Top 10 Quick Guide to Content Marketing

Ready to start building your content marketing strategy? When embarking on a new campaign, the first question you should ask is: what does my audience care about?

Engaging content has the ability to attract new customers and compel existing customers to engage with your business on an ongoing basis. But your content has to be something worth reading, and the effort of creating great content is worth it if you play your cards right. According to the Content Marketing Institute, effective content can increase sales, cull valuable customer insights, and transform loyal followers into ardent brand advocates.

So instead of only pushing your business at an audience, consider creating some pull with quality content that attracts, engages, and converts. Here are the top 10 quick tips to help you get started:

1.  KNOW THY AUDIENCE

The best way to analyze your audience is to do a little market research (and/or interviews) and then create personas. Your target audience is likely to have more industry knowledge than the general public, which means your content can’t be fluffy or surface-level.

Here are a few traits to consider documenting when creating your audience persona(s):

• Job titles
• Age/gender
• Other relevant personal background info (ex: income, marital status, education level, lifestyle habits or hobbies)
• Industries of interest
• Pain points or challenges
• Likely channels they use to gain information

2.  DETERMINE YOUR THEME(S)

Now that you know the themes most likely to interest your target personas, create a list of topics to cover. Consider a broad range of interest that might include topics outside your industry, but still relevant to your audience. In addition, match content type to theme. 

For example, would a step-by-step guide to setting up your own home security alarm system be better displayed in video format, through illustrations, or as a bulleted article? You decide what fits best for your business.

3.  CREATE AN EDITORIAL CALENDAR

An editorial calendar not only helps keep you organized and more efficient, it helps you conceptualize how all of your content fits together. This is key for creating a unified multi-channel marketing strategy.

Are you a marketing manager, social media specialist, or even a project manager? When you have an editorial calendar in hand, you can share it with all the relevant employees in your team to make sure everyone is on the same page. 

Here are some points worth including by Nischala Murthy Kaushik, a marketing expert and brand storyteller:

Content Creation

• The date that a content piece will be published
• The content format (blog, video, infographic, etc.)
• The content topics/themes
• What needs to happen before it is published (in terms of the process for editing, reviews, approvals, SEO, etc.)

Content Publishing

• Where will the content be published (corporate/personal site or blog) or a community/partner/analyst/media publishing forum?

Content Promotion 

• Which social channels will the content be promoted on? This should be based on your reader demographics.
• How frequently should the content be shared?
• How to best articulate the social shares so it works for a specific social channel.
• Which tools need to be leveraged for social sharing.
• Which individuals/enterprises need to be notified of the published content.

4.  CONSIDER A BLOG (IF YOU DON’T HAVE ONE ALREADY)

Publishing your own blog is a great way to enhance SEO on a regular basis and push traffic to your site. (Just do a little keyword research – including longtail keywords – before you go full-speed ahead creating your blog pieces.) Blogging essentially allows you to be your own media company. You get to tell your own story and – if you’re lucky – create a community around your content. 

5.  INVITE GUEST WRITERS – FROM THE INSIDE!

Get employees involved in your content creation by inviting them to guest-contribute on your blog or other platforms. Let them know that the pieces can be short and sweet, but that they should be well-written and showcase their unique expertise in the company.

Additional benefit: employees who get to have their own voice are more likely to share their articles with friends, family, and professional connections. While they get to show off their chops, your company gets an extra PR boost.

6.  DEFINE AND SHARE SPECIFICATIONS

This is especially important to have written down if you are going to invite guest contributors or if you have several writers who participate in your content creation. Decide on the following:

• Desired tone (i.e. do you want to come off as playful, professional, intellectual, etc.?)
• Length (literally, what is the word count that you want writers to stick to)
• Media (this can include the types of graphics, photos, or videos that can be included and might require the participation of a design team).

7.  DEFINE YOUR CONVERSION METRICS

If you don’t know what you’re measuring, you can’t determine whether your content strategy is scoring a success. Measuring the outcome of your efforts also allows you to finetune your techniques in order to improve your strategy over time. Here are a few examples of metrics:

• Number of downloads
• Lead generation
• Email registration
• Social shares

Whatever metrics you decide are relevant for your company to measure, make sure that they are straightforward and relevant to your overall marketing (i.e. business) goals.

8.  TRACK AND REPORT CONVERSION METRICS

Choose regular intervals to monitor, analyze and report your conversion metrics. Use a technology platform that suits your needs to enhance the process. Include key stakeholders and regular team members in the process, so that you can make budgetary and other considerations when moving forward with your content strategy.

9.  PROMOTE CONTENT ACROSS YOUR COMMUNICATIONS

Did you just produce a well-researched whitepaper or highly informative guidebook? Don’t confine your hard-earned material to a single page on your website or blog.

Think of creative ways that you can spread the word, such as: (a) showcasing a download button on the slider of your website’s homepage, (b) including a feature piece in your next email marketing series or (c) “cannibalizing” parts of your content that can serve as part of a social media campaign driving traffic back to your business.

Here's a great idea from the Marketo blog: Encourage employees to promote content in their email signatures to increase the visibility of your content. While you can attempt to do this yourself, there are also more advanced solutions, like Sigstr and Exclaimer, that allow you to quickly change the content of email signature as needed depending on the recipient. This way, you can offer a tailored experience and different content to employees, customers, prospects, and partners. 

Check out this example by Canvas Solutions (displayed on Marketo as well) below: 

10.  STAY ON TOP OF TRENDS

Always be on the lookout for content topics that are trending in your industry and would be of value to your audience. Bring these items to your doorstep if you want by signing up for newsletters from blogs that regularly publish your industry news and report on new product or technology releases. 

In order to establish your business as a credible and authoritative resource, you have to regularly deliver fresh content that your readers will find relevant to their needs. It might seem like a lot of work (and sometimes it is!), but the payoff is earning the loyalty and trust of the right audience to strengthen your brand for the long run.

Have a great day and feel free to be in touch!

Jessica Walton