Having an online presence is now a must for most companies. An easy way to put this into perspective is that it’s not optional anymore – you need to have a website, you need to update your social media profiles, you need content people will want to read, and you need to promote yourself or someone else on all these platforms!
Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing meaningful content to attract new audiences, grow audience loyalty, and earn attention for your brand (or that of another person).
The term “content marketer” was first used in 2005, but it really took off in the past five years. Why? Because technology makes producing and sharing content easier than ever before.
With the rise of the internet and mobile phones, anyone with a decent amount of money can create their own digital space. This includes blogs, Instagram accounts, YouTube channels, and more.
Using these mediums effectively requires some time and effort to produce quality content, however. Fortunately, you don’t need any special training to do so. In fact, you don’t even need much of a budget.
What You Need To Know As A Content Creator
There are several different types of content creators out there today. Some make videos or interactive games, while others write great blogs or supply pictures and stories for other people to share.
Content marketing strategy
As mentioned earlier, content is one of the most important strategies in content marketing. But how do you know what kind of content to create and where to send it?
The first step in developing your content marketing strategy is defining the goal or purpose of your business. This will help determine the type of content that needs to be created and the messages that need to be conveyed with each piece.
For example, if your business is online shopping, then creating products review posts may be more effective than creating an article about why people should use quality earbuds. Yours can also be goal oriented, such as “Top 10 reasons to start practicing yoga” or “8 tips for staying motivated during yoga workouts.”
After your goals have been determined, find out which areas of your business are lacking content. Some areas can easily become empty spaces waiting to be filled, so make sure not to leave any hole unfilled.
Once everything has been considered, choose the best time to put up new content. There is no wrong time to update your site, but make sure there is never too much. If necessary, organize content by month or season to keep things flowing.
Create marketing content
A lot of people get stuck in the content marketer’s rut of trying to create engaging, well-written stories that pander to what their audience wants to read.
Content marketers don’t just write words — they create texts, images, videos, or any combination thereof to convey an idea or message.
They may use tools or software to produce these products, but making content is always more than typing things out.
The most successful content creators do not have very many “Aha!” moments when creating new materials. They spend time developing ideas into tangible projects instead.
As a content creator yourself, you can start by brainstorming different types of content and choosing one important topic to practice on. Then, choose a medium to create your material and add some personal touches to make it special.
How to perform marketing research
As we have discussed, content is one of the most important marketing tools you can use. But how do you know if your audience is listening? How do you know if they are responding to what you are offering?
The best way to find out is through marketing research! This article will talk about some easy ways to conduct basic market research and how to assess the results.
First, let’s look at why conducting market research is so crucial to success in content marketing.
Why Conducting Market Research Is Important
Content marketers spend an average of eight hours per week creating new posts, developing promotional materials such as blogs and social media messages, and gathering material for existing posts. That’s over 20 hours every week!
But aside from the time investment, there is also cost involved in producing content.
Most businesses don’t have a huge budget to invest in content production, which is why conducting market research is so valuable.
By learning more about your business and its competitors, you can determine whether or not what you are offering has mass appeal and if others are doing similar things, you can pick their ideas and implement them or improve upon them.
This is especially true for beginners who may feel that everything is already done and/or nothing new can be tried.
Examples of content marketing
Creating high quality content to attract new audiences is an integral part of any successful content marketer’s strategy.
Content marketers create this high-quality content for three main reasons: to generate traffic to their website or product, to establish themselves as an expert in their field, and to reap the benefits of word of mouth marketing.
Traffic is the lifeblood of most websites, so creating useful, well-written posts to draw in new visitors is essential. Make sure your writing is clear and concise with adequate use of examples and illustrations where appropriate.
Establishing yourself as an online information source comes down to producing engaging, interesting content that people are willing to share.
Word of mouth marketing happens when individuals spread recommendations and ideas about products and services. If you want to see results from your efforts, then start generating some “shareworthy” content.
Take time each day to brainstorm potential topics and messages and schedule time to write consistently.
Time to plan your marketing campaign
Now that you have an understanding of what content marketing is and how it works, you can start planning your next step. You will now need to determine which areas of business you can create or update content for.
You may already have some resources in place such as a website or a social media account where you can begin creating content. If not, this is a great time to do so!
By having a strong online presence, people will be drawn to yours. Or perhaps you’re currently lacking one – starting today is the perfect time to get organized.
Creation of your content marketing plan
This is one of the most important steps in content marketing. You will want to make sure that you have mastered creating engaging, interesting, and informative content before moving onto other things.
Your first step in this process should be to determine what type of content you want to create. This could be an article or video focused on how to do something, a case study of companies with successful strategies, or even a testimonial or interview with someone who uses a product or service like yours.
After determining the genre, you can start looking through online sources for ideas. Many companies use their own creative talents to produce different types of content so searching social media sites, reading blogs, and listening to YouTube videos are all great ways to get inspiration.
Once you have a draft ready, schedule some time each day to produce the content. It may help to segment off times according to the different genres mentioned earlier.
Marketing campaigns
A marketing campaign is any activity that aims to increase customer interest in your products or services. With content marketing, this can include creating an online article, video, or other product related material (like Facebook ads).
Content marketing includes more than just SEO — it’s about producing meaningful messages for potential customers through various channels.
It’s all about being clear, honest, and engaging with what you say and how you say it. Your tone, body language, and level of enthusiasm will contribute towards whether people like and trust you or not.
With content marketing, instead of using advertisements to get attention, you use information to do so. This changes the way people perceive advertising, making it less effective.
A well-designed, informative piece of content will always be clearer and more interesting than a banner ad or TV commercial.
Testing your marketing campaigns
A lot of people talk about content marketing, but few actually do it! This is an important step in avoiding a downfall or nirvana for your business.
Content marketing isn’t something that happens overnight. It takes time to create enough content to ensure you are spreading your brand message and establishing yourself as an authoritative source.
But with the right tools, you can test your content quickly and easily. You don’t need special software to know if what you wrote resonated with your audience or not. There are simple ways to check this.
Google is a great place to start. They offer a tool called Keyword Tool which allows you to search for keywords related to your business and see how popular they are.
By adding these keywords to your article and then seeing whether traffic comes from Google or not, you can determine if your writing was successful and effective.