Every single business out there knows the importance of a smart, unique and impactful marketing strategy.

In the connected world that we live in today, content is critical. Without it, you could find your business is the one behind instead of ahead of the curve.

There’s the chance that you aren’t up to date with how content marketing could change your entire strategy, and if that’s the case, this article is for you.

What & Why

Content marketing is one of the many areas of marketing out there. This one concentrates on creating, publishing and distributing targeted content for an online audience.

Businesses use this method of marketing to attract customers and generate further leads while expanding their customer base.

All of this leads to an increase in online sales and a massive upswing in brand awareness. Businesses that can engage with their online community are the most successful out there, and that’s because customers want that engagement.

Content is created in many different ways these days, and the right content marketing can allow companies to sustain brand loyalty and provide the right, most valuable information to their consumers.

Understanding Content Marketing Campaigns

Any focused content marketing campaign requires substantial knowledge and preparation to be successful.

Without this, mistakes are made, and you end up with a disinterested readership and a waste of time. If you haven’t yet developed your content marketing campaign, the process of building one from scratch can seem complicated.

Marketing through content like blog posts, videos, infographics and webinars to capture the attention of the audience and create a positive brand is exactly what you need to do to have a successful campaign.

Getting It ‘RIGHT’

It’s important to note that content marketing doesn’t work by itself; there’s more involved that you need to consider to support it. It has to be the RIGHT content to the RIGHT person at the RIGHT time.

This is something that’s done through lead management and nurturing, and it assists with the content marketing campaign you want to run.  It feels like a lot of work, and you’re going to be left asking what all the fuss is about.

Content marketing – much like other branches of marketing – is all about sharing information to engage the current and prospective consumer base.

With content, you do this by providing in-depth and valuable information that’s relevant to your business, industry, service, and product. The boring stuff – the data sheets and white papers – are in the trash until later.

Remember To Use Visuals

People are online all the time, on all devices and they want to find things to engage them. The fuss comes because we humans respond very well to visuals. It’s one of the reasons that vlogging and infographics are so popular: we remember around 65% of the visual information we see.

Content: The Focal Point Of SEO

So, you know all about SEO we hope. Search Engine Optimization is the process of increasing the visibility of your website and increasing how likely it is to be found in search engines. It’s the way your business can be found through

Google and other search engines, and it helps those search engines to identify what your website stands for so that your content can be shown to the right people.

Most SEO strategies out there involve helping Google and other big name search engines categorize your content to make it more relevant. It’s always been the focal point because people are interested in content and what you have to say. If you can then optimize it correctly, you will have a more significant reach.

Your content is the main text that you have on your page, and people hunt for useful content; unless you have great content, your page will never rank.

Measuring your content success is as important as creating fantastic content in the first place. Data is so necessary for the continual improvement of your content and without results, you can’t see where you need to make changes.

Measurement Strategy

A measurement strategy should always be included in your content marketing strategy because you can then adjust your approach as you need.

Measure through discovery, engagement, conversion and social shares

There are many ways that you can measure your content success, including through discovery, engagement, conversion and social shares.

This is where SEO comes in! Without SEO, your content cannot be discovered on the right pages of a search engine. Then, you need to ensure that your discovered content is engaging enough to have someone read beyond the first thirty seconds of the page.

Use analytics to measure click-through rate, bounces, time on page

Using Analytics to measure the click-through rate can help you here, as well as the metrics like Time on Page and Bounce Rates. Time on Page tells you how long a user has stayed on your site while Bounce Rates show visitors have got to your page from other sites and remained with you.

If your content is engaging, people will continue to come back and interact further with you. Lastly, social media is crucial – if people are sharing your content on social media sites, you are going to get the right visibility and earn links for your website.

The Content Must-Dos in 2019

When it comes to who should create content for your business in 2019, you need to decide whether you have the gift of the gab yourself, or whether you should outsource it.

Outsourcing Content

Outsourcing content to an outside agency can mean you get an individual tasked to work on your content in an efficient manner, which can be helpful if your business is small.

When it comes to producing compelling content, most companies have a content marketing team who is in charge of all their content, but this may not be the right strategy to go with.

