Modern Content Marketing Guide

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is about sharing information that is helpful, relevant, and interesting to your specific target audience.

There are 4 types of content:

• Written word
• Audio
• Video
• Images

It’s your responsibility to make it useful. This is the most essential aspect. If your target audience doesn’t gain any value, it’s pointless creating content.

Your goal will be to assist them and to improve their quality life. You also want to be a thought leader, someone who they can trust to guide them through any challenges that may arise in your field of expertise.

One of the best methods to do this is content marketing.

Why should you invest in content marketing?

Content creates brand equity when it is carried out correctly. This means that your brand will become more valuable as you create more valuable content. Your brand will be viewed as a leader in its field if you provide value to your audience.

This creates a flywheel effect, where you generate more momentum and suddenly become the leader in your field.

Organic traffic is the core of how content can bring value to your business. This is how people find you via a search engine, such as Google or YouTube and then go to your content.

This traffic is fundamentally different to other types of traffic because they are actively searching for information about your business. This is how they found you: They were actively looking for information about your business.

You’re interrupting their work on multiple platforms. They are passive searchers, not active observers. This type of marketing is typically more difficult and more costly than other types of advertising (think Facebook ads and YouTube ads).

This is the key difference:

You must reach out to your target audience on these platforms. Your audience will find you through organic traffic.

These are just a few of the reasons you should be excited:

1. These people have a problem.
2. They are aware of the problem.
3. They are determined to solve the problem.

These are all essential ingredients to online sales. Content marketing is uniquely suited for developing and expanding your business.

Create a content marketing strategy

A Content Marketing Strategy is a strategy for growing an audience through the publishing, maintenance, and dissemination of consistent, educational, entertaining, or inspiring content. It aims to convert strangers into fans and customers.

This means that you are building relationships and solving problems.

Your content will become successful if you provide value to your readers and give them the information they require in order to solve their problem. You won’t succeed no matter how much you write or what your headlines or strategies say.

Even better, if your audience is aware of an issue they don‘t know about, and you offer a solution, you will create customers that last a lifetime.

They won’t mind if they find better solutions — but you’ll always be their authority because you helped others first.

Before you can start producing content like a pro you must do these three things:

1. Find out who your target customer is

It all starts with who your customer really is:

• What are they looking for?
• What are their struggles?
• What do they look like?

Before starting, it is important to fully understand your customer’s thinking. It is important to understand their language.

Start by researching to imagine your ideal customer.

The avatar or character you choose should represent the person you are trying to reach through your content. Based on this model, you should make proactive content decisions.

2. Find out what information they require

You now need to take their shoes off and follow their journey;

• What are the steps they must take in order to do business with your company?
• What information do they need before purchasing from you?
• In what particular order?
• How can you make your version the most powerful sales letter ever?

3. You can choose how you want to say it

Here you can get creative.

It is important to decide how you will communicate this information.

Which format should you use? Video? Or written?

Which stories should you tell? What tone and voice are most effective?

It is easier to identify your audience if you are more familiar with them.

You will ultimately need to trust your instincts and experiment endlessly.

You will find the right messaging over time and be able to succeed with content marketing.

Building an audience

Writing relevant, useful content on a topic is vital to building an audience. Both your writing and content can help you build relationships. Unashamedly share your unique voice with the rest of the world.

You must earn your audience before you can build it.

Your content must be compelling enough to merit the attention and time of others.

Your readers are bound to quickly lose interest if you publish average content.

It is possible that you have heard that today‘s people have shorter attention spans than the average. However, Stefanie Flaxman commented;

“I don’t believe we have limited attention spans. I think our tolerance to average is limited.”

This is the perfect example. Our audience doesn‘t have the time to consume content below-average or just-average anymore.

The first step in creating quality content worthy of attention is to create it. It’s not enough to just create it and post it.

Traffic is essential. In modern society’s content marketing environment, there’s no time for you to wait to be found. Your content needs to be given a boost.

Look at the online habits of your target audience and post your content there. Remember all the research you completed on your ideal customer?

Another option is to do paid advertising. This is a great way to get your content in front of a specific targeted audience. However, it is expensive and doesn’t guarantee your audience. Your content is not guaranteed to be liked or read by everyone who views it.

Borrowing traffic from someone else is a terrible way to generate traffic. It is important to understand how to pitch an article. You might publish a guest blog post on their website, or they may share something about your specific article on their personal social media.

Your network can be a great (and often a free) way for you to gain major distribution. Some people find it is all they need. Remember: Your target customer must be their audience. You would hate to be like everyone else. You want to be with your people.

Written word

The most popular and widely used form of content marketing is the written word.

Although there is a lot of written content out there, it doesn’t mean that you should ignore it in favour of more contemporary, fancy content.

Today, writing is more important than ever.

Blogging

Blogging is the best way to use writing as a content-marketing platform.

Blogs are where you, as thought leader or subject-matter expert write regularly about topics that interest your audience. There are many different types of blogs, and each one is unique. Anybody can possess one.

We are focused on how to use a blog for building relationships, gaining an audience, marketing and growing your content.

