If you don’t have content, it’s very hard to attract potential customers to your website. Blog content can pull in organic search engine traffic as well as be used as a content asset for paid campaigns.
Social media content can pique organic interest as well as be promoted via each channel’s advertising options.
The point is, you need content. Many business owners only think of blog posts when they hear the word “content” but it’s much more than that. Content comes in many formats and is used multiple ways. But the goal remains the same: attract and convert.
If you can’t attract, then you have no chance of converting traffic into sales. If you aren’t generating sales then you aren’t generating income, which spells the death of your business.
To help you take full advantage of content marketing, here are twelve tips you can implement starting right now that won’t cost you an arm and a leg. They are all very effective, so test, measure and adjust to see how you can grow your business through content marketing.
Following these content marketing tips to see great results..
1. Think beyond just your blog.
Five years ago, when someone said, “You need to create content,” they were referring to blog posts. It was the first content platform that people started to really focus on. Now there are several: video content platforms like YouTube, dozens of social media channels, etc.
Think about five years ago. Facebook wasn’t as big, and Instagram was at about 30 million users, compared it its 800+ million users today. As platforms grow their user base, they become content marketing areas of focus.
Today, you can’t ignore video content and you surely can’t ignore social media. Your blog should still be a major focus, as it gives your website visitors something to engage with when they land, regardless of how they got there. Organic search opportunities are still abundant as well, so continue to blog, but just think beyond just your blog.
2. Develop your voice and maintain it across all content formats and channels.
This is something I have personally worked on since I started SerpLogic, which was just a blog in the beginning. I was very raw and real, and set out to expose the bull shitters and fake SEO gurus out there that were publishing content with false information.
I had nothing to lose. When I started blogging I wasn’t trying to sell anything. I was just voicing my opinion and telling it how it was. I wasn’t scared of backlash, which is why I believe my “voice” was developed very early on.
If you are just starting out, the best advice I can give is to let your true personality come through. Don’t try to please anyone or hide behind a conservative voice. Be authentic and you will quickly develop a voice. The more authentic you come across, the larger and loyal your following will become.
3. Publish content with a ‘viral’ element.
Since I run an SEO agency and focus on marketing topics for my blog, my most popular content must be related to marketing tips and strategies, right? Yes, but with a twist.
Some of my most popular (and profitable in terms of ROI) content in based around UFC fighter Conor McGregor. He was, and still is, a very popular topic in the news, so having him as the subject, even in a marketing theme piece of content helped to attract eyeballs to it.
Many businesses think they can write a marginal blog and then just throw $50 at a promoted Facebook post and expect results. Facebook’s newsfeed is very competitive. You need to stand out, and in my case, the Conor McGregor themed articles really stood out, especially against other marketing articles.
4. Re-publish on LinkedIn and Medium to reach a larger audience.
Years ago, there was fear when it came to content and re-publishing it. SEO gurus drove fear into the minds of business owners about posting the same content elsewhere. Look at the largest websites in the world. They re-publish content from other websites multiple times a day. They always credit the source in the beginning, linking to the original article, and they also publish it after the original article has been indexed by Google.
If you write a great article, leverage it and get it out there in front of more readers. LinkedIn is very popular now and there is a lot of attention to be found there. Medium has also become a very popular blogging platform, with a large audience.
Re-post you content here, and if you are really worried about SEO backlash, include a link to the original post on the first line and wait a week after it is indexed. The audience on Medium and LinkedIn is too large to ignore.
5. Use visual content to deliver your message and push traffic towards your conversion goal.
Visual content and long-form content have different abilities and uses. It’s very hard to get visual content ranked organically without text. If you have a great infographic or a compelling video, you are going to need some text in order for Google to rank it.
When you learn how to leverage both together you can really see your results improve. You can create a long-form blog post that targets and ranks for a dozen keywords and search terms and then direct that traffic to visual content that is designed to push the visitor to a conversion.
An example would be a 3,000-word post about a topic that has several internal links that send traffic to an infographic or video that has only one option, whether it’s a direct purchase or an opt-in form submit.
6. Manage your content publication and schedule just like every other part of your business.
Imagine if you ran your entire business without structure or a schedule? You would fail miserably, so why do so many business owners fail to have structure when it comes to their content marketing efforts?
You need to be publishing content on a consistent basis, for both your website visitors and the search engines. Having frequent new content posted ensures that your repeat visitors have something new to engage with each visit, and it also tells the search engines that your website is constantly updated.
At the very least, install a content scheduling plugin that allows you to create an editorial calendar and see what your content looks like a month out. This way you will never skip a beat and have content loaded up and scheduled to drip out far in advance. Automation when it comes to content publishing is a major time saver, especially for one-man operations.
