Content marketing is not for everyone as it involves a lot of hard work, perseverance and patience. It’s essential to do it well or don’t do it at all. You need to create content that engages your audience and adds value to your business.

It certainly has become somewhat easier as many people own a smartphone or a laptop with a wide variety of content creation tools. Still, the real challenge with content marketing is connecting with your audience, using the right distribution channels and promotion strategies. Not only does your content need to be relevant, it also has to resonate with your potential customers.

Do you only want them looking at your content or do you want them to sit up straight and do something about it? Taking action is the end goal; otherwise why create content in the first place?

Successful Content Marketing

If you’re doing any form of Content Marketing you need a strategy. Don’t waste valuable time creating content without having a clear vision of what you want to achieve. You need a clearly defined strategy that takes into account the needs, wants and abilities of your business. Not only that, identifying who your customers are in the first place, will make content creation easier, quicker and cheaper. Once you have a strategy in place you can create a content plan and delegate accordingly. Suddenly, a daunting multi-faceted process becomes a simpler set of tasks.

Create A Content Marketing Mission Statement

It’s important to have clear goals in mind for your content marketing strategy. Anyone can create a ton of random content but what’s the point. A mission statement, or business goals, will give your content purpose. The key to success is having good content assets. If you create good content from the onset, it can be re-purposed and expressed differently across multiple channels.

Examples of purpose driven content according to your business goals include:

  • Building your email list through lead generation
  • Increasing brand awareness
  • Driving referrals to your website or dedicated landing page
  • Information gathering
  • Nurture and convert more customers

Creating content in-line with your mission statement will put focus solely on your audience. This means you can effectively drive business results and achieve your business goals with greater success.

Talk the Talk with Personas

Most businesses simply assume that they know their customers but they neglect to ask the right questions. Different companies will have their own set of criteria so not all the questions apply to everyone so here are just a few examples:

  • Who is your ideal customer?
  • What are their likes and dislikes?
  • Where do they spend most of their time online?
  • How old are they?
  • What problems do they face every day?
  • Do they use Android or iPhone?
  • How often do they order take-out?
  • Do they have any children, and if yes, how many?

The answers to these questions are golden as they will help your content strategy and subsequent content be more accurate. It will also identify the products or services needed; how or where to improve your ad spend and give your sales team the best opportunity to communicate and convert. Just remember that personas also evolve like we do so pay attention and stay in touch regularly. Take a look at these handy Tips For Creating Buyer Personas.

Create Exceptional Content

Marketers are constantly competing for audience attention and if your content is not exceptional or remarkable, it’s doubtful anyone will engage. When creating your strategy, consider what resources you already have and if you are capable of creating your own. If not, you could always outsource but just remember to only use quality content; second rate content should never be published. Ensure that you always target your personas and don’t make the mistake of creating content that appeals to you.

Some tools that can help you identify popular articles in your specific niche include Buzzsumo, Reddit, Theneeds and Portent. The last one is rather interesting as it doesn’t find content for you, it actually provides you with a title to build content around. Sometimes the ideas that get generated are very creative which is exactly what you need.

Content marketing is not just about the product or service you sell, it’s about what you stand for. Remember, it bridges the gap between what a brand offers and what the consumers really want. Some time ago we created detailed content in a two-part series on content marketing strategies you simply must read. Why not take a look at Part 1: 10 Steps To A Better Content Strategy now.

Please get in touch if you have any questions or need assistance with your content marketing campaign.

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