Jock Breitwieser — April 17, 2020 
RyanMcGuire / Pixabay
Millions of pieces of new content show up on the Internet every day, but a very small percentage of it ever gets seen by consumers. When it comes to content marketing, no article, video, social media post, or sound clip makes a bit of difference if no one sees it. No matter what type of business you operate, you probably have struggled with getting a lot of attention to your content before. With the tips listed here, you can turn that problem around and make every piece a part of comprehensive content marketing strategies that fuel growth and profits.
1. Create Content Marketing Strategies With a Goal in Mind
The overall goal of any business is to make more money and help consumers get the products or services they want and need. Although this makes sense, it is not specific enough to fuel a smart content marketing plan. Instead, every piece should have a set goal that it is supposed to accomplish on its own. These may include search engine optimization (SEO) for driving traffic or link building, providing important information to improve brand reputation, entertaining visitors so they are more likely to come back, or directly selling something you have to offer.
2. Target All Content Marketing to a Specific Audience
If you do not know who you are producing a blog article, Instagram post, tweet, or video for, how will you know what to put in it to get the best response possible? Studying your audience, the consumer groups most likely to buy your products or services, and those eager for the type of information or entertainment you provide is an integral part of any business strategy. It is equally important when creating content.
Identifying your audience depends primarily on the collection and analysis of visitor and buyer demographic and geographic data. Where do your fans come from, how old are they, and what are they most interested in? Use this information in your content marketing strategies to deliver the most effective formats and solutions. Consider using buyer personas to further segment your audience and create specific content for their needs and interests.
3. Choose the Most Effective Formats and Platforms
Statistics may say that video is higher on the list of audience engagement then blog posts are these days, but that does not mean you should focus on it to the exclusion of all other content marketing types. Younger demographics use Instagram more than Facebook, but that does not mean you should ignore that the largest social media platform in the world. However true these statements are, they also do not mean that you should simply do all types of content and spread it out as much as possible without a plan. That wastes time and resources.
After targeting content marketing strategies as described above, you have to determine formats and platforms most likely to attract the type of attention you need. Research helps at the beginning, but an organized system of A/B testing, data analytics, and experimentation also helps fuel your final decisions.
4. Focus on Quality Over Quantity, But Post Frequently, Too
Remember those millions of new pieces of content mentioned in the first paragraph? Since most of them never get any attention, there must be something wrong with them. When a business focuses on quantity alone in its content marketing plan, they failed to have any articles, social media posts, videos, or other pieces of content that truly engage the people that matter. In order to do so, focus on delivering high-quality, interesting, entertaining, and valuable content instead.
This does not mean you can create the most stunning video or excellent blog post, put it up online, and it will go viral and keep attracting paying customers forever. Quantity still matters. As part of your content marketing strategies, it makes sense to plan how many pieces to post and how frequently you will post them. It needs to be often enough to keep your audience engaged so they do not forget you from one time to the next.
5. Create a Reliable Content Marketing Schedule or Calendar
If you create quality content, your audience wants to know when more will show up. Top bloggers, YouTube stars, and social media influencers have regular schedules that people can rely on. If your targets know that they will get a new informational blog post from you every Tuesday at noon, they will show up to see what you have to say. If your subscribers expect the new video on Monday and Saturday, and you fail to deliver, they will stop visiting your channel and move on to someone who gives them the content they want.
Effective content marketing strategies involve organization and expectation management. Not only are you providing the textual, video, or audio the people want, you are also clearly demonstrating that they can rely on you. Building trust like that with a simple content marketing schedule benefits your business overall.
When it comes to marketing effectively with content, a lot of different elements come into play. You do need to understand search engine optimization (SEO), have a strong link-building strategy, research and share topics effectively to keep people interested, and more. With all these tips and your full understanding of your target audience, the content you create will not sink into oblivion like so many others.
This article was previously published on SocialSellinator’s blog
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