What You Need to Know About Content Marketing

If you haven’t been intentional with the messages you send to your target audience, this article is for you.?Now more than ever, the competition for your customer’s time is fierce. So, you need to know how to send the right message in the right way.

You’re about to find out what you need to know about content marketing because, in this article, I’m going to:

• Explain what content marketing is, and why it’s important.
• Identify different types of content marketing.
• ?Tell you how to?create a strategy ?for your marketing.
• Share a timesaving secret.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is?creating material ?to share with your audience and developing a plan to deliver it. It’s not a sales message. Rather, it’s meant to create interest in your products or services. and allows your audience to get to know, like, and trust you.

Why is content marketing important?

Content marketing helps you connect with your target audience. It allows you to get personal, be authentic, and build relationships. And it helps you talk about your products or services without sounding like you’re selling them.

What are the different types of content marketing?

There are many ways to use content marketing. I’m giving you the five most common categories (below). There’s no right or wrong way. Pick the ones that make the most sense or you and your business goals.

1. Social Media. Using?social media ?is a powerful way to get your content out there. Keep in mind, however, that each channel has a purpose. So, think about what your customers want. For instance:

• Facebook ?is a platform primarily used for entertainment and news and for referring viewers to your website.
• Twitter is a news platform and a social network. It’s good for sharing blog posts and promoting content on your website.
• Instagram ?is an extremely visual platform that’s perfect for posting images and videos (Reels) but not for driving traffic to your website or blog.
• ?Pinterest ?is another extremely visual platform used to spark inspiration for projects.
• LinkedIn ?is a professional network that’s well-suited for building authority through posting industry-related articles.

2. Blog Articles. Publishing articles that relate to your products or services is a cost-effective and excellent way to drive traffic to your website.

3. Video.?TikTok ?and Instagram Reels make videos easy to create and publish. Social media platforms favor videos over written content, so publish as much as you can and as often as you can.

4. Infographic. Use simple infographics to break up content and explain complex subjects.

5. Podcast. Podcasts are an ideal way to convey your brand’s personality and one of the best sources of repurposed content (more on that below).

1.?Planning. When are you going to post your content? Which days and at what time?

First, find a social media calendar template. There are plenty of free versions available. Then plan all of your posts for an entire month, so you won’t have to struggle for ideas every day.

Creating a schedule will help you be consistent with sharing your content and make sure you have variety.

2. Creating. What are you going to post about?

Come up with at least 3 different topics/subjects you can regularly talk about and that your audience will want to read and plug those into your calendar. For example:

• Your Brand DNA. This is what makes your business unique, your voice, your personality)
• Testimonials and Reviews. Social proof is more effective than you telling your audience about how great your products and services are.

1. ?Tips, Advice, and Free Resources. Give your audience something valuable and useful with quick?Did You Know?type posts, checklists, and cheat sheets.

3. Distributing. How are you going to deliver your message?

Consider the content you want to put out and use the information above to select the right channel.

The timesaving secret you’ve been waiting for.

If you’re worried about how you’re going to?create all the content you need ?for every post scheduled on your content calendar, don’t be. I’m going to share a timesaving secret with you: Create content you can repurpose.

Let me explain.

Repurposing content is all about working smarter, not harder. That is to say, create one dynamic piece and turn it into?new?pieces.

Here are some examples:

• Transcribe a podcast episode and turn it into a blog article. Conversely, you can turn a blog article into a podcast episode.
• Choose an audio snippet from your podcast. Then, add the snippet to a relevant image and layer the image with a Waveform. Finally, share it on your social media channels.
• ?Take a well-developed point from your podcast transcript/blog article and use it as a post for your social media channels.
• Take another well-developed point from your podcast transcript/blog article and use it in an email newsletter.
• ?Create an Instagram Reel that highlights a few key points of your podcast episode/article.

One last thing . . .

Test to measure your success.

Experiment with different times of day and days of the week. See what your audience prefers. Use the analytics offered on each platform to get that feedback. You may find one channel performing better than the others. Likewise, use different headlines with the same message.

All of this will help you fine-tune your content and improve your strategy.

Have fun with it.