The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing

Consistent and qualitative content is one of the most effective marketing tools. It helps companies build their brand’s name and reach their target audience. In turn, this helps improve lead generation. Content marketing combines various forms of informative content to form a strategy for reaching and educating a targeted audience. It may include blogs, articles, social media posts, emails, and videos. It could also include guest posting, PR, SEO, distribution, and analysis to strategize better. These days several companies are hiring people for content marketing locally and internationally. You can hire an in-house professional or you may want to outsource digital marketing for your startup. With experience in the field and by using new SEO techniques, a professional can create efficient content marketing strategies. Here is the ultimate guide to plan and implement content marketing strategies by using your resources optimally.

Importance of Content Marketing

Content marketing helps influence conversions and builds brand reputation. It acts as the brand’s voice and communicates specific messages to the right targeted audience. Moreover, with high-quality content, the brand attracts more clients and has increased business opportunities. It is a cost-effective way to improve SEO organically and showcase product knowledge to potential consumers. An experienced content manager knows how to build a personal relationship with the customer when choosing to invest in the brand. As all the brands use this medium, it is essential to create original marketing strategies to have the best impact. Each marketing strategy has a funnel that helps in dealing with competitors and makes the brand stand out. Read along to learn what types of content marketing methods you may apply for your business.

Types of Content Marketing:

Blogs Content

A blog post may include pictures, videos, and infographics. It is an engaging medium to reach consumers directly in simple but informative language. You may plan your blog topics based on your services and keyword research. The headline of the blog should make the reader want to click on it to learn more. Include a catchy introduction and quality content.  Try to explain technical terms in simple ways. Add original, relevant pictures when possible. Remove repetition and long sentences. Proofread it before posting to make sure it doesn’t contain any grammatical errors. Blog posts are an organic way to market your content online.

Video Content

Video content includes live videos, customer testimonials, presentations, webinars, and informative vlogs. This kind of content is easy to consume for the audience and gives them a better knowledge of a brand and its services.

Social Media Content

You may share product updates, news, relevant articles, and pictures on social media channels. Social media content can be a huge hit for you as channels like Instagram and Twitter have strong communities. To make an engaging social media post, research and create relevant and engaging content. Be positive and post in short form so that the audience finds it easy to read. Also, add call-to-action buttons.

Infographic Content

Infographic content is an image that includes statistics, charts, and minimal text to provide the maximum amount of information. They’re a summary of several factors displayed in one place. They are very engaging and create strong visual communication with the audience. You could also try using a WordPress tables plugin to create dynamic tables and charts. 

Podcast Content

Podcasts include audio episodes that surround your brand and communicate with people connected to it. These are easy to listen to for your audience. A podcast is a series of audio messages that helps your audience learn more about you and your business. You may pick a category or a topic that you can discuss in a podcast. However, know that podcasts are not everyone’s cup of tea. A customer will subscribe and listen only if they really wish to listen. The good thing is that you can actually repurpose your audio recording by having it transcripted and used as a new article. With the technology available today, you can easily convert your audio recording to text and cater to anyone who is more fond of reading. 

How to Leverage Content Creation

The Article Structure

A good article combines relevant information and correct factual details in the best possible way. It contains the head, body, and conclusion in bite-sized pieces for the reader. Most people use SEO practices to attain the top rank on Google. However, your content, apart from being on the top, should also be authoritative and trustworthy to gain customers. The introduction of the article should be catchy and make the reader want to read further. It should follow up in the body with useful content. Finally, the conclusion of the article should wrap up the relevant benefits and features of the whole content.

A Few Hacks

Use Agree, Promise, and Preview formula

Many writers use the APP – Agree, Promise, and Preview formula to create engaging content. Agree works around a relevant piece of information or a fact that makes the reader stick around to read more. For instance, you may say, I think everyone will agree on the growing importance of content marketing. Promise is when you make an achievable claim in the content. It may include an eBook or a newsletter to assist the reader with content marketing. Finally, Preview is about a glimpse of a service or a new product.

For specific actions, use the Transition / Ask / Call to Action formula

You may have seen sign up, click now, swipe up, and watch now messages in social media posts. These are a call to action words that convince the users to follow through. You may ask direct questions in persuasive language and provide the users with solutions. 

Use Bucket Brigades

Using bucket brigades in sentences is a classic technique to keep the reader engaged in the content without feeling bored. Words such as Buy now, Best of all, Good news, Here’s why, Meanwhile, and No wonder are some examples. These are used to connect two sentences and act as the bridge for information. Moreover, they help in creating a smooth transition for the reader. These bridging words make the content seamless and also help improve SEO.

Bottom Line

Now that you’ve read through the guide to content marketing, you will be able to create compelling content across various platforms. Create a content plan after thorough research and strategize the content on different channels. This will help in getting more traffic and sales for the business. Meanwhile, learn how to craft successful digital marketing campaign strategies to take your business to a new level.