Involve Your Team In the Content Creation Process

You may not have realized that getting EVERYONE involved in the content creation process is just as important: your content quality is going to skyrocket, as is your employee satisfaction.

Not only can you tap into the unknown potential of each member of your staff, but you’re also going to boost their confidence in their role and sends a message to your team to encourage everyone to work together.

Focusing Your Content

Finding the focus of your content is a critical thing for your business. We are in a world of storytelling, and even the best content can get lost if it’s generic.

Target Audience

The generic content doesn’t break through to the right people, where focused content speaks directly to the right. You begin with a target audience and aim your expertise in that direction.

Examining the content that you are producing and understanding the modifications that you have to make to start getting to the right target is vital.

Your content may fall short of where it should be, so adjustments need to be made. It should focus on your business, your industry and what you can do for the people reading it.

Putting yourself in the shoes of your readers is going to help, as you can then see what you are providing and whether you are gaining any value from it.

Keeping your brand at the focus of your content marketing is going to help your visitors learn about you; your content is your voice.

Content Marketing Mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes, and if you’re not strong on content and are overwhelmed by the crowded market that is content marketing, you’ll be making them, too. Let’s look at what you should be avoiding:

Lack of Research

It’s one of the biggest mistakes today. You can read a ton of blogs about your business, but none of these are going to get to your audience!

What does your audience want?

You can use any medium of content: blogs, videos, infographics – and yet miss the mark because you haven’t researched what your audience wants. Research what they want, and go from there.

Lack of Variety

Blogs may be your forte, but YouTube is teaching us that vlogs are becoming very popular. Adding videos to your websites, live streams to your social media for people to ask questions and tons of imagery is going to provide your site with a variety that will attract your customers.

Lack of Evergreen

Evergreen content is the content that is always relevant; it will never become old and dated! You need to create content that will still be relevant past today, tomorrow and even next week.

Viral topics and daily news pieces expire. There’s nothing wrong with these, but you need to add more content that is longer lasting to drive more traffic.

Lack of CTAs

How many calls to action do you have with your content? It’s all well and good to lead your traffic to your website, but then what?

They need to DO something, and you have to tell them! Tell them to sign up, ask them to click a button to subscribe – tell people what to do with calls to action directing them to more information, more you.

Summary

When you know about content marketing, you can do better with it. It’s 2019 and content marketing is still a hot topic; make yours compelling, and you will find your business is thriving.

Content is an umbrella term for all written and visual elements on websites. It gives value to your site and business, and developing the right content strategy is essential in digital marketing.

You need to have a solid plan based specifically around your niche. Too many companies produce generic content that just isn’t right for their customer. If you can provide value and connect with your audience content will become a key driving force in your business. Take these business marketing resources for example, which pull together relevant resources and allowing businesses to create content that resonates with their target audience.

In this post we will look at five reasons why you need to focus more on content when it comes to your online marketing strategy.

Five Reasons To Focus On Content

1. To inform your audience

Your content shows your audience that you know what you’re talking about. Blogs, for example, can position your business as an expert in the industry. The less confused an audience is, the more they stay engaged. People will see that you can provide value and help them make the right decisions, making them more likely to want to work with you.

2. To rank in Google

Creating great content is one of the best ways to reach your audience, but how does anyone find your content to begin with? Ranking in Google can help you achieve this. Utilize SEO best practices and keywords in your content to help Google find your pages faster. You can also submit URLs individually to Google to speed up the process.

3. To earn links from other sites

When you create excellent content, others will want to link back to you. The best case scenario is when sites of authority link to one of your blog posts or articles from their own website. This is one extra way that your potential audience can find you, and also helps a lot with SEO.

4. To share on social media

In a time where social media rules our daily lives, shareable content is key to getting noticed. This is a main reason why interesting content should be a part of your digital marketing strategy. There’s no excuse for businesses not to have social media accounts, but you don’t need to be using all of them at once.

Instagram and Pinterest are the best for visual marketing and particularly useful for retailers and creative businesses. Through the re-pin function on Pinterest, for example, your product images can really take off. On LinkedIn, you can post full blogs and grow your connections in your industry. On Twitter and Facebook, you can be found through hashtags and tags from others in your existing audience.

