How do you overcome the common challenges and pitfalls of content marketing in a digital environment?

Probably the most important step in any digital marketing strategy is to truly understanding your audience. How do we begin this journey? I recommending starting with a simple exercise. Think about people you know that might personally be able to walk you through their own journey. You will always get the most valuable feedback when you speak with real people. Talk to them candidly about what websites they visit when researching. Understand their behavior on various social media platforms. Remember, at the end of the day, your customer is trying to solve a problem or relieve some sort of pain in their life. Help them...

I like to focus on conversations. The pandemic made it easy to jump on Zoom and just talk. Of course I'm guiding the conversation but as far as they are concerned, they're sharing stories about their history, customers, employees and goals. I'm recording the interviews and then using ChatGPT to summarize key points or even to generate voice over scripts for content marketing. I'm also using AI tools to clone the interviewee's voice (with their permission) to create content backed by AI text to image visuals. Possibly the most important is consistently having conversations every week. This is how I learn about my clients and then my client's clients and how I turn all of that into marketing without my clients feeling like it's marketing.

Before you start making 1 piece of content --> Understand your audience's needs and pain points: Conduct research to understand your audience's needs, challenges, and pain points. This can help you tailor your content to their interests and address their specific concerns.

Use tools to track metrics: There are a variety of tools available to help you track and measure your content marketing metrics, such as Google Analytics, SEMrush, and Buzzsumo. Choose tools that are relevant to your objectives and goals.

To plan and execute a successful content strategy: Identify your target audience and their needs. Set goals and objectives for your content. Develop a content calendar. Create high-quality content. Distribute and promote your content through various channels.

Let's say you run a small online business that sells handmade soap. Here's an example of how you could optimize your content for SEO: Use keywords strategically: Incorporate your target keywords into your website content, including in the title tag, meta descriptions, headers, and body text. For example, you could use keywords like "handmade soap" and "natural soap" throughout your product descriptions.

Iteration is key. So don't fall in love with a certain tactic or a particular type of content. We must remember that we are serving our audience, not our own taste. Remove our emotion out of the equation.

Embrace the power of data-driven decision-making. By regularly analyzing your content's performance, you can identify trends and patterns that highlight what is (and isn't) resonating with your audience. Use tools like Google Analytics and social media insights to track engagement, click-through rates, and conversions. Leverage this data to fine-tune your content strategy, to make sure you're providing value to your audience while maximizing ROI. Content marketing is an evolving process — stay agile, learn from the data, and adapt accordingly.

Try A/B testing!! A/B testing involves creating two versions of a piece of content and testing them against each other to see which one performs better. This can help you identify which headlines, images, calls-to-action, and other elements are most effective.