How to Nail Your Content Marketing

Content is becoming one of the most important things companies can do to connect with their audience, build a community behind their brand and discover new customers and clients. With channels becoming more diluted and frequently disrupted by new technology, it is essential for marketers to continuously update, improve and beef up their content marketing plan.

By focusing on developing real value for your readers, identifying those consumers most interested in your product and producing content that feeds into your marketing machine, you can effectively reach and build trust with a wider target audience, creating increased customer loyalty and, ultimately, adding more value to your bottom line.

Here’s a few #notyourstandard tips for crushing you content marketing in 2018 – just don’t forget you need other marketing tactics to help draw attention to your content and your brand.

1. Focus on Your Consumers, Rather Than Your Brand
Before deploying your content strategy, you have to spend time understanding what motivates your customers. What are they into and what information are they searching for? How does your product or service make their life easier? Why do they choose your brand over your competitors? The answers to these questions form the foundation of your brand’s core story – the main message you need to be telling your target audience over and over again. By taking a more consumer-centric approach, and listening to all the stories that are unfolding everyday about your brand, the better you will get at speaking your customer’s language and aligning your content to their desires, needs and pain points.

2. Drive Decisions Based on Good Data
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – you should be focusing your content marketing on creating the right content at the right time. Conducting a content audit is a nifty tool to understanding what content resonates best with your audience and what formats and platforms they are engaging on. Check what headlines grab their attention, what days and times get the most traffic and if your readers are interested in short or long-form content. This will ensure the time you spend on your content marketing is more meaningful and the return on that investment more successful.

3. Strive For Quality Over Quantity
With more brands using content marketing [89% according to CMI] and channels set to become more diluted, the quality of your content is far more important that the frequency and number of days you are producing and posting. Whether you publish once, twice or several times a week, focus your time on developing high-quality, valuable and unique content that will get noticed in the flood of people’s feeds. This also includes sexy new ways you can distribute your content through paid and earned media channels, especially with Facebook’s organic reach dropping significantly.

4. Integrate Your Content Across Initiatives
The most successful content strategies are not only well researched and scheduled in advance, but are also integrated across all marketing, advertising and sales initiatives. Make sure your content calendar is aligned with your current goals and objectives, and your business’ main focus points in the coming weeks or months. Consider your email marketing, media commitments, upcoming events and PR efforts, and ensure those messages are paired and working in tandem. Personalising branded content across all channels throughout your customer’s journey can help you achieve your marketing goals more effectively.