A blog should be available on your website. It should exist as either a subdomain or another section. It is very simple to create a blog from a technical perspective. Many website platforms already have a blog feature you can enable.

Three components make up a typical blog:

• Posts
• Tags
• Categories

Your written text is the post. It can be thought of as one episode, or a unit of content. Usually, there is one topic covered throughout the entire post. Your content should be an extension and extension of yourself. Start paying more attention to what you enjoy about the content. Reverse-engineer it. This will help you attract like-minded people so that you can build the right type of audience.

SEO

Search engine optimisation refers to the tweaking of your content in order to rank higher in search engine results. A search engine’s goal is to give you the most relevant information to any question, sentence or query that you enter.

They can serve more ads to you if they do this more often. This is how they create money. It’s also how most free platforms on the internet tend to work.

How do they decide what is relevant?

Indexing is the act of cataloging all web pages that exist (also called indexing).

A search engine robot will periodically “crawl” your website, looking through each page, image, word, and links to find your presence within the online world. Search engines can analyse the content of your website and classify you, saving you information for later. This is why Google often shows you millions of results when you do a search. You’ll see every website that has any mention of the keyword you entered.

None of them is read. The majority of people never read the entire book. This raises the question: “How do you even get to the first page?”

Google will know all about your blog’s content. This can be done in a number of ways. Your blog should be focused on a single topic. A search engine will be more likely to show your page if your content is more focused.

Next, think about what someone might enter into a search engine. If you write an article about retirement tips for people within their 30’s and they search for “how to save money for retirement in my 30’s” or “retirement advice.” After you have brainstormed several phrases, choose the one that you want to be your focus.

It doesn’t have to be mentioned in every single paragraph. However, it should be prominently featured in both your title and your first paragraph. Your main goal is to be as relevant and useful as possible for one topic.

You’ll earn a reputation in search engines as being relevant. This will result in even more traffic and a better reputation which in turn leads to a higher rank. This is a flywheel effect which can drive thousands of people to your website and build your business entirely on its own.

Copywriting

Copywriting is the art and science of using written words to persuade, engage, compel, or compel others. Copywriting is engaging when you see the written word in advertising.

A skilled copywriter can make your content marketing more effective and efficient. It is the big difference between a reader being bored and sharing your personal content with everyone they can.

Over-think your headlines

The headlines of great writers are their obsession. This is the single thing that will determine whether your content gets read. It doesn‘t matter if you have the best content in the universe. But a boring headline or weak headline will make it irrelevant.

A headline that is compelling, clear, and specific is a successful one. It should tell the reader what to expect and tease them about what’s included inside.

The headline must also be qualified to your reader. It should therefore attract your targeted audience. A vague headline can lead to readers reading the headline and thinking it applies to them. But it will not. They will feel manipulated. This is crucial. This is not about getting everyone to click on your article. This is meaningless. This makes your article meaningless.

Spend extra time, hours, or even days to get your headline perfect.

Send a note to a specific person

It potentially could be an ideal customer you have created or a real person who matches the criteria of your target audience.

Whatever your preference, imagine this person writing:

• What are their struggles?
• What are their experiences?
• What would you say to them if they were to sit down at a coffee shop?

Once you are clear, send them a letter. You don’t need to be professional or follow all the grammar rules. Write as if you were there in a cafe, or as if you are writing a personal email to them. Your writing will be more personal without fail and you’ll have stronger relationships with your readers and audience. You will make them feel as if you are speaking directly to them. This is the type of writing that your audience will love to share, read and purchase.

Keep it simple

It’s mainly about simplifying things so your reader understands what you are talking about. This includes not using technical jargon or long, well-structured sentences.

Instead, separate your sentences. Simply state your point. The easiest and most effective way to communicate what you want to say is the best. Your reader will be forced to read your writings and may become confused. They then don’t do any of these things. They don’t read or share and they also don’t buy anything.

This is not what you want. Keep your writing short and to the point.

Email

Although email may sound old-fashioned, it is still one the most powerful and effective forms of marketing. It is a direct connection with your target audience. It’s an act of trust when they provide their personal contact information.

Building a list

Building your list should be the focus of all content marketing strategies.

If someone finds your content, they will stay on your site to read it and maybe look around a bit before leaving. Rarely, they may even purchase from you that first time they visit.

You don’t have a way to reach them. You rely on them to remember what you wrote and return on a regular basis to share it with others.

You can reach them if you have their email address. You can reach them anytime, anywhere you like. Your target audience becomes tangible and real. You should aim to achieve real business results through your content and not just a few followers or readers. This doesn’t make you rich. You need to find a way for them to receive their email address before you leave. This is your main goal.

You have a few options, but the best is to give something in return for their email address.

Your topic is what you should be thinking about. What are the problems that someone reading your blog or article is having? Which problem could you help them solve?

This will allow you to create content that you can give away for free.

Here are some ideas:

• A PDF checklist
• A mini-course
• Free lesson or video from a course
• Free sample
• Consultation or call for free
• A free quote

It’s important to ensure that your product is relevant and attractive to your target audience. This can be achieved by testing several options over time to find the best one.

