The killer content marketing strategy guide

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Nov 16, 2013 / by
The killer content marketing strategy guide

Content marketing is the method through which mostly free content is created and shared to attract prospects and convert them into clients or buyers.

Touted as one the most significant of online marketing strategies, the process is both engaging and effective. It is rewarded well by search engines, appreciated by clients and has been adopted by many businesses, big or small, looking to capture their fair share of the market.

Running a regular, good quality blog can be part of your content marketing strategy as well as a great supplement to the rest of your site. But you can go even further.

Study and analyse

Start by clarifying what your company has to offer, including the products and services, the customer base you cater to, the markets in which you operate, the company’s business model and the method of revenue generation. Identify key profit-generating avenues and the chief clients. Be clear about what makes your brand stand out and what you represent. Finally, take note of the current content marketing scenario. Once you’ve thoroughly analysed all these factors, you’ll be in a clearer situation to know where you will be making the most impact. But as in most areas of business, you may have to experiment and market test for a while to see which promotion campaigns work best in your particular market.

An abundance of content

Quality content

Simply put, take your current content production system and supercharge it. As content becomes the core of your marketing strategy, more focus must be placed in this department. You should set about creating more high quality, relevant content – the key here is both quality and quantity.

Content production can be done within your organisation or outsourced. Expert opinions can be curated, organised and shared. Avoid broad topics; instead, target specific issues and challenges faced by the kind of people you want to become your clients. Provide guidance through meaningful engagement. Remember, there are millions of sites out there and thousands of marketers trying to sell their fares through offering similar advice and tips. To stand apart, you must be able to offer unique insights and perspectives instead of simply regurgitating common knowledge. You’ll get more traffic, and probably a higherconversion rate.

Analyse and optimize

Employ clearly agreed measuring criteria to understand and identify which content produces the best results. For example, you can monitor the number of visitors, how long they stay on pages, their indications of likes and dislikes, etc. to assess how well pages are performing. The creation, flow and eventual conversion must be tracked with the non-performing channels undergoing constant optimisation to results.

Ongoing analysis will also help in budgeting and supporting your team to keep on improving. Results from analysis will also provide accountability for investors, helping them understand where their money is being spent and where the returns are being generated.

Large content array

Promote a wide variety of different perspectives around your core content. A bigger net is more likely to bring in more bounty than a narrow niche, although niche marketing is a good marketing tool in some other contexts. If there are interesting articles written on other sites, share them with your audience – don’t limit yourself only to your own content.

Likewise, market your content in well-known blogs and within popular communities. Curate informative content that provides immediate benefits for the reader. Comb trendy topics and compose opinion pieces. Don’t forget to include snappy pieces that address aspects of your business that need special boosting from time to time. You may also want to create and publish newsletters on particular aspects of your business targeted at existing customers or prospects.

If you are developing a personal brand, or want to add some personality to an existing brand, don’t relate everything directly to your business. By reading about your own personal beliefs, ideals and frustrations, customers will begin identifying with you, increasing confidence and trust. After all, people prefer to buy from other people, not faceless corporations.

Use social media extensively

Social media promotion can be the cornerstone for successful marketing campaigns. We’ve already outlined a number of strategies to make the most of social media in a previous post. There are few strategies that can beat the effectiveness of viral videos and epic posts. Consider budgetary constraints and plan accordingly when working out a social media campaign. Focus on a single platform initially, building and engaging a set of loyal followers.
Business metrics

Once you’ve built up an audience, they will naturally migrate to other channels when you’re ready to start developing content on them. The key issue here is to provide valuable content for an audience who will benefit from your posts; this may help in developing further connections for your brand. They will showcase your content within their networks, increasing your reach and potential audience. However, a small word of caution: it can be easy to steer off course while promoting through social media platforms, so be consistently relevant and create content that gives meaning and provides real-life assistance.

When you get “influential” coverage in local media, press or popular blogs, be sure to link them with your site. Major traffic comes through these inbound links that increase your overall authority. Whenever interesting articles that are socially relevant come up in popular blogs and websites, remember to share and promote them within your community. This helps in fostering a mutually beneficial ecosystem within your niche that stands to bring in more business over time. Lastly, analyse every metric to figure out what worked and what did not.

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