You may have heard the phrase thrown around a few times but never paid too much attention to it. Content marketing is a popular marketing tactic that has picked up pace over the past few years.
In a nutshell, content marketing refers to the content you generate (blogs, emails, podcasts, etc.) that you create in order to share with other people. Most of the time, content marketing is provided to your audience for free and relies on the fact that if you provide your audience with valuable information, they will continue to come around and eventually become a customer.
Like every marketing tactic, there are certain things that you can do in order to have the best possible content marketing strategy.
Keep control of the content.
Content marketing works best if you have complete control over what you can write and share, which is why it’s very important that you publish this content on a website that you control. Don’t create content for a blog that you don’t own. Don’t write content for Facebook. These other sites have rules about the type of content you can generate, and if you don’t have complete control, you’re not going to be able to have as big of an impact as you could.
Have a great site.
The website that your content is on needs to be user friendly and aesthetically pleasing. If the site is not providing your visitors with an easy experience or is just too awful to look at, your great content will go unnoticed. Make sure that your website is both attractive and easy to use, and this will help your content marketing strategy.
Know your niche.
The best way to use content marketing to your advantage is know the niche of your writing and generate the content focused on this niche. This will help you build a more dedicated following and will also help you build strong relationships with these followers.
Go bigger…gradually.
Eventually, once you have earned the dedication of your following, you’ll want to take your content marketing efforts a bit further and open up your audience. This means that you’ll need to create some content outside of your niche focus.
Make sure that you perform this step gradually so as not to insult or confuse your current following. Make it appear as if you’re opening up their knowledge on a new topic instead of branching out in order to receive more of an audience.
Don’t forget to market.
Content marketing is supposed to help you market yourself. Make sure that your readers easily have access to more information about your company, your products and your services so that they can turn this dedication into consumerism.
Content marketing is a great strategy for businesses because it allows them to share their expertise and build a following around information that people want. When you use these tips to help push your content marketing efforts, you’ll easily find more success in your efforts.
About the Author
Sarah Dunbar works for the online marketing team at SEOMap. Visit our website for more information about our work.