A Complete Guide to a Content Marketing Strategy That Works

If you’ve come across this post, you’re probably aware that content marketing can be an uphill climb for business owners to get noticed online. For some it might feel more like running up a mountain in flip flops! Businesses are spending more time & money on content creation than ever before with no signs of slowing down.

Therefore, if you are interested in boosting your brand or services through content, then this complete guide to a content marketing strategy that works is for you. Inside, you will see the most reliable content marketing strategies that are working right now, and will continue to work long term.

Here are some steps that you need to remember while deciding on your content marketing strategy:

1. Know your audience – Firstly, you have to understand how to attract your audience, your visitors, or followers. You have to create different kinds of content that will attract your audience. Are you going to post videos, images or plain text? Do you need to create something that will interrupt their news feed to catch their attention?

2. Know When & Where to Post – Secondly, it’s useful to know when your audience is most active. For example, if your Facebook visitors are online from 1 PM to 3 PM, then you should upload your content between that time so they are more likely to see your content.

3. Quality over Quantity – Your visitor expects content quality but they may also want easy to digest content. It depends on your audience of course, so this is something you will want to experiment all the time to see which gives you the most engagement.

4. Experiments – What sort of content gives you the most engagement? Plus, some social media platforms have their own built in engagement tracking programs to save you guessing which content gets the most viewings.

5. Know Your Competitors – Knowing the competitors and the sort of content they use is equally important. You need to distinguish both direct as well as indirect competitors. Companies that are selling the same products like yours are your direct competition, and companies who are not selling the same sort of product but use the same set of keywords are your indirect customers. You just need to create content that exceeds your competitors, and keeping an eye on what they are doing always helps.

6. Optimize your Content – Optimising the content using Keywords, Meta Descriptions, Images, Videos, and so on. Content, similar to other aspects of internet marketing, grows exponentially over time when it is correctly optimised for search engines. To target your content more effectively, try to optimise for just one or two keywords per piece of content.

7. Test, Analyse and Improve – Always after sharing the content, you need to improve your content as well as anything you’ve noticed that affects engagement along the way. Content should be as user-friendly and easy to read as possible, so that visitors will spend more time reading it – and want to share with their friends. Despite your best effort not all of your content will get noticed, but be sure to spend time assessing why some content performs better than others.

Content marketing could be structured in numerous ways below; where I have listed the top 10 most effective ways to do content marketing.

The Top 10 Most Useful Types of Content Marketing to Be Used:

• Blog Posts: It is the easiest way to begin content marketing on your website. Blogging builds an opportunity for people to find your content, as well as increase the perceived worth of your brand.
  
• Video:  Content in the form of video is the most popular way to engage the audience. As it is easy to understand, it has a better recall compared to plain text. Although you may want to include text inside your video on some social media platforms, so people can watch them without sound.
  
• Podcasts: Just like video content, podcasts are another kind of content marketing medium that you can begin using to reach your audience. If someone is driving, they will be not able to watch or read the video. This makes podcasts an excellent way to deliver your message.
  
• Infographics: If a picture is valued at a thousand words, an infographic surely is worth several times more. Infographics remain a combination of text (facts, statistics, tips, or any other related information) and an image. They also are typically shared with others much more than blog posts with just plain text or basic images.
  
• E-books: Fear not, an e-book doesn’t be a lengthy novel. It’s an ideal way to present your visitors with interesting content to read. The purpose of an e-book remains to educate, but it’s essential to keep the language in line with your brand voice.
  
• Slide Decks: It’s a great format for breaking down complex ideas into simple steps or bite-sized pieces. Always keep the slides simple: The best practice is using minimal text in one font and large graphics throughout.
   
• Case Studies: Building case studies with real numbers as well as complete stories will help keep your content concentrated on the value & results, attracting more potential clients and customers. 
  
• PR: The essence of the PR is to build brand awareness, so content marketing fits well within this ideal. Creating a press release is an exceptional way to attract attention to the latest news within a company.
   
• Email Marketing: Never underestimate the potential of email marketing. If people will sign up to your email list or newsletter, then chances are they want to hear from you long term. However, be sure to provide your contacts with valuable content, rather than simply a barrage of sales spiel! 
  
• Social Media: It is an ideal way to show off your brand’s personality and your content. You should post strategically with your content, switching them up for different social platforms. Also, regular and timely engagement with your audience (such as likes and comments) can help cement relationships over social media with potential buyers.

By implementing any one of these content marketing strategies, you can present your brand or services to attract a larger audience that are looking to become a customer or client of yours.

Conclusion

I hope these above steps in this complete guide to a content marketing strategy are enough to give your content creation a new lease of life. By now hopefully you have loads of ideas on how to start producing fun and interesting content.

Just have the entire guide step by step by your side to enhance your marketing efforts and, ultimately, convert more business!

That said, if you need a content marketing specialist to execute all your content marketing techniques, then you are just one click away; contact me, I will be happy to assist.

Author Bio: Creative Head @ The Web Hospitality (or, in simple English,
I’m the SEO strategist who is totally responsible for ensuring that each
SEO project must enhanced which we do take on).

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