Four Steps to Content Marketing Success

Are you content with your content? According to the Content Marketing Institute, 92 percent of marketers view content as a business asset. Yet 70 percent lack a consistent or integrated content strategy.

Content marketing is the process of creating high-quality, valuable content to attract, inform, and engage an audience, while also promoting the brand itself. Great content is relevant and useful. It educates, entertains, and emotionally connects. People want to watch it, read it, share it. To the consumer, it doesn’t feel like marketing.

Help your organization master content marketing by following the advice of these four articles:

1. How To Make A Solid Content Marketing Strategy On A Shoestring Budget

Content marketing continues to rise in popularity and necessity. Curata reports that 75 percent of marketers are increasing their investment in the method. But let it be known—content marketing does NOT require a big team or a big budget.

The first step? Start writing. Aim to post new content once a week at a set time.

As you begin to develop content, simultaneously create a plan to repurpose it. Experts recommend spending as much time repurposing your content as you do creating it.

Transform a customer question into a survey, a blog post into a video, or a white paper into an infographic. To maximize your reach and payoff per piece, share everything you create with relevant audiences on social media.

2. How To Write Compelling Copy: 7 Tips For Writing Content That Converts

It’s not easy to come up with a new (and useful) idea every day or every week. Time is precious. Writer’s block is real. No matter the obstacle, you CAN create impactful content and these seven tips WILL help.

Bookmark this article and use it as a checklist to ensure your content is effective. Will your audience benefit from what you share? Does it include a tailored call-to-action? Do you use generalities or empty words?

Also, if a piece of content falls flat, don’t be deflated. Try, try again.

3. Cooking Up Great Content? Hire A Soup Taster

Another way to make sure content measures up? Find yourself a soup taster. Creatively named by Alan Schulman, a soup taster acts as a litmus test for your content. One might also call this individual an editor.

If resources exist, hire someone to evaluate content and offer feedback. If not, create a small internal team who can regularly and reliably review your work. Two heads are always better than one.

4. Five Keyword Types Small Business Owners Need To Track For Social Media And Web Monitoring

Way to go! Content is flowing out of your brain and onto the web. Now it’s time to show the value of your investment.

Only 30 percent of leading marketers feel they are effective at measuring content marketing’s impact. But rest assured, tracking performance doesn’t require a big team or expensive tools. Expert Aleh Barysevich recommends monitoring five key elements: 1) your brand name, 2) the names of figureheads within your organization, 3) relevant keywords and hashtags, 4) your industry, and of course, 5) URLs of the content you share.

Takeaway

More than 40 percent of companies are increasing their investment in content marketing. Is your organization one of them?

No matter the size of your team or your budget, you can create and share compelling content. Write, repurpose, review, repeat. A captive audience awaits…

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