What is content marketing?

Dictionary.Com defines it this way:

A type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services.

There are so many strategies and tactics being thrown around that it makes it difficult to know where to focus for the best results. However, content marketing is one of the best places to start.

Content marketing helps you:

1 Attract customers who prefer to learn rather than be sold. (The majority.)

(Source: Why is Content Marketing Important.)

2 A way to show your expertise in your topic or subject.

3 You add value to your customer by providing information that helps them solve a problem.

4 You can use the content in many different ways to build your brand.

5. Sparks conversations with your customers or begins a word of mouth referral system.

Now that you can see the importance of content marketing let’s look the seven techniques you can use to power up your business.

1. Create valuable content

By posting good content on your blog you will get 77% more traffic and 97% more links than those businesses that do not.

Make sure that the content gives your customer or subscriber value.

Moreover, ask yourself if the content is on topic.

Don’t talk about the best coffee shops if you are focused on herbal teas.

Use lots of examples, graphics, and pictures to make your text more interesting.

Don’t be afraid to be controversial.

Ask introspective questions.

Make sure you post regularly. Create a posting schedule and stick to it.

Remember each piece of content you post to your blog, on your post cast, or video channel builds your authority, expertise, and brand.

2. Use Social Media to help you Connect with Your Audience

Facebook is one of the most powerful ways to connect with your audience.  I suggest you create a Facebook page or group so that people have a place to connect with you and others in your group.  By regular posting and interaction you can create strong relationships this will only strengthen your business

Statistics suggest that most people spend, on average, two hours a day on Facebook. With over a billion users this makes this platform a great place to find prospects and to engage with them.

Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram are all dynamic social media platforms where you can show off your content and attract more attention your business and brand.

A search on Google will quickly reveal many excellent E-books on how best to use each platform.

Focus on one or two platforms that most appeal to you.

Make sure you follow a posting schedule that supplements your blog.

For a great article on the best social media platforms for content marketing read:

The Best Social Media Platforms for Social Media Marketing in 2018

3. Remember to Use Keywords

Ninety-five percent of all purchases begin with someone searching for it on google.  However, if you properly Optimise your site by adding relevant keywords, you will be found more often by Google. This creates more sales and sign-ups. This will also increase your ranking and prove your trustworthiness and drive more organic traffic to your site.

Moz.com defines a keyword this way: Keywords are ideas and topics that define what your content is about.

As a blogger, I highly recommend Yoast as your go-to plugin for SEO.

4. Launch The Awesome Power Of Social Media Advertising.

Social media ads turn viewers into paying customers. “Paid Social Ads ” promotes your content to your target audience. With Facebook ads, for instance, you can target by country, age,  and interests. This makes Facebook, and other media platforms, a powerful way to reach your ideal or target customer.

These ads can be tailored to fit any budget.

You can easily scale your advertising. As revenue grows so does the budget you have available to purchase even more advertising.

My advice is to stay slow, experiment with your graphics and your message.

Then as you learn what works and you gain more confidence you can start to take bigger risks.

You don’t have to be a marketing guru to take advantage of this form of advertising to showcase your content and style.

Below is a brief synopsis of The 6 Most Effective Types of Social Media Advertising in 2018 posted in Big Commerce Incorporated. 

Note my highlight regarding using your content as a base for your advertising.

5. Use Valuable Content As Lead Magnets

This definition of a lead magnet is from Digital Marketer: 9 Lead Magnet Ideas

“Lead Magnet — noun — an irresistible bribe offering a specific chunk of value to a prospect in exchange for their contact information. The goal of the Lead Magnet is to maximize the number of targeted leads you are getting for an offer.”

Premium content offers ebooks and email courses produce 3 times the same number of leads as conventional “outbound” advertising… and it costs 62% less.

You’ve already created the content.

All you need to do is transform your work into a different media to create that high-value piece of content others are willing to give away their name and email for.

6. Include a Call to Action

Like most things in life, if we want something you need to ask.

Here’s a fact:  70% of businesses do not have a call to action on their homepage.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to have an opt-in form and a direct request to fill it out.

This works best if you have a free report to offer or something of value.

The best way to create a free report or lead magnet as it’s often called is to assemble something from your content marketing.

For instance, you might have a long article about creating a lead magnet. To help you, customers,s you create a short checksheet of your most important points and give that away as a free offer in return for thier name and email address.

It’s not necessary to create new content all the time. It’s important to learn how to reuse or repurpose all that content you create.

Remember all that creative work and time spend composing your content won’t do much good if it doesn’t call to your readers to take action.

7. Use Great Visual Elements

The purpose of using visuals in your content marketing relates to our growing need to quickly grasp or assess content. You need to grab attention quickly and graphics do that before your text has a chance to put in its hooks.

Visuals also help break up blocks of text which makes the text appear less intimidating to the reader.

The use of infographics is an excellent way to enhance your content marketing using a condensed mix of visuals and graphics.

In fact turning one of your longer pieces of content into a visual graphic is a great way to repurpose your content while giving you a great lead magnet to offer to potential subscribers or customers.

Summary

Content marketing is a critical part of growing your business, creating a brand identity and showing off your expertise so your subscribers and customer come to know like and trust you by the great and valuable content you create for them.

You may try to resist the need to be a content provider. You may claim you aren’t an artist.

But it’s long been established in our  new economy everyone is an artist:

Every human is an artist. The dream of your life is to make beautiful art.

Don Miguel Ruiz

Now it’s your turn to take up the mantle of the artist in you.

Get into action. (Remember: call to action.)

Go out and create a new piece of content to enhance your business and marketing now.

From reading this article what would you suspect is your biggest challenge to calling forth the artist within you? 

(article prepared by © Kerri Foster)

I am currently using a funnel called Funnel X Project.  This funnel is set up to help me earn from four different income streams at one time.  It builds your list first then has video directions in it to help people to set it up.  It also makes sales for you with a video sales presentation built in.  This system is currently making sign-ups for me.  You have nothing to lose give it a try today.  The funnel itself is worth money. Get the Funnel for Free Today!!!