5. To gain conversions

Once you’ve created the best content you can, how can it lead to conversions and new customers? Always end your content with a relevant call to action. What is the next move you want people to make after reading or watching your content? This psychological nudge focuses on the individual and encourages them to act. Incorporate conversion rate optimization even further through in-depth analyses, which can be done by a digital marketing agency.

Do you look at some business marketing with envy and wonder how they do it so well? What are they doing to impress their social media followers and is it available to all businesses? It would be easy to say the answer is content and yes we can all use it to grow our businesses. However there’s more to it – of course.

Not all content is created equal. There is an etiquette to adhere to and mechanisms in place if we steal or plagiarize an idea or copy that isn’t inherently our own. So hiring the experts in content and digital marketing is more relevant now than ever before.

Let’s first look at what content is in all it’s glory.

What is Online Content?

Content is all information and experiences shared in various formats and channels both offline and online. Online, content is the pages and blogs on your website.

This blog is an example of content. Creating unique blog posts with wordy articles, images, and videos.

It’s also the tweets, and shares in social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter. Plus the instant messages on mobile apps and of course it’s the emails too.

For email marketing, it’s the EDMs (email direct messages) sent to email list subscribers. Then there’s the advertising, it too is content and it’s visible in online banners, and also contextual marketing.

Content, is essentially everything we find online and that’s why it is really easy to fail in content marketing. We’ve been given so much to work with, it seems impossible to hone in on what information and in what format will give us what we need ultimately need, i.e. engagement and sales.

Content Marketing Strategy

The hit and miss of your own content marketing strategy, with fewer website visitors, and less customer engagement and sales suggests you need the midas touch to make it work as well as your competitors.

However, like with most things, we don’t know what we don’t know and that’s why it frustrates us more when we see businesses doing what we believe we’re doing only they’re getting the results. More followers, comments, shares and likes and no doubt that translates into conversions too with more sales!

So what are these businesses doing differently? They’ve hired in the experts i.e they use Digital Agencies.

Focus on Engagement

Campaigns driven by agencies are no longer shouting out – agency involvement like the older style of transactional advertising, and that’s why it’s hard to know if an agency is part of it.

Businesses still doing it for themselves focus on their marketing and advertising outcomes on sales, whereas agencies will focus on audience engagement which is the point of content and digital marketing.

Therefore direction and advice from marketing experts is sure to shorten the lead time to success with your advertising and marketing campaigns. They just know a lot more about content and how it can inspire consumers to take action. For example, here’s a great article, from Multiply Digital: 6 pieces of content you’re already making but not as well as you could, hence the luke-warm response for your intended audience.

Images

Taking photos is one example mentioned in that article. Nowadays we all can and do take lots of photos, think selfies, but are they worthy of fronting a marketing campaign for your brand?

Engaging a professional photographer to take a few select images for your brand campaigns is the way to go. Of course you need the creative genius in your campaigns before hiring the photographer as they will need direction and will only be as good as the information they have at their disposal.

Marketing Plan

The genius of course comes from the creative types and before you can get started on some exciting campaigns the overall marketing strategy for the business is documented in a plan.

Do you have a marketing plan and a budget to deliver campaigns during the next twelve months? This is where using digital agencies are useful too. Start out as you plan to continue. What we do know is, if we continue to do the same thing over and over we will get the same result. Therefore, it’s less of a leap of faith, hiring the experts to plan and drive it and our role is to measure its success!

Marketing is a game and its rules are changing every year. Online display ads aren’t as effective anymore as consumers have more control over how much, when, and where they see them. What’s more, they don’t see this type of content as trustworthy and prefer to learn more about a product or brand from their peers or read about it in an informational piece.

The good news is, content marketing is now more powerful than ever. It allows people with a great deal of knowledge in their niche, but a small budget, to launch successful online marketing campaigns.

Why Content Marketing Works

Whatever your industry or business goals are, you must be producing content around the main topics your customers are interested in, as well as the problems they want solutions for. The content should be easily accessible on your website and come at no cost.

