A Beginner’s Guide to the Art of Content Marketing

Intro

Content marketing is often hailed as the key to turning strangers into loyal followers of your brand. Businesses of all sizes collectively spend millions of dollars annually on content marketing because, in short, it is a tried-and-tested formula that works. But wait, before you head off and start creating a batch of blog posts, articles, and infographics, let’s take a deep dive into what content marketing is and how it can potentially enhance your business.

What is content marketing?

Suppose you have a product or service you are proud of and want to drum up sales. You head to a gathering where the room is full of potential customers; you have two choices on how to sell to them. You can barge in, scream from the rooftops about your fantastic product, and hope people listen to your sales pitch. Or, you could strike up conversations with individuals, offer helpful advice, or share interesting stories. The first option is how traditional advertising works; the second is content marketing at its finest.

Content marketing revolves around creating and distributing valuable, engaging content that resonates with your target audience and builds relationships with them. Of course, the end goal is still making a sale, but you do it differently. For example, someone attempting to sell a state-of-the-art bicycle could shout about how amazing the bike is (traditional advertising) or craft a compelling article about the five best scenic routes for cyclists (content marketing). Similarly, a company wanting to entice readers to use its sports betting apps for real money could ask them to do so outright or write a detailed preview of a sporting event instead.

Both traditional and content marketing have the same end goal: they want to make a sale. Traditional advertising can come across as being spammy, while content marketing is more subtle, stealth spam if you like!

Why should you care about content marketing?

We live in an era where businesses continually bombard us with advertisements. Television shows and live sporting events cut to commercial breaks, radio stations play adverts between songs, and internet pop-ups are the bane of people’s lives.

People are sick and tired of being inundated with advertisements, to the point where they scroll past them, mute them, and become blind to them. However, well-crafted, engaging content cuts through the noise by informing, entertaining, and solving everyday problems for the reader. Good content gets the message across without the reader knowing they are being pitched to and comes with various benefits for your business:

• Brand awareness Great content establishes your brand as a valuable source of information, which is never a bad thing.
• Increased web traffic Quality content is more likely to be shared and linked to, which drives traffic to your website. The more people visit your little corner of the internet, the more likely it is that you will generate a sale.
• Lead generation Quality content fosters trust within your community and increases your chances of generating leads.
• Customer loyalty Businesses that consistently provide value build stronger relationships with their customers. A loyal customer is more likely to make a repeat purchase or unknowingly promote your business through invaluable word-of-mouth.
• Improved search engine ranking Search engines love fresh, informative content, which can boost your website’s ranking in search results, enhancing its visibility.

How do you get started in content management?

Now that you know what content marketing is, what it does, and its benefits to your business, it is time to delve into the various steps to starting your content marketing career.

Step 1: Know your audience

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You need to understand who you are creating content for before you can start churning out content. That may sound obvious or even silly, but you would be surprised at how many content creators produce articles and videos just for the sake of doing so, hoping their entire audience finds it useful.

Ask yourself who your ideal customer is What are their interests and challenges? Try to imagine them as a real person rather than data on your screen. By understanding your audience, you can create content that resonates with them, solves their problems, and has a tone of voice that sits well with them.

There are a few ways to get to know your audience better including conducting surveys, polls, or interviews with potential customers. Those are the more direct options available to you.

Listening to what people say about your brand or industry on social media is another excellent way to gain insight into your audience’s demographics. Analyzing who visits your website and what content they engage with is also a great way to gain understanding.

Step 2: Set clear goals

Setting goals is important in all walks of life because they can help measure your success (or lack of it) and show you where you need to adjust your strategy. Ensure you set goals using the SMART goal framework This means your goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Vague goals like “I want to get more website traffic” are useless, so don’t waste your time setting them. Instead of that vague goal, state, “I want to increase website traffic by 25% in the next three months with targeted blog posts.” The latter goal states explicitly what you want to achieve and how you plan to reach it. It has a measurable component and a time limit, too.

Step 3: Choose the format of your content

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There is no one-size-fits-all approach to content marketing, meaning you can create content in a variety of formats. The most successful websites use several content formats to fit the message they want to convey and for the type of person consuming that content. This very website has a mixture of blog articles, infographics, and videos, each complementing the other.

Blog posts are the perfect platform for sharing your expertise, insights, and industry trends, while infographics present complex information in a visually appealing way.

Consider producing short and long-form videos to educate and entertain your audience and to showcase your brand’s personality. Don’t forget to make clips of your videos to share on social media channels.

Some content marketers create ebooks that offer in-depth guides. They are often provided in exchange for email addresses or completing surveys as part of the “know your audience” process.

Lastly, an increasing number of businesses share insightful conversations with industry experts and leaders via podcasts.

Experiment with the various content formats and see which is best received by your core audience.

Step 4: Find your content’s voice

How you communicate with your audience is what sets you apart from your rivals. Unless you are involved in a very specific niche, you will likely have hundreds of competitors fighting you for the same potential customers. Your content voice will help you stand out from the crowd.

Some industries naturally lend themselves to a specific tone of voice. For example, you wouldn’t expect a mortgage adviser to be fun and quirky, more informative and professional.

Whatever voice you decide to use, you must consistently use it across all platforms. A consistent voice helps build trust and connects you with your audience on a deeper level.

Step 5: Create high-quality content

Now that we have arrived at the fifth step of the process, it is time to start producing content. Let’s make one thing crystal clear regarding your content: it must be high-quality. By that, we mean it should be well-written, informative, engaging, and visually appealing.

Internet users demand quality, and search engines know high-quality content from poorly produced pieces and rank them accordingly.

Focus your attention on providing your audience with something valuable, such as information, experiences, or entertainment. Ensure your content is clear and concise so that it gets straight to the point without bamboozling readers or viewers with technical terms and jargon. Nothing is more off-putting for a content consumer than having to break away from an article or pause a video to search the internet for the meaning of a term, word, or phrase.

Using relevant keywords in your content helps people find it in search engine results. You must find the perfect balance when it comes to using keywords. Stuffing your content with too many keywords is counterintuitive and will result in search engines downgrading you. Don’t use enough keywords, and people won’t be able to find you online. Our keyword finder is perfect for discovering opportunities and seeing how keywords have changed over time.

Step 6: Analyze and measure

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Content marketing requires time and effort to produce positive results; it is not an overnight process. Thankfully, data analysis makes it possible to track progress and adjust strategy. There are dozens of metrics for measuring success, including your website’s traffic, how people are engaging with your content, whether or not you are generating leads, and whether your content is driving sales conversions.

Deep-diving into Google Analytics and the analytics social media platforms produce allows you to see what content works and what does not. You may discover that blog articles published at 12:30 p.m. perform better than those going live at 5:00 p.m. or that most people stop watching your videos at the 25-second mark, rendering anything after that point useless.

There is a plethora of data and information at your fingertips that allows you to tinker and tailor your content to the needs and wants of your audience, so use it!

Wrapping things up

By following the steps in this beginner’s guide to content marketing you can begin creating content that attracts, engages, and converts your audience. Remember, content marketing is a long, winding journey with plenty of scope for experimentation and innovation. Now, get out there and create something amazing!