Content marketing is very much about delivering a value as opposed to sales promotions. Content marketing can be entertainment, it can be educational, but the highest form of content marketing at the moment is transformational .You put out good stuff that will help your target market figure out the first baby steps of their problem on their own. That’s going to position your brand as the trusted provider and go-to-expert.
Many small businesses tackle their own content marketing efforts. That makes sense, After all, nobody knows the business better than the business owner so the owner is the perfect person to content market whatever they do. Unfortunately, producing consistently great content can get in the way of running your business. A lack of time is one of the biggest barriers to content marketing that many businesses face.
This is why they need copywriters. Content marketing is the big challenge for any copywriter.
Here are five tips to do it properly
- Develop a content marketing strategy.
It’s important to develop a content marketing strategy. The strategy needs to be specific about what you’re saying and how you’re going to accomplish it.
According to the 11th annual B2B content marketing guide (2021 edition), 60% of the most successful companies had a documented content marketing strategy, 77% had a content marketing strategy that was mature, 80% used an editorial calendar to keep track of things, 42% had established an online community and nearly all of them (94%) use metrics to measure content performance.
2. Use the funnel
The funnel is a strategic way of taking people through what’s called the customer journey. It’s a mapped out process where the business takes someone through from not knowing anything about them to being a customer. This means you have to use TOFU (Top of Funnel) content which can educate your audience in the buying journey via several stages.
These can be done with
- blog posts
- podcasts
- Facebook ads
- Infographics
- Videos.
3 Smart use of social media
Different forms of social media suit the audience at different stages. They might connect with your brand on a Twitter feed but use Snapchat for personal conversations. LinkedIn is good for long-form content that’s authoritative. Besides text, Facebook lets you upload pictures and videos from your business. How do you know what are the best channels? Aaron Argus from the Content Marketing Institute provides a succinct guide outlining which distribution options work well based on your goals and audience.
He points out that
- Facebook use (most used social platform).
- 68% of adults.
- Over 60% of all age groups.
- 54% women and 46% men.
- Instagram use (visual-oriented platform).
- 35% of adults.
- Highest concentrations – 72% of ages 13 to 17 and 64% of ages 18 to 29.
- Slightly more popular with women.
- LinkedIn use (primarily B2B).
- 25% of adults.
- Highest concentrations – 33% of ages 30 to 49 and 29% of ages 18 to 29.
- Evenly split among men and women.
- Twitter use (chronologically focused).
- 24% of adults.
- Highest concentrations – 40% of ages 18 to 29 and 32% of ages 13 to 17.
- Almost even between men and women.
- Snapchat use (disappearing chat app).
- 27% of people.
- Highest concentrations – 69% of ages 13 to 17 and 68% of ages 18 to 29.
- More popular with women.
- 4. Define your audience
Assume the content on your site applies to particular group of readers. As Sophie Thomson at Content Cal points out, the target audience is specific and you can’t just give it a woolly definition, like Millennials or Gen X. You need to drill down to specifics like geographical location. demographics including age, gender, education, income, language and profession and even lifestyle factors and personality traits.
This is where you use UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) codes which are added to social posts and allow you find out where your audience is coming from. The codes give information about the audience and tie in with Google Analytics which allow you to see the demographics of who is engaging with you on social media.
- Read analytic reports
Platforms like Google Analytics measure what is working and allow you to track the traffic sources for keywords, links, and other connections. Analytics gives you the tools to see why people go to your website, or your competitor’s websites.
If you need assistance with content marketing, contact me at leon@leongettler.com or phone 0411 745 193.
