In 1996, Bill Gates wrote an essay with a now-infamous title, “Content is King”. In 2020, content domination is still very much a reality. Content, and more specifically content marketing, is an integral part of growing your business online.
From email campaigns to blogs to informational ebooks and webinars, your content is how you communicate your brand voice & vision to the world.
As we close out Q1, now is the perfect time to reassess your marketing plan and strategies for 2020. Even now, it’s not too late to have content marketing success. Here are 5 tips to help you quantify your digital marketing efforts & finish the year out strong.
Start With a Strategy
Begin with the end in mind. How can you create a plan if you don’t even know where you want to end up? Be specific with your content marketing goals. What do you want to achieve for your business? And how can content help you do that? Set S.M.A.R.T. goals for optimal success. Goals should be:
- Specific – What do you want to accomplish?
- Measurable – How will you measure your goals?
- Attainable – Goals should be challenging, yes. But NOT unrealistic.
- Reasonable – Make sure goals align with your company’s vision.
- Time-Bound – Give goals a specific deadline & stay on track.
Do your homework. If you’re stuck on what content to create, look to Google for help. Keyword research is essential, but so is keeping up with the trends in your industry for inspiration. A few more tools for content research include social media, forums & message boards, and idea generators like Answer the Public, a website that suggests topic results based on what people are actually searching for.
Look to the past. To be clear, the marketing strategy & tactics that worked for your business in 2019 can still work in 2020 but you need to take stock. Take a look at the content you already have in addition to searching for new topics.
Where did you spend your time, attention, and budget dollars?
What results did you get from these efforts?
What results do you want to see?
The answers to these questions will fuel your content moving forward. Find what’s working and replicate its success by expanding on it, or better yet, repurposing it. Find out what’s not working & cut it out of your strategy.
Outline the future. The easiest way to keep on track for content marketing success is to have a clear, long-term plan of action. Start with the big picture in mind by outlining content for the whole year. Then, move monthly, breaking down topics & themes around holidays, promotions, and any product or service launches you may be having. Then, create your editorial calendars.
Tips for Success
Be authentic. The key to creating great content is making sure that, regardless of the topic, your brand’s values & vision is truly expressed. Consider the tone of your content, is it playful or serious? Casual or direct? What type of language will you use? Savvy? Simple? Fun? Finally, with every piece, define your purpose. Do you want to inform or sell? Engage or entertain?
Keep your audience in mind. One surefire way to craft engaging content is to think, first and foremost, about who will be reading. Understand the demographics of your audience or you risk alienating them. This goes back to looking at what content has already done well for you & replicating that success.
Amplify your voice. In addition to publishing on your website or blog, you want to make sure your content gets as many eyes on it as possible. Post on social media, amplify it in email, break it down in graphics, etc. If you see you’re getting a lot of engagement, consider running paid ads to further boost your message. Do what you can to push content as far as possible.
Reassess & repurpose. Once your content has been published you want to be sure you have as many eyes on it as possible. Think about turning a blog post into an infographic or turning a video into several social media posts. Again, it’s all about taking what works breathing new life into it.
Focus on conversions – In a general sense, you always want to make sure your content has clear a clear CTA (call to action). But if you see that a particular piece of content is getting more traction than normal, add more than just a contact button. Consider creating a lead magnet to get email subscribers & push prospective customers further into your sales funnels.
What Next?
If you want to learn how to work content into your marketing strategy, schedule a 15-minute discovery call with Smart Girl Digital. In it, we’ll discuss the perfect digital strategies & services to help grow your business.