But, many entrepreneurs and marketers are eager to take this to the next level by publishing different types of content on a regular basis, repurposing it, getting in touch with the potential customer, and tapping into what they want to know about and then giving them exactly that. If you haven’t taken the time to create a content marketing strategy for your business, or to rethink your existing one, now is the time.

Content marketing is one of the most genuine ways to build brand awareness

People have a tendency trust more if given useful information for free. With every next interaction, they are forming a connection with your brand until one day they become your customers and start recommending to friends.

Content marketing has the potential to become your most profitable channel

You can double your traffic. It makes sense that the more content you put out there and the more pages on your website Google has the chance to crawl, the bigger the chance to grab the attention of new site visitors and keep them on your platform. Hubspot found out that business blogging can increase visitors on your site with 55%.

You’re giving people what they want

After all, 68% of people spend time online reading about brands, and 80% learn about a company through custom content. (source)

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that 53% of marketers consider content creation their top inbound marketing strategy.

Because many individuals and small businesses, as well as big brands and corporations, are slowly realizing the importance of creating valuable content that stands out. However, content marketing is so powerful that you can always reap the benefits once you have a solid strategy in place and invest the time to create, publish and distribute content on a regular basis.

How to Create Content That Stands Out

1. Go long-form

The very first thing you should start doing to set your content apart is creating long-form content. 500-word blog posts don’t work anymore, even if you publish them a few times a day.

A short post simply can’t contain enough valuable information to make an impression on people. While it’s true that our attention span is getting shorter with the boom of social media and information overload, people still want to have all the facts before they take any next step on making the decision to buy.

Marketers like Neil Patel are best known in their crowded niche for writing content that is 3000+ words long a few times a week. He employs this tactic on his blog QuickSprout, for example, and invests many hours in each piece to make sure it’s the most extensive one on the topic. Whenever you have a subject you want to cover, gather all the resources you can, take your time, and produce the most valuable article.

Add images, link to sources, statistics, and make sure you leave the reader with a ton of information that can’t be found anywhere else. That’s a great way to stand out. Google the top 10 results for the title you want to write an article on and make your piece longer than the rest. It will eventually rank much higher if you include as many keywords and related terms as possible.

As Hubspot shared back in 2016, 1 in 10 blog posts are compounding. That means their traffic increases over time thanks to organic search algorithms. What you write and publish today can bring website visitors and profits for decades to come.

2. Create 10x content.

The second step to take when looking to deliver more value than the others in your niche, by creating the so-called “10x content”. That means writing and publishing something 10 times better than anything else out there.

Making the piece thousands of words long is one part of the equation, but next comes the chance to make it valuable so that it’s easy to understand and absorb. Make sure the page loads quickly and doesn’t distract the reader with ads or other unnecessary elements.

Don’t forget to do your research in the beginning and clearly define the problem this article will solve. Use the language of your audience but also add a personal touch to entertain, educate and create an emotional response. Here’s an infographic sharing more about creating 10x content.

3. Find the hidden benefit.

An interesting concept in content marketing is the hidden benefit. According to it, there’s always something beneath the surface motivating your readers to consume your content.

It’s the creator’s and marketer’s job to find it through interaction via comments on the blog, social media channels, surveys, and more.

4. Incorporate visual components

Adding unique, dynamic graphics throughout a post can improve reader experience by breaking up long-form content into sections. House-made graphics can also demonstrate another level of industry expertise, especially for companies that offer products or services with an artistic component. Infographics have become a popular way to add visuals, but the large size can sometimes distract from an excellently worded content piece. A way to avoid this is by inserting multiple, coordinating banner graphics in between paragraphs to create a balanced flow of images and text.

5. Educate before you sell.

Something that will turn off readers quickly is being “salesy”. Brands tend to push selling too much and forget that content is about providing value and educating before promotion. You have readers long before you have customers. Take your time when forming a relationship and ensure that it’s strong enough (by giving people more value than expected through a free industry resource blog, a weekly informative email newsletter, downloadable files full of knowledge that help customers achieve a certain result, etc.) before you talk about your products or services.

Good content takes time to create, but evergreen content writing can work for you for years to come without any further marketing efforts. Focus on quality and set specific goals as you create your industry’s best content that helps you stand out from the competition.

