7 Tips for a Kick*ss Content Marketing Strategy
There’s no denying it. Social media is an integral part of our everyday lives. With more and more people spending their time on their phones – businesses are finding that content marketing is an incredibly powerful tool for consumer engagement and audience growth.
Within the sea of media–images, audio, video, blogs, documents, infographics, how do you make sure that YOUR content stands out? Here are our top 7 tips for content marketing!
1. Substance Is Key
The most important thing in content marketing is that you have quality messaging and overall intent. While it’s nice to have beautiful designs and catchy titles, if there’s nothing of value supporting that, your audience has no reason to stick around. Offer detailed solutions to common questions and take the time to really connect with your audience. Despite the common belief that attention spans are shrinking, short isn’t always better. Longer-form content does better in engaging your audience and ranks better on search engines.
2. Strategy Drives Growth
At the start of content creation, take the time to ground yourself in the long-term vision of your business. Write the details down. What impact do you want to make? What sets you apart? How will your business sustain itself?
Keep that vision close to heart and create a buyer persona. Write the details down. Where does this person live? What is their age range? What are their interests and values?
The third step is to create your content strategy around that. Yep, you know it, write the details down. What kind of content are you creating? Which platforms will you use? How often are you engaging?
Lastly–adjust, adjust, adjust. Take note of what works and what doesn’t. Stick to content strategy that resonates and continue to build off that. Cut the dead weight.
3. Collaboration Is A Win-Win
People often underestimate the impact of collaboration in content strategy. Research popular industry sites and businesses that are within your niche but aren’t in direct competition. Take the time to build working relationships with them and pitch a mutually beneficial collaboration. Guest blogging can help you gain authority as an expert and increase your rankings within search engines.
4. The Importance of Content Strategies
Sure, it’s amazing when you create one piece of content and are able to generate lots of traffic, but wouldn’t it be better if you could consistently generate those leads? A helpful marketing tip in building community and increasing engagement is to create a series of pieces that tie in with each other. Repurpose older content to fit in with current topics and build on one broad series. By offering value in multiple installments, you keep your followers engaged and coming back for more (this also helps turn followers into actual people that you can have an ongoing relationship with!)
5. Exclusive Content Through Email
A great way to increase traffic is by offering exclusive content to your email subscribers. Whether that’s social media tips or a meditation challenge to keep them accountable, by giving your followers something of extra value, you build community and worth. Most importantly, remember that the best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing, so be genuine and stay true to what you do best.
6. Adopt A Casual Tone
Your audience is more likely to engage with your content if they feel like they can relate to it. Talk and write like you’re having a conversation with a friend to build connection and rapport. Remember to keep the conversation on-brand, but natural and easy.
7. Consider The Value of Social Ads
Don’t automatically shun paid campaigns simply because of the ad spend. A few dollars on social platforms can go a long way. Consider your brand, the direction you want to grow in, and if spending money on advertisement is an investment that is worth it for you. If you do choose to produce content AND run a paid ad campaign, consider reusing your best content headlines for those ads. The strongest performing headlines resonated with your current audience and will likely resonate with prospective buyers and subscribers as well.
All in all, the best way to figure out what works for you is to throw yourself into content production and experience it for yourself… and always, always put (and serve) the customer FIRST! What are some tips and tricks for content marketing that work best for you?
