- Only 39% of content marketers across the globe have a documented content marketing strategy in 2018. But in the case of top-performing organizations, the number jumps to 65%.
- The number of B2B marketers who are using content to delight their existing audience and build loyalty is only 54%.
- A whopping 90% of the most successful B2B marketers prioritize their audiences’ needs over their own promotional messages.
(Source: CMI & MarketingProfs)
The above 3 points give us some insight into how content marketing is transforming the web.
Content marketing is incredibly important.
Great content can attract customers and clients, as well as help your website’s SEO ranking and prove your expertise in what you’re selling.
However, content marketing can be expensive, especially if you need to hire an expert to craft that content for you.
Thankfully, there are plenty of things in this field that you can handle yourself, no matter your level of expertise with content.
All that you need to do is spend some time going over these tips in order to determine which of them you can handle.
Odds are, you’ll be able to take on most of them yourself, thus solving your problem.
1. Determine What Your Goal Will Be
Spend some time thinking about what you want to accomplish. Do you want a certain number of new customers?
Do you want to boost your SEO rankings so that your visibility increases? Exactly what do you want to happen once you release your new content on the world?
These aren’t trick questions. You need goals and then you need to find ways to meet them.
This is how you can best tailor your content marketing to your audience (and we’ll get to that next.)
Without goals, you’re essentially shooting in the dark and just creating content with no real measurable purpose.
2. Who Is Your Target Audience?
Speaking of target audiences, do you know who yours is?
Without a good understanding of your target audience, you won’t be able to craft a content marketing plan on the best way to reach them.
You need to know how to get to those people. Spend a bit of time coming up with a customer demographic.
Think of age ranges, incomes, and geographical locations. From there, think of the types of online media that they consume.
Do they prefer blog posts? Videos? Podcasts? What interests them and how can you reach them with your content? This is a great way to strategically target specific groups of people.
3. Constantly Update Your Content
How often are you currently updating your content? Hopefully, you’re doing this on a regular basis. You need to keep the fresh content flowing.
If you let your posts and web copy stagnate, then you aren’t doing your job as a content marketer (even if that’s only one of the hats that you wear.)
It’s important that you keep continuously updating things.
If you take too long in between content updates, then you’ll have more on your plate than you can handle, which leads to needing to hire more people.
Instead, work on this a little at a time, and you’ll be able to do it yourself.
4. Create An Email Newsletter
How are you currently letting your customers know about your products and services? Do you have an email newsletter that you can send out?
If not, it’s time to create one. In fact, if you already have one, then you might want to update it and give it a bit of a redesign to keep it fresh.
An email newsletter, as long as you don’t send it out too frequently, is a great way of keeping people informed and attracting them to your goods and services.
Plus, this type of content marketing it easy to handle.
5. Focus On Great Content
How good is your content? Do you get excited every time that you hit the “submit” button? Great content – not mediocre versions of it – are what matter here.
You need to go out of your way to ensure that your content meets the needs of your customers.
It doesn’t matter what type of content it is, it just needs to be good.
For example, if you’re posting photos of products, make sure that they are clear and well lit.
You don’t want to post blurry ones that don’t accurately show the products.
This is true of every type of content that you create. Greatness matters.
6. What Type Of Content Is Important To You?
Spend a bit of time thinking about the content that you like.
It doesn’t have to be yours. Rather, consider what it is that you like to view, listen to, or read.
Then find ways to use those content types in your own material.
The idea here is that if you’re working on producing content that you like, then it will be better.
It also won’t be as much of a chore as it usually is to produce that blog post or podcast. Your enjoyment will show through your material.
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7. Begin Blogging
You’ve probably heard that blogs are dead. No one wants to read them anymore. Bloggers are moving to social media, and so on.
- None of this is true. In fact, a blog is the best way to reach both your current customers and your future (potential) ones.
- As per Backlinko, the average length of a page that ranks on Google’s first page is 1,890 words.
- 50% of the bloggers who write more than 2,000 words of content see better and strong results.
- 70% of the content marketers now prioritize content quality over quantity.
A good blog post can do wonders for your search engine ranking and prove how well you know the subject matter behind the things that you sell or offer.
You can even inform people about news and other things. In order to run your blog efficiently, be sure to include some keywords in your copy, and use alt tags on any photos that you upload.
These will help those search engines find you.
With that said, make sure that your content sounds natural and is well written. Use the spell checker and read over your content before you post it.
8. Expand Your Content
You might be stuck in a bit of a content rut. If you feel like you’re churning out the same blog posts over and over, then you definitely are.