Automation

When used properly, automation is one of your most powerful and time-saving tools.

It is easy to understand: After an action occurs, you define a series that will occur. For example, opting in for your free content or purchasing a product. These steps could include adding a tag to an email, sending an email or waiting for a period of time. However, depending on which platform you use, there are more options.

It’s almost like having a team of salespeople who work around the clock to sell your product or virtual version yourself greeting each person who walks into your shop.

Newsletters

Email newsletters can be compared to newspapers and journal publications.

You send emails to your readers with news updates or other interesting information. Your newsletter can be used for almost any purpose. Your newsletter could be used to inform your subscribers about new content you create each week. This could be a quick email with encouragement or an inspiring quote. There are many possibilities.

A newsletter is essential if you are looking to grow your audience. Regular communication is essential for any type of relationship. This is exactly what your newsletter does — it maintains and improves your relationship with your audience over a period of time.

How can you achieve this? You must continue to add value.

Your subscribers aren’t just here for entertainment. While that might be a part of it, in general they are paying attention to you because they get some benefit from you, some value. You must keep giving them advice, tips and help. Or they will get bored and go elsewhere. It is the worst thing that you can do to waste people’s time. Don’t let them down. Make your newsletter outstanding by putting in extra effort.

Social media content marketing

Social media is used by more Americans than any other medium. The average American spends over two hours per day on it. Because of its widespread usage and low barriers to entry, it is a perfect candidate for your content marketing efforts.

Three things are essential to use social media effectively:

• Sharing
• Consistency
• Engagement

Sharing

Social media is a social sharing platform. To get more engagement. People become motivated to share funny, thoughtful, or interesting content. You want to make your content shareable on social media.

Also, you need clear and user-friendly visuals. This means that you need clear images so that it is easy to see the text and understand what’s happening.

Your content should be bold, big, and bright. It must be entertaining. Social media is all about emotion. Otherwise, it won’t get shared. Happiness, anger, amazement, hilarity. Share your content if it triggers any of these big emotions. You can use this to your advantage.

Consistency

Consistency is key, no matter which content marketing platform you use. It’s part of the territory.

Your audience should be trained on what to expect of you. This means posting regularly, but with consistent content so that they can instantly recognise it in your feed. This is a great way to build a brand and a community that will improve your engagement.

Engagement

Engagement is the key to social media. Real people are on the other side of the line and can view your content, comment on it, like it, or share it with their friends.

It is a clever way to connect directly with your audience and create a tribe. A group of people who share the same beliefs and work together for a common goal. You can do this through social media. It all starts with creating the content that your ideal customer would like to interact with and then responding to every comment.

This creates a close-knit community that is connected to your brand.

Conversion rate optimisation (CRO)

Conversion rate optimisation refers to the process of improving the conversion rate on a website. Your conversion rate is a critical metric for online businesses. It is the sum of the number who sign up or purchase and the number who visit the page.

Online marketing can lead to you falling into the trap of focusing too much attention on gaining more visitors. It is easy to believe that more traffic will solve all your problems. This mad rush to get more traffic can lead to a lot more money and more energy.

While I don’t think you should ignore increasing traffic, it shouldn’t be your only or most important focus.

1. Sign up for email

It is simple to increase the conversion rate of your pages by adding an email signup form. This can be done regardless of the content.

A blog post or guide can be used as an opt-in email. This will increase your conversion rate and help your audience. This gives them the opportunity to gain even more value from you and thus deepen their relationship.

Sometimes your customers aren’t always ready to buy from you on your sales pages. This is a huge commitment, so they must already like and trust you. You’re offering them an opportunity to opt in for something free. This gives them a less riskier way to engage with you. Although it’s still a commitment to make, it is a smaller one that will allow you to serve them well and give you another chance to follow-up on the sale.

They’ll leave if they don’t, and you won‘t be able to re-engage them (unless you retarget them with marketing  ads which is much more costly than email marketing).

2. Make a strong call for action

Your call to action (CTA), is what you want your website visitors to do. You want them to buy, sign up and download if possible, etc.

Firstly, your successfully designed page will not perform if your CTA is unclear, inconsistent, or not specific enough. Your CTA must be a direct action that your visitor can easily take.

The second is to repeat your CTA throughout the rest of page. It should be included throughout your page, so that it is easy to find when someone clicks on the button.

Third, you should keep your CTA consistent in both language (and if using a button or a colour) This reinforces the action you want them take and essentially trains them in what you want them to do. Your website visitors will start to get confused if you change the colour or even text in your CTA.

3. Speed up your pages

Another important factor in your conversion rate is the speed at which your page loads. Several studies have shown that the slower your page takes to load, the more people that will leave. These results were:

• Pages loaded in 2.4 seconds had an average conversion rate of 1.9%
• Conversion rate of 1.5% was achieved at 3.3 seconds
• Conversion rate was less than 11% at 4.2 seconds
• Conversion rate of 0.6% was achieved at 5.7+ seconds

If your pages don‘t perform as you expect, it could be that they are loading too slowly.

 

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