to Write Content for Marketing Success, keep reading!
Why Content Marketing Works
Before discussing creating content, let’s consider why it works so well. There are a few reasons why content marketing is such a powerful tool:
– It’s low-cost and scalable.
– It’s measurable.
– It’s trustworthy.
– It has staying power.
– It drives long-term leads.
– It leads to higher search engine rankings.
– It builds brand authority.
– It provides an opportunity to diversify your content channels.
– It attracts an audience outside your current customer base.
– It is a win-win situation for both customers and businesses.
It helps you create value for your audience, which will help them understand your brand better and increase sales.
What Is Content Marketing?
The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) defines content marketing as “a strategic approach to building awareness, interest, and trust in a business through the consistent and thoughtful sharing of information, often multimedia, on the Internet or other digital media platforms.”
In short, content marketing is all about providing value to your target market by delivering quality content on topics they want and need.
It helps build relationships with your customers and increases their likelihood of buying from you.
In other words, it is a marketing strategy centered around creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience – to drive profitable customer action.
Sounds simple, right? Well, it is.
Let’s break it down into its most basic components:
– Define your target audience.
– Determine your content objectives.
– Create relevant content that addresses the needs of your audience.
– Deliver your high-quality content to the people who will benefit from it.
That’s it!
You will succeed with content marketing if you can do these things consistently. You will have built trust with the people you are trying to reach, and they will recognize your authority in your industry. Let’s take a closer look at how each component works individually:
Define Your Target Audience
Content marketing efforts must define who you want to reach with it.
It may sound obvious, but many businesses don’t think this through when they start with their content strategy.
Think about what type of person would want to buy from you or work for you;
think about where they hang out online;
think about what kind of language they use when discussing the products or services that interest them most;
think about their fears and desires, what motivates them to take action, and so on.
Read here what the big e-commerce Shein achieved by knowing its customers.
Once you have a clear picture of exactly who you are trying to reach (also called Buyer Persona), you will be able to create content designed to appeal to these people.
Create Content That Appeals To Your Target Audience
It’s not enough to know your target audience; you must also know what it is about them and their interests that make them able and likely to buy from you.
This knowledge will help you create types of content marketing that speak directly to them on a level they can relate to.
Creating valuable content that appeals directly and specifically to your target audience is the only way that you will be able to attract them in the long term.
Why bother reading it if your content isn’t relevant or appealing?
You want your content marketing strategy and your content team to do two things: Attract new leads (people interested in what you have) and Build trust with your existing leads (people who have already taken action).
Deliver Your Content To The People Who Will Benefit From It
I cannot stress this point enough: if people don’t see usable content, they will not read it as they can’t benefit!
As much as I hate saying this, most businesses don’t understand how important this step is in creating effective pieces of content marketing.
Ask yourself this question: What percentage of my target audience reads the blog posts I publish? – If the answer is less than 50%, you’re doing something wrong.
The most effective content marketing strategies are the ones that reach the largest possible audience and deliver the greatest impact on your bottom line.
How to deliver your content creation
Once you’ve identified your target audience and created content that appeals directly to them, your next step is to find ways to get your writing in front of them.
This can be done through an email campaign, newsletter, social media post, paid advertising, blog commenting, content marketing examples, and Strategy guides (like this one).
Other things you can do include:
– Writing guest blog posts on other relevant blogs – Creating a press kit and pitching it to relevant journalists – Creating a YouTube channel where you talk about your business and industry news
– Hosting webinars/ seminars and promoting them on social media channels.
I could go on for hours about all the different ways you can distribute your work, but these are just some of the most effective methods to help you reach your business goals.
Besides your content marketing campaigns, you should always use every opportunity to share your content with as many people as possible! This is what every effective content marketer does.
How to Write Effective Content for Marketing
Now that you know why content marketing is such an effective strategy, it’s time to learn how to use it to drive more leads and sales for your business.
To create engaging content that resonates with your audience and has the highest chance of going viral, follow these tips:
Tip 1: Write for your audience, not for search engines
One of the most important things to remember is that while writing for search engine optimization is part of the process, it shouldn’t be the focus of your content.
Instead, focus on writing for your audience: what they want, what they need, and what they care about. All too often, brands try to cram as many keywords into their content as possible to rank for as many terms as possible.
But this is a slippery slope — writing for search engine algorithms instead of humans will get you nowhere. These algorithms are constantly changing, and staying on top of them requires a huge time commitment — not to mention that algorithms like Google Hummingbird are specifically designed to find content that is not keyword-focused.
While it’s true that writing for search engine optimization can help you rank higher, you should focus first and foremost on writing for your audience.
Tip 2: Offer value first and foremost
Marketers have been writing content for decades, but first and foremost, that’s what it should be – content. It means that you must deliver on your content title’s promise.
If you promise a how-to guide on increasing your online leads, you need to give your readers a how-to guide on increasing their online leads.
Your title should be enticing and informative, your content should be in-depth and relevant, and your call to action should be clear and concise.
All of these things will help you to stand out as an authority in your industry and generate leads-
The more valuable your content is to your readers, the more they will want to share it with others. Therefore, the more likely it is to go viral.
Tip 3: Don’t be afraid to experiment
When writing compelling content, one size does not fit all.
You must be flexible and willing to experiment with different forms of content regarding what you write about and how you present it.
For example, you might find that your audience resonates with a podcast format. Or perhaps they prefer reading your articles on your blog.
Whatever format your content is in, make sure it’s easy to find and distribute — whether that means distributing it via social media, your website, email marketing, or other channels-
Not sure what type of content will resonate most with your audience? Don’t worry — experiment and see what happens.
Tip 4: Use responsive design for marketing
If you’re using blog posts as a primary form of content marketing, you’re already ahead of the game — but do you know how many of your readers aren’t receiving your content?
Around 40% of people don’t read past the first paragraph of an article, and only 10% scroll to the end.
This means that lots of people might be clicking away before they ever get to your CTA.
To prevent losing potential leads, you can use responsive design to ensure that your content is optimized for all devices.
All you need to do is create a single piece of content and then use a tool like Canva or Sprout to create different versions of that content for different devices — including images and videos-
Because most people consume content on multiple devices, you’ll want to ensure that all your content is easily accessible on multiple devices and optimized for different screen sizes.
Tip 5: Partner with blogging platforms and SMEs
If you’ve been in the content game for a while and struggling to find new angles for your blog posts, you might consider collaborating with other bloggers in your industry.
Collaborating with other bloggers gives you a fresh perspective and access to their readers, meaning more leads.
Similarly, if you want to boost your reach even further, you might want to consider working with blogging platforms.
These platforms allow you to post your content to their network of blogs — reaching audiences far wider than your own.
Furthermore, these platforms are often free or low-cost and can have a big impact on your brand awareness-
Blogging platforms and service providers are an excellent resource for content that may be outside the scope of your team’s expertise.
Conclusion
Marketing is about getting your message heard; it doesn’t matter what medium you use. As the world shifts towards a more digital landscape, marketing through digital platforms like blogs, audio content, emails, and social media will soon become the standard.
To ensure that happens for your business, you must invest in creating high-quality content. Content isn’t something you can put off until later.
A successful content strategy requires a content marketing plan, content goals, an editorial calendar, attention to detail, and a willingness to test new strategies.
The one thing that all great content has in common is that it resonates with your target audience.
If you can tap into your readers’ emotions and speak to their pain points and desires, you’re well on your way to creating compelling content that leads to success.