*Drum roll. There’s a new buzzword in town, 2013 is the year for ‘content marketing’.
You’ll hear it vocalised in the corridors of digital industry, it will be mentioned many more times than both the words ‘ROI’ and ‘measure’.
You’ll hear it and by the end of 2013 I guarantee you’ll be sick of it.
SEO and social media have had their rein at the top move so over for the new blood that is content marketing!
Now that’s out the way we can proceed. Having a proper outlined content strategy for your business is actually a great way to promote your business online and establish your authority around your products and services.
To keep it very simple you are using your content online as a means to drive more traffic and convert more customers into buyers.
Many rent-a-marketers are well aware of this fact and they’ll be pushing this service like it’s a supermarket’s buy one get one free offer.
Be aware that simply doing a few guest posts or creating average content and posting it on your business blog isn’t really going to cut the mustard.
Just like with anything, it will take effort, commitment and a sensible investment of both money and time if you want to see true results.
It should not be the only thing you are doing in 2013 to promote your business online, nor is it a substitute for SEO or any other form of digital marketing.
18 Important Things you need know about Content Marketing:
- You know your business better than anyone else. You should be the one creating great content around it.
- Good writers cost money. They aren’t cheap.
- An infographic – is a graphic containing information that is nicely designed to present the information in a neat way.
- You don’t need to invest into expensive infographics campaigns
- Let your customers share in the creation of content – invite participation, feedback and interaction
- If the words ‘analytics’ or ‘measurement’ are not mentioned in your content strategy then you are not off to a good start.
- Content is not a replacement for good SEO
- One truly great piece of content is better than 100 average pieces of content
- Creating content isn’t expensive just time consuming
- Guest posting isn’t content marketing
- Keep it visual. Keep it informative
- Can’t design. Hire a designer
- Your company is content rich you just have to look for it
- Don’t hand it off to your interns or junior staff
- Don’t be boring. Tell stories through your content.
- Content isn’t just reams of text
- Images are louder than words
- Your own staff are experienced content creators
Start Me Up
Where do you start?
Personally, I would start by looking at your products and services.
What do you do differently to everybody else? Got it? Great!
Start by telling stories about your customers, your business, your products and your services.
I did not say make it up, please keep it honest and stay truthful.
What information could you create that would be interesting, relevant, entertaining or useful to your audience online? I’m doing mine right now in this very blog post!
To give you an example; a florist online might create the following content:
- Video – How to Beautifully Arrange Flowers
- Blog post – What Flowers to Buy Your Long Suffering Wife
- Infographic or Image – The Most Popular Types of Flower Bouquets in 2013
- PDF – Simple Tips for Keeping Your Flowers Looking Healthy and Lasting Longing
- E-mail – Why Flowers are the Best Gift to Give in 2013
See how hard that was really! I’m no florist but if I was one I’d probably run with some of those ideas. A real florist could properly come up with some better ideas if they gave it a bit of thought.
Creating a Digital Library of Assets
Once content is created it can be used time and time again in different places online. I like to think of it like a digital library, accessible anytime.
Gurus will call it ‘evergreen’ content, like the evergreen trees. Frankly, I just find that plain confusing calling it that.
What I’m not saying here is go publish the same blog post 100 times on a 100 different websites. That will likely lead to some major red flags with many search engines. You don’t want your website rankings penalised.
What I’m saying is create a video and put it into an e-mail campaign. Send it to your customers. Share it on Twitter. Publish it to Facebook. Play it at a meeting.
Look at your business, there is content all around you. A collection of blog posts can be turned into an Ebook. White Papers can be turned into the statistics used to create an infographic. FAQs can be used for creating How to Videos.
The list is endless. The most important thing you need to remember about creating content is to have fun with it.
Content should never be boring. If you enjoyed creating it the likelihood is people will enjoy consuming it.
If your customers can create killer content for you then you’re really on to a winner!
Good luck and if you need my help you know where to find me.
Photo Credit Library By Paul Lowry
Photo Credit Keyboard by Adikos
