With the ever-growing popularity of digital marketing, as a business owner, it is crucial to understand how content marketing can be used to connect with your target audience. Rather than pushing a stiff sales pitch that can often be overlooked, content marketing allows you to communicate with your potential customers more personally, attracting them with relevant and entertaining content. But how do you determine what kind of content you should be developing? Here are 7 effective ways to start leveraging content marketing so that your business rises above the competition.
What is Content Marketing?
Before creating content, it is important to understand and identify what makes it different from standard digital marketing practices.
Content marketing is designed to draw your audience's attention with exciting, educational content rather than just a typical advertising campaign or promotion. This allows your business to stand out from its competition and connect deeper than standard sales tactics with your audience. By providing them with eye-catching and enjoyable content, you have a greater chance of keeping their attention and connecting with them long term.
1. Know Your Audience
Before spending hours creating content, you first need to identify your audience. What type of information will they find interesting and valuable? What problems can you solve for them? What social media platforms are they using? You will better understand what content you should be producing to capture their attention and keep them interested by answering these questions.
2. Create a Call to Action
A call to action is one of the most vital steps in all marketing practices. You did the work to get them here; make sure you give them direction on what to do next before they leave—for example, guiding them to your website at the end of an article, post, or video segment. Make sure your website provides them with a solid and professional representation of your business. Once they follow through on your call to action, it is your responsibility as a business owner to ensure the direction you gave leads them to a clear and concise way to secure their sale or contact.
3. Quality Always Wins
When it comes to quality or quantity, quality content always wins. Don’t waste time posting mediocre messages three times a week when the same time can be spent creating one killer message. Irrelevant or unappealing content can deter customers rather than attract them. Less is more when it comes to quality content. Make sure your content is something as a consumer you would enjoy so you aren’t wasting your time and assets.
4. Mix Things Up
Social media provides your clients with access to an array of similar businesses, so you want to stick out from the crowd. Make sure your message is entertaining to grab hold of their attention as they scroll through social media. Think of some of your favorite advertisements that stand out in your memory. Were they funny? Insightful? Inspiring? Plain text isn’t enough to capture their attention and keep it. Mix it up with funny graphics, video content, polls, and photographs.
5. Engage with your Audience
Creating content that will allow you to engage with your audience is a great way to start a conversation and give a more personal tonality to your business, allowing them to see the person behind the product or service. By interacting directly with your customers, you provide them with a sense of security and build a rapport that cannot be replaced by generic advertising. Create a post or blog and ask for feedback or interaction.
6. Include Keywords
You can optimize your content by including a few keywords to help clients find you. For a quick method to find terms and phrases your clients are searching for, simply type an idea in Google and scroll to the bottom of the results to see additional keywords.
7. Measure Success
Don’t forget to measure the success of your content marketing strategy by tracking the number of likes, views, and clicks you receive. The more engagement you have from viewers, the better chances to get solid leads to grow your business.
Content marketing can be a time-consuming process, but it’s necessary to help drive traffic to your website.
If you don’t have the time to dedicate to creating content, SYNDUIT can help! With SYNDUIT’s extensive campaign library loaded with informative and entertaining content, you can eliminate the guesswork and start marketing like an expert. Sign up today and take advantage of all of the marketing tools you will need to grow your business!