You need to expand and try something new. This can be taken another way as well.
For example, if you only covered the basics on your site and want to go into more depth on your processes, you can.
There are plenty of ways to do this and attract new audiences at the same time. In fact, you’ll draw in people who want to learn more.
If you teach them something, then you might be able to turn them into clients.
9. Consider What Your Audience Wants From You
We previously mentioned your target audience. What do they want from you? This goes beyond demographics and basic information, into their minds.
What does your audience expect you to create? Do they have any expectations? Are they looking for more information on a particular subject that relates to your company?
How can you meet their expectations, while at the same time, staying within your range?
You need to get a little creative and come up with things that they want from you in order to succeed as a content marketer.
10. Use Alternative Means Of Content Creation
As discussed in a 2018 study by Content Marketing Institute, here’s a list of the most common formats B2B and B2C marketers use to distribute their blog posts and other forms of content.
What do we mean by this? Easy – expand your content creation to include things like YouTube videos or plenty of photos.
You can even include a podcast or other spoken means of getting the word out about your products.
Why do this Expanding on your content by using other methods helps prove your expertise and it gets people’s attention.
It’s also entertaining, especially if you put out catchy videos or podcasts that people want to watch or listen to.
On top of this, it opens you up to other audiences. Some people don’t like blog posts.
They don’t want to read the information; they’d rather someone explain it to them or show them in a video.
Including these different forms of content can really expand your reach and open your company up to new audiences. Plus, it can really be fun.
11. Don’t Be Afraid To Experiment
A little experimentation is always good. You should mix up the types of content that you produce and try new means of getting through to your audience.
Although you should think this through a bit, since everything on the internet seemingly lives forever, you don’t need to be locked into anything that you try.
For example, if you attempt to create a content video and it doesn’t bring in the views that you hoped for, you can move in an entirely different direction.
There are numerous ways to go about these experiments, so take notes on what worked and what didn’t.
12. Paid Ads Can Help
- As per Wordstream, 64.6% of people click on paid Google ads when looking to buy a product online
- 66% of buyer-intent keywords are paid clicks as per Clever Clicks.
- As per Hubspot, 65% of the people who don’t currently use videos plan to start using the same in 2018 and beyond.
Yes, paying for those ads can be a bit of a tough pill to swallow, especially if it’s something that you’ve never done before.
Google AdWords, the most predominant form of these paid ads, can be a bit tricky at first, but you should be able to find tutorials that can steer you in the right direction.
Just remember to constantly check your results and refine the words that you’re targeting as necessary. You aren’t locked into anything here.
Essentially, those paid ads can steer people to your content, making it easier for new customers and clients to find you.
13. Never Overlook The Power Of Social Media
As per Orbit Media, 96% of bloggers use social media to promote their posts.
And here’s a list of the most common social media platforms used by B2C and B2B content marketers across the globe.
Social media can be quite powerful. The right posts can steer plenty of customers in your direction.
Ones that are the results of poor decision making can have the opposite effect.
You never want to alienate your customers, appear that you’re above them, or give off an air of snootiness.
Instead, you can show them how things really work, by including behind the scenes footage especially on social media platforms like Instagram.
If you use social media correctly, this tool will be very useful. You can reach new people and keep your current customers informed.
It’s like a blog, but with shorter snippets of information.
14. Use Specific Keywords
Although keyword tactics are either in or out, depending on Google’s latest algorithm, you should keep using them.
Don’t overuse your keywords, and stay between the 1% to 3% mark with them.
Anything else will not only alert those search engines that you’ve been keyword stuffing, but it will also sound awkward and turn away those potential customers.
It’s important to know which keywords work best for your business and make sure to use only those.
You don’t want to trick people into finding your site through ill-used ones.
Essentially, educate yourself on keywords and how to use them in your content.
15. Make Sure That Your Content Is High Quality
People judge you based on your content. Is yours high quality? What do we mean by this? Do your documents, posts, and updates use proper grammar?
Do you run everything past the spell checker? Do you proofread your work? How much time do you spend putting these things together?
The higher the quality of your content, the more people will look at it.
You’ve probably been turned off by companies that post things with grammatical errors and misspellings.
Don’t be that company. You need to put out high quality content in order to be successful.
Tom loves to write on technology, e-commerce & internet marketing. I started my first e-commerce company in college, designing and selling t-shirts for my campus bar crawl using print-on-demand. Having successfully established multiple 6 & 7-figure e-commerce businesses (in women’s fashion and hiking gear), I think I can share a tip or 2 to help you succeed.