With the growing majority of people consuming information online and through social media, content marketing is now more important than ever. Rather than trying to go for the hard sell (which rarely works), content marketing is about providing your audience with genuinely valuable information that builds a trusting relationship, and eventually, leads to the desired action. In this article, we’re going to equip you with the knowledge and tips to be able to do effective content marketing for your business.
How to Make Your Content Marketing Effective
The evolving consumer market is constantly changing the way businesses have to adapt in order to stay relevant and competitive. Today, 70% of people prefer to learn about a brand through articles over an ad, which has led to a staggering 75% of marketers increasing their content marketing budgets (Source: Social Media Today).
Given these stats and the countless benefits of content marketing, it is essential to make sure you’re creating the right content and getting the most out of it. Below are ten strategies that will make your content marketing more effective in attracting customers and growing your business.
1. Have A Documented Content Strategy and Calendar
If you just try to wing it, there’s an overwhelmingly good chance that your content marketing efforts are going to crash and burn. By fleshing out a detailed plan of action beforehand, you’ll be able to stay on track and have attainable goals every step of the way.
Effective content marketing doesn’t happen overnight, so organization is crucial to building and developing an effective content strategy.
2. Use Buyer Personas to Tailor Content
Review the customer profiles you’ve built around your ideal consumer and think about what their wants and needs are. This is one of the keys to effective content marketing because you have the best chances of tapping into their interests, resonating with them, and ultimately, getting more leads and sales.
When it comes to B2B customers, you have to work a little outside of the box. Think more specifically and cater to the decision makers in companies you’re targeting.
3. Appeal to Pain Points
Emotions are the number one driving factor behind all purchase decisions. Referring back to the consumer profiles, you need to dig deep and think about their pain points. How can your product or service help resolve them? In order to do this, you need to ask yourself what solving the problem will result in for your target audience.
As an example, you want increased sales because your business will do better. When your business does better, you make more money. More money results in more financial freedom, which means more time spent with the family and doing things you enjoy. That’s the pain point.
4. Use Multiple Types of Content
If you stick to one content channel, you’re drastically reducing the scope of your strategy and the number of potential customers you’re reaching. Blog and social media posts are the most popular and a great start, but consider other forms of content such as whitepapers (advanced problem-solving guides), eBooks, newsletters, podcasts, videos, and even success stories.
The truth of the matter is not everyone likes to read blog posts. Some people like to listen to information instead so they can go about their day without having to sit down. Others like to watch videos that condense lots of information down into a few minutes.
Here are some helpful posts to get you started on creating diverse and effective content:
• How to Create an Email Newsletter
• How to Write a Great Customer Success Story
5. Measure the Performance of Your Content
Measuring performance gives you two potent benefits. One, you can see which types of content is performing well and which ones aren’t so you know where to focus your efforts. Second, it gives you insight into what your audience is interested in and hungry for.
Take this treasure trove of information and apply it to all of your future pieces. Even better, take the characteristics of the higher performing content to improve your less popular content.
6. Repurpose Content
Just because a blog post isn’t doing so hot doesn’t necessarily mean the content is garbage. Maybe you just presented it in the wrong way. Repurposing content is all about converting existing content into different formats for your audience to consume.
To save time and maximize the effectiveness of your content marketing, check out our post on Ways to Repurpose Your Content.
7. Create Both Online and Offline Content
Just because technology has made it easier than ever to access information online doesn’t mean that offline marketing strategies are dead. In fact, printed content is still highly effective for marketing purposes.
Examples of offline content include in-store signs, car wraps, printed flyers, and direct mail. You should also make your online content printer-friendly so you can easily create handouts, one-page flyers, guides, and even booklets. This is especially true if your business has a physical location that customers can go to. You want your brand to feel the same both online and off.
8. Promote Your Content
Even the biggest brands with established followings have to promote their content. Rather than waiting for readers to hopefully find your posts, use social media, marketing emails, content aggregators, and your website to get the word out and promote your content as it’s published. You may even want to promote top-performing content through Facebook advertising.
For help with promoting your content, check out these posts:
• How to Increase the Visibility of Your Business Blog
• What to Put in Your Email Newsletters
9. Allocate a Higher Budget for Content Marketing
The harsh truth is that a growing number of internet users are either completely ignoring ads altogether or using blockers. Instead, they’re looking for genuinely valuable content that they find useful in order to make purchase decisions.
A recent study found that content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing and generates three times as many leads. Saving money and getting more leads is a no-brainer.
10. Use Social Media
It’s already been mentioned throughout this post, but if you’re not using social media channels for your business, you need to get on it. As big as it’s become, social media is a marketing cornerstone for just about every business.
Not only is it one of the easiest ways to reach your target audience, but for the most part, it’s free. On that note, don’t bog yourself down. Only use the platforms that are relevant to the customers you’re targeting.
