Since we wrote about content marketing back in December, the term seems to be getting even more buzz! A lot of businesses see content marketing as a way to connect with customers and potential customers in a meaningful way that will allow for engagement, trust and ultimately, more sales. Here's how to succeed in content marketing:
1. Have a sound content marketing strategy: In order to ultimately drive sales and acquire new customers, you need to first start with a sound content marketing strategy. To begin developing a strategy, you need to do some research as well as look at what internal resources are available to you to execute on that strategy.
Research what kinds of content you think your audience would be interested in consuming. For example, if you're an interior decorator, you know your audience would probably be interested in home makeover type content, or home furnishing trends. Next, you'll want to research how your audience consumes information. Using the same example, it would make sense that an interior decorator's audience would want to see before and after pictures, or before and after video, along with explanations for trends perhaps through a blog format. Once you've established what your audience would be interested and how they consume information, begin planning out your strategy for content creation.
Examine what internal resources you have at your disposal as well. If you're an interior decorator working on your own, you might be the only resource you have, but you probably have several before and after pictures stored away, testimonials, videos and more that you can re-purpose for your content marketing, which will make it a lot easier to develop and execute on your 2013 content marketing strategy.
2. Execute on that strategy, by creating a schedule: We talk a lot about creating schedules because it's so important to executing on a strategy. It's easy to fall behind when you're a one man or one woman shop. It's even easy to fall behind when you're working at a huge corporation. Creating a content marketing schedule for yourself and/or your staff is essential to executing on the strategy you put in place as it can be time and resource consuming, It will make creating and sharing unique, original, relevant, and timely content much easier and more rewarding. If you're able to deliver the kinds of content your audience needs and wants on a regular basis, you will retain and acquire many more customers.
3. Analyze your results: Always analyze what content is working best for you. Determine what content is yielding the most engagement from your readers, and what is helping to convert into sales. You may want to look into new approaches to content marketing. For example, if you're solely blogging with text, maybe it's time to integrate video and images to your posts to see if those might increase traffic and engagement. You may also want to explore new ways to promote your blog, white papers, case studies, or whatever content you're spending so much time creating. Whatever you're doing from a content marketing perspective needs to be analyzed to make sure you're using your time and resources in the most efficient manner.
Do you have any more secrets to succeed in content marketing? Anything to avoid? Please add in your thoughts in the comments below!
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