Even though most marketers and small-medium sized business owners have heard of content marketing or digital marketing, many continue to hold antiquated beliefs about its significance.

There is no denying that content marketing has become a cornerstone to successful businesses today.

Not only does content marketing have a positive impact on SEO and site performance, but it also is the meat and potatoes of any digital marketing campaign.

SEO and Digital Ad Campaigns

Want to know more about the benefits of content marketing on SEO and digital ad campaigns?

For starters, content marketing is an incredibly useful, applicable, and utilitarian online marketing strategy.

Engagement

What’s more, the use of digital marketing methods leads to higher-quality customer engagement, and, ultimately, more leads which convert into customers.

Conversion

That said, conversions, conversions, conversions. The effect content marketing has on conversion rates is a proven upshot to digital strategies, and probably the most important benefit.

Traffic

Alongside an increased conversion-rate, employing a digital marketing strategy will generate more traffic to a business’ website, raise brand awareness, and lend to forming long-term relationships based on trust.

Of course, there are many other benefits of using a content marketing strategy. However, the positive aspects of content marketing are often overshadowed by unfounded folklore surrounding the topic.

Want to know more about how adopting a digital marketing campaign can drastically help your business?

Content Marketing Myths

Let’s take a look at some of the myths about content marketing held by marketers and business owners alike. Hopefully, upon closer inspection, those who believe content marketing to be straight-up hooey may change their mind!

1. None of My Clients Rely on Online Content

This complaint is probably the most common tale heard from small-medium sized business owners, and sometimes even marketers.

That fact is: the everyday consumer gets involved with more than ten sources of information before deciding to buy a product or service. Additionally, The Financial Times reports that close to 60% of senior-level executives engage blogs, online videos, pod/webcasts, and are members of professional sites like LinkedIn.

2. My Audience Isn’t Dumb Enough to Go For Online Ads

Whether it’s thought that consumers pass over online advertisements, or a particular target market isn’t “dumb enough” to fall for digital marketing campaigns—either way, it’s rubbish.

That said, consumers want to forego the uncomfortable sales-pitch-stage, and move right into getting their hands dirty. People want to relate to a brand and form meaningful business relationships. These desires of potential customers are not something that is expected to change anytime soon.

Nevertheless, a recent survey reveals that 62 of millenials report feelings of trust and comfortability with brands they see on social media.

The Millenial demographic is just one drop in the bucket when considering what groups are influenced by online content.

The main thing to consider is that any content marketing strategy does not come off as disingenuous or superficial. Remember, it’s not about selling, it’s about procuring.

3. It Costs Too Much

As with any form of marketing, some expenses go along with employing a content marketing strategy. Hiring content authors, designers, and paying out-of-pocket for ads can seem like it might add up. The truth is, traditional advertising is exponentially more pricey than advertising of the digital variety.

What’s more, digital marketing gives marketers and business owners more exposure; hence, more bang for their buck.

4. It’s Doesn’t Cost a Thing

Just because content marketing is cheaper than traditional advertising, doesn’t mean that one can get away with placing ads online scott-free.

Don’t worry, initiating a digital marketing campaign won’t cost you an arm and a leg. Despite the need to secure a significantly sized audience, to wait for organic growth of content, or having to rely on backlinks at times, the cost to come out swinging with Facebook is negligible; the price being $10.

Be that as it may, although getting a ticket to the show might not break the bank, don’t become disillusioned that generating quality content is a walk in the park.

Anyone can throw up a 500-word blog post, or build a shoddy landing page, but true quality contributors can be few and far between.

5. The More, The Merrier

When it comes to content, more words are not synonymous with more conversions. In fact, the opposite is, more often than not, accurate. Everyone has heard the maxim, “quality over quantity,” but with content marketing, these words hold all the more valuable.

What’s more, this doesn’t just speak to content creation, but also design and delivery.A significant focus should also be placed on the dissemination of content. In other words, getting the company’s message out there.

With more content, there’s also more work to do with SEO and testing on the back-end as well.

6. Content Marketing Has No Place in This Business

Unfortunately, many marketers and business owners continue to hold this belief about their business. For some reason, individual tend to think there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel when it comes to advertising. However, in the face of the all-enveloping tech bubble, to deny the importance of digital marketing is folly.

