In the world of content marketing, information comes in leaps and bounds; and in my experience, the only way to conquer all things content marketing is knowing the difference between good content and remarkable content.
Here are some tried and tested tips from my personal experience that will surely help any newcomer become content marketing machines in no time.
1. Identify your goals and stick with it
Understanding your goals is the key to creating a content marketing strategy that sticks. One misconception about content marketing in general is expecting immediate results, whereas the main objective is to build a following of prospects and to build a relationship that will turn these prospects into repeat customers over time. Whether your goal is lead generation, thought leadership, lead nurturing or brand awareness, keeping your goals at the forefront of your strategy will help you limit your topic generation ideas, and generate content that serves specific purposes.
2. Know who your competitors are and what they are doing
One of the best ways to find inspiration for content is checking out your competitors. Whatever your industry is, an in-depth analysis of your competitor’s blog gives you an idea of what the relevant topics in your niche are. This can give you some insight on how relatable certain topics are and what topics your potential customers find interesting. At the same time, analysing your competitors’ blogs also shows you what works and doesn’t work. This gives you valuable insight on how to improve on this content, and how to innovate in order to make the content even more engaging.
3. Explore different ways to generate ideas
There are a lot of awesome tools out there that can give you the extra push you need to become a topic generation machine. Google Keyword Planner helps simplify keyword research, which helps you know what your customers are searching. Google Suggest is an extremely easy, and often overlooked way of finding out what people are searching for.
Another useful tool is Socialcrawlytics; this tool figures out which of your competition’s content is resonating with your target audience. This helps you separate content ideas that are worth working on, from ones that fell flat. One of my personal favorites, Buzzsumo, gives you trending topics in your industry and shows you social share data of the best performing content.
4. Get creative with your own content ideas
According to Hubspot, 40% of people will respond better to visual information than plain text. In fact, images and photos are considered the most important tactic in optimising social media posts. So no matter how useful or interesting your content may be, it is essential to make the content equally visually engaging and interactive.
Here are some quick data on the rise of visual content:
10 Facts and Figures Why You Need to do Visual Content // Infographic
There are many ways to get creative with your content: List posts break up blocks of text making content more readable; infographics and slide shares turn difficult subjects into bite sized pieces of data; webinars make your content more personal.
There are a lot of applications out there that can help you diversify your content. Snapapp allows you to create interactive branded content like games, puzzles, and quizzes to captivate your target audience. Piktochart is a highly useful tool that lets you turn text and data into quirky, colorful infographics. GoAnimate allows you to make easy marketing videos in the cloud. Its foolproof interface is fantastic and lets you create visually dynamic videos.
5. Invest in building relationships
Creating content is just the first half of good content marketing; the next phase is all about promoting your content. Optimising your content for search, sharing it on social media, and including social share buttons are just the first step to good content promotion. The next step of good content promotion is getting to know the who’s who of your industry and reaching out to them.
You can discover who the top influencers are in your niche through several different tools. Buzzsumo influencer ranking tool is extremely useful. Once you’ve found the appropriate industry influencers, the next step is to invest in value based relationships with them. Take the time to get to know these people, their behaviors, their causes, and their expertise, doing so lets you build a relationship that is not only mutually beneficial, but also fulfilling. By investing in relationships with influencers, not only do you promote your content, you also gain credibility in your niche and gain access to relevant networks in your industry. Not to mention, make good friends in the process.
Content marketing is all about publishing the relevant content that will attract the right target audience, and potentially converting them into loyal customers. There are no shortcuts, the process is meticulous, but the results are long-term!
