Content marketing is not a hot new tactic but something that businesses have included in their digital strategy for more than a decade. Marketers swear by its value as a ‘go-to strategy for any B2B organisation looking to generate marketing qualified leads (MQLs). However, there is another side to the story.
As content marketing gained popularity we saw an enormous spike in the amount of content produced on a daily basis. Did you know, more then 87 million blog posts are published every month just on WordPress driven blogs? That’s almost 3 million blog posts/day only on WordPress. The point I am trying to make is that with more and more companies jumping onto the content marketing bandwagon, the content channels and news feeds started getting flooded with information. To the extent that it has become impossible for the audience to differentiate one content source from the other- let alone engaging with any of them.
[bctt tweet=”Where businesses were once very enthusiastic, now we have come to a point where they are apprehensive, about the ROI on their #ContentMarketing budgets.” prompt=”Click to Tweet”]
6 Things to Keep in Mind When Creating Content
- Understand your audience persona, what they are looking for and how your content can fill the gap. Make sure you take effort in creating relevant content that provides value to your audience.
- Deliver on channels where your target consumers are active – Knowing your customer persona can help you build a content distribution plan for the various touchpoints along the customer journey
- Make sure your content looks good and presentable. Time spent in making your content look good can be a big differentiator.
- Optimise your content for search engines – especially the content build for the awareness phase of the customer journey. Again, understanding your audience’s needs and what they are looking for can be a big help.
- Make sure you build Content in the format that your audience cares for. There’s no point in showing a blog post to an audience that is more interested in Videos.
- People are not interested in your content but are looking for answers to their business problems. Make sure that when someone finds your content it gives the answers they are looking for.
Once your Content is Built, then What?
It’s obvious that content marketing is no longer about creating content and pushing it out there. It’s equally important to have a proper content distribution plan in place. This is an equally important aspect of a content strategy if not of higher importance. Below I have mentioned a few channels that can be used to promote your content.
- Paid Marketing on Social Channels: Chance is that most of the social media platforms will filter out your content in favour paid advertisers. If you think the content is important and useful then you should consider putting some money behind it by boosting it on relevant social channels.
- Guest blogging and Microblogging is another great way to get in front of your audience. This will help you bring some traffic to your channels.
- Paid Content Outreach – This can be a great way to get some cost-effective exposure to your content.
- Community / Groups: Engage with peers on communities and groups on that are relevant to your customer.
- Influencers can help you amplify your content. Influencer marketing is gradually becoming a very powerful way to promote your content.
- Email marketing is another great channel to let your existing audience know about your content.
- Content Curation and Promotion Communities – can also help you get eyeballs on your content if it’s of high quality.
- Offline Promotion – Look for opportunities that can help you build some word of mouth publicity for your content
Customers today demand an omnichannel experience. They don’t want to come to your content but expect the content to show up as needed. It’s all about being omnipresent across the touchpoints making sure you deliver the right content at the right time
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