7. Re-purpose your most successful blog posts from years ago into new formats.
While current events change often, core information related to your business generally remains the same for several years. Five years ago, most content created was in the form of blog posts. You can easily dive into your Google Analytics and find your best performing posts from years back and then turn them into different formats of content, like infographics and videos.
You can use organic visits and time spent on each post as key indicators, and if you have goals set up, you can use conversions as well. The blog posts will have all of the information all ready, making it very easy for a video creator or infographic designer to churn out a piece of visual content for you. You can then distribute the new format across all channels, leveraging the topic’s popularity to generate new business.
8. Curate and share valuable content from time to time.
A lot of people don’t like to share content that is written by other people or companies. Why? Well, they think it could potentially push sales to another company, which is always a possibility, but it can do far more good for your business, and I will explain why.
When you are sharing information from other sources and outlets, it automatically transforms you from a business promoting itself to a business that is informing and educating, which more consumers appreciate and therefor reward, with business.
I’m not saying that you need to tweet out articles that have been published by your competitors, but if an authority source like Forbes or Business Insiders published something related to your business then go ahead and share it. It makes you look more credible.
9. Publish content on the platforms where your target audience is active.
Not everyone is going to find your business through a Google search and land on your blog organically. Now, with competition in the SERPs ultra difficult, you need to cleverly place your content in front of your target audience using paid promotion.
While Facebook is an option that will apply to almost every business, it’s getting very costly, so I would suggest finding as many options as possible and diversifying your platforms. When some hear this advice, they think that means “be found on all” platforms and they end up wasting ad spend on platforms their audience isn’t even on.
If you are targeting moms, then Pinterest would be a great option. If you are targeting college kids, then Snapchat would be a better option. Go where you know your audience is active.
10. Learn how to tell a story — not just regurgitate information.
Over the past couple years influencers on social media have exploded in popularity. There are regular people with twenty million followers, much more than typical celebrities. Why? It’s because they are amazing story tellers.
You need to adapt the same way of thinking, whether you are blogging, posting on social media or creating a video series. When you master telling a story, you are able to draw attention and then distribute that attention as you see fit.
I was very open with my story and blogged openly about selling my previous SEO agency and then pivoting a blog into my second agency that now does over seven-figures a year. If you have a unique story put it out there and watch the attention you can command.
11. Share your content over and over.
If you publish a piece of content and share it across all over your social media, you need to be fully aware that less than 10% of your audience will see it. So, if you have a collective audience of 5,000 followers, the maximum number of people that will see it is 500 and it might even be significantly lower than that.
So many people rush to publish content and then share it on social media and completely forget about it, instead moving onto the next post. You have to share a post a minimum of six to ten times if you want to maximize the chance of a significant portion of your following actually seeing it.
This is why it’s much better to publish higher quality posts less frequently and re-sharing your old content to fill the gaps. Use a tool like Hootsuite to make your life easier. You can schedule the original share and then multiple shares throughout the next few months.
12. Write titles that grab attention in a very crowded space.
Your title is the only thing that is going to help you stand out and get someone to even consider reading your content. I will use the title of this blog post as an example:
A Dozen Must-Do Content Marketing Tips to Help You Get Your Piece of The Pie
I could have used something simple and to the point, like:
12 Content Marketing Tips to Help Your Grow Your Business
I decided to use the word “dozen” instead of the numeral 12 because it makes the reader pause and then dive more into the title. Rather than “grow your business” I used “get your piece of the pie” because it’s not traditional in terms of expressions used in titles.
Now, if someone is on Facebook and scrolling through their feed and come across several marketing-themed pieces of content being promoted I am going to stand out and at least attract the click-through.
The content and message is what will eventually determine whether or not a sale or lead is generated, but you have to first attract the initial click, which is what your title is responsible for.
Conclusion
Remember years ago, when everyone was screaming “CONTENT IS KING” at the top of their lungs? Well, not much has changed since then. Content marketing is still the main focus of many businesses, and while some of the platforms and strategies used have changed, the concept remains the same as it always has been.
Create something interesting and useful, and then use that to attract attention to your business. That value provided acts as an ice breaker and creates instant credibility and trust. When you have that, consumers are much more apt to purchase from you.
Even after all of these years, many businesses still don’t have a solid content marketing strategy. They wing it, and then wonder why the results don’t follow. To win at content marketing you need a good strategy, but you also must be consistent. You can’t expect to toss up a couple blog posts and watch the sales pour in.
The tips I explain above don’t require a Fortune 500 marketing budget. In fact, they really don’t require much more than some time and a little bit of dedication. They can all contribute to sizable business growth, so it’s worth investing some time into experimenting with everything above to see what works best for your business.
Are you currently seeing success from your content marketing efforts? What is working for you at the moment? I’d love to hear what strategies you are currently using, so drop a comment below.
