Content Marketing
Content Marketing Must-Dos For Higher Conversion
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 done through lead management and nurturing, and it assists with the content marketing campaign you want to run. Unfortunately, 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 marketing branches – 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 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 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 help search engines 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 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 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. But, 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 and 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 in charge of all their content, but this may not be the right strategy.
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. So you begin with a target audience and aim your expertise in that direction.
Examining the content, you are producing and understanding the modifications 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. However, it should focus on your business, industry, and what you can do for the people reading it.
Putting yourself in your readers’ shoes 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 will 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 is 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 your audience’s wants. Instead, 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 content that is always relevant; it will never become old and dated! Therefore, you need to create content that will still be relevant 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.