Just because a business is not electronically-based, doesn’t mean it won’t benefit from a strategic digital marketing strategy.

7. Content marketing boosts sales and Increases ROI Instantly, right?

The truth is, employing and maintaining a content marketing strategy takes serious time and effort. However, in the end, the endeavour is well worth the time.

Just think of the possibilities.

Knowing how potential customers think and behave online and being able to tailor your ad campaign accordingly!

This privilege comes with dedication and commitment to regularly note the number of page views, downloads, subscriptions, and overall traffic.

Quite simply, content marketing is a process. It doesn’t happen overnight, and one reaps what they sow.

8. There’s Not Enough Time in the Day

To say there isn’t enough time in one’s day to devote to content marketing is silly. Not only can a majority of the work be outsourced, but it can also be looked at as an investment.

To view it another way, one can think of instituting a digital marketing strategy as a long-term annuity, where the payouts happen gradually over time.

Interestingly enough, the better the content, the less work one has to do repairing slipshod work done at the beginning of a campaign.

9. All We Need is Social Media; Content’s Not for Us

The thing about an online marketing campaign is that all the elements are interconnected. One could even consider social media and other online content symbiotic. They need each other. Social media needs content to post, and the content generating by marketing needs a place to be displayed.

Basically, if you want to make a splash in the world of social media, people are going to want to see content outside of platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Granted, when put side-by-side, one might not need to generate as much content as they would without social media, but the demand is there nonetheless.

10. Bringing Up Money Is Tacky

Anyone who says that price should not be a focal point of a content marketing plan is a fool. Think about it. If someone is considering buying something, you can be sure he or she wants to know how much it costs. It’s the most crucial factor for many buyers, so why omit it from your site?

Well, one reason might be because your product or service comes off as pricey, but customers usually finance.

Even so, if this is the case, then mention the dynamics that went into pricing is a viable option. Using price to one’s advantage is a crucial tool for securing a competitive advantage.

Marketers and bloggers following the practices of successful bloggers like Matthew Woodward, is a no brainer. Blogging has been around for years so there’s no point reinventing the wheel so to speak, when you can avoid the errors and learn from the mistakes made by those who have come before you.

USPs of a Blog

On Matthew’s blog he expresses his views, shares his experiences and learnings, as well as educates other people and fundamentally this is what blogging is all about.

What your business offers or even the genre of the blog are not so relevant the same fundamentals or USPs (unique selling points) of a blog remain the same.

So, now you know the USPs of a blog, it’s time to focus on how to create content that can wow millions of visitors. Matthew’s own blog gets thousands of visitors daily and with that knowledge, comes the responsibility to make sure what goes on it, is high quality and is relevant.

Mix it up with interactive content

Use interactive content types to mix it up and get greater interaction from your audience.

There are many different types of content that can create a higher level of interaction. A customised game for example will not only be fun, it will also create a memorable experience and encourage your audience to share it. A quiz is another type of interactive content and also a poll. All can be layered on top of other content. E.g. the quiz or poll can be layered on top of a video or part of your usual blog article. The same applies to a poll.

Seek feedback

Running a poll at the end of your articles, so your audience can rate it, is not only adding value to the experience it will provide you with the feedback needed to work out what content to write and share next.

Understanding your audience and their interests is also a vital part of measurement. The more you seek to understand the greater the conversion (click through to read your content) and more often your audience will share it with their followers who in turn will click through to read and share and so the wheels turn and your success as a blogger grows.

Be brave and get started

Success breeds success and with it gives you a huge boost in confidence. The toughest part to blogging is getting started. So while your first few articles may be less adventurous, just a few reads will inspire you and it won’t be long before your groove and style is fully developed and shining through in your follow up blog posts.

Attracting the right audience is key so focus on what you know and love to share. It’s a big world with billions of people, millions with the same interests so focus on how the articles are written so their not only informative but clearly understood. Use the language of a ten year old and keep your sentences succinct.

So what are the USPs of blogs again? You got it – with your blog, always aim to educate, entertain, share experiences, knowledge and of course your views.