Best Practices For Creating A Winning Content Marketing Strategy
February 22, 2016 |
Jonathan Leger
Content marketing has become a discipline on its own. If done correctly, it can promote brand recognition and enhance lead generation. But crafting the best content for your online visitors is no simple task. There are plenty of things to consider before hitting that publish button. It pays to remember that you only have a few seconds to capture the interest of your readers, so ensuring that everything falls in their rightful places is a must. The following are some tips to help you set up a winning content creation strategy.
Understand Your Target Audience
When it comes to creating content, taking a customer-centric approach is of utmost importance. Many make the mistake of simply providing information about their business. But you should put yourself in the shoes of your potential customers. What kind of information are they looking for? What are their most commonly asked questions? Answering these questions can help you gather topic ideas and provide answers that will satisfy the queries of your online visitors.
Use The Right Online Platforms
Content marketing isn’t limited to publishing content on your website. Remember that there are several online platforms you can use to reach your target customers. But don’t just pick randomly. Use third-party tools to determine where your customers are spending most of their time online. For instance, you may find that you get better conversions on your email marketing campaigns compared to your marketing efforts in social media. Also, remember that you can’t simply use the same content for all the platforms you use. Do some testing and see what kind of content format and structure works best for each. If you face any issue doing so, hire web content development services to get visible results.
Provide Content To The Appropriate Buying Stage
Keyword research is an essential component of any content creation strategy. But you should stop looking at search volume and focus on search intent. The keywords used by your online visitors say a lot about where they are in the buyer’s journey. General keywords indicate that they’re at the stage where they simply gather information about the product. “Buyer” keywords or those that express a desire to purchase a product are used when consumers already know something about the product. When optimizing your content, be sure to analyze the keywords and provide the appropriate information that will guide your visitors toward the end of the purchasing process.
Develop A Distinct Personality And Style
A recent study shows that 62% of millennials attribute their loyalty toward a certain brand to its online content. When readers like your style of writing, there’s a good chance they’ll keep coming back. Having a distinct voice in the noisy online world can help increase brand recognition and generate a huge amount of loyal customers. Over time, you should be able to tell what kind of style your visitors prefer. It’s a matter of being consistent at using this style while maintaining the overall quality of your content.
Enhance Your Design
Today’s digital landscape has become largely a visual one. Videos amass thousands, even millions of hits within a day or two. Images are getting shared countless times. This only highlights the need to include rich media in your content in order to increase engagement rates. Several studies show that posts with photos and videos do a much better job of compelling visitors to stay on the site and share the content. While catchy titles, headlines and descriptions still play a critical role in your content marketing strategy, be sure to jump on the bandwagon and use photos and videos in your posts as well.
Once you’re done with all this, don’t forget to keep track of results and see whether there are areas that call for improvements. You may not get it right the first time, but by identifying your shortcomings and implementing the necessary changes, you should be well on your way to crafting content that drives organic search traffic, promotes brand recognition and ultimately boosts sales. Jonathan Leger has been a successful Internet Marketer for over 11 years. He owns an SEO Tools suite at KeywordCanine.com.
Related Posts: