Content marketing can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be.
The key is doing the necessary work before you write a single blog post. That work consists of four separate but equally important tasks:
Category: Content Marketing
Plan your content production in advance!
When starting out with content marketing, and blogging in particular, many people struggle with when and how often to post. And on top of that, there is always the question of what to write about.
If you wait until the last minute to write a blog post, you’ll most likely spend far too long staring at a blank screen, waiting for inspiration to strike. And, if you’re like most people, you’ll be putting so much pressure on yourself to come up with something brilliant that you might as well pull up a chair for your writer’s block, because it’s guaranteed to show up.
Beyond the Inbox: Adding Content Marketing to the Mix
Maybe your email campaigns are no longer delivering the results you’ve come to expect. Or maybe you’ve been trying to grow your email list, but new subscribers have been few and far between.
So you’ve given it a lot of thought, and have decided to try something different. You’re ready to go beyond the inbox, and add content marketing to overall marketing strategy.
Not sure where to start? Here are five steps to get you going:
1. First and most importantly: Gain a deep understanding of your target audience. Some key questions to ask yourself:
- How well do you know your audience?
- What are their interests?
- Which blogs or other content are they already consuming?
- What do they want?
- What are their problems, and how can you help solve them?
2. Once you have the answers to the questions above, you can start brainstorming content ideas. Your content should be targeted to your audience, and their problems and interests, but beyond that, don’t limit yourself. Think big in regards to the kinds of topics and categories you might cover. And don’t forget to consider the various ways you can communicate your work as well: blog posts/articles, videos, webinars, infographics…
3. Set up an editorial calendar to organize your content production strategy. We recommend looking at all of your upcoming marketing initiatives, and planning your content marketing efforts around them, so that you’re communicating consistent and related messages across all channels. This reinforces your messaging and ensures that your target audience won’t be confused about who you are or what you do. Advance planning is key to successful content publication (more on that in a future post).
4. If you choose, you can ask for content contributors from throughout your organization. This helps distribute the workload and will provide your readers with different perspectives, which can be a real plus. Just make sure you give your volunteers some guidelines around content creation so they have something to go on when getting started. In addition, you may need to edit their work in order to keep voice and style consistent.
5. Analyze the results of your efforts and commit to continuously revising and improving upon your strategy. If you don’t measure your results, you’ll have no idea whether your efforts are paying off. Take the time to determine which stats matter most to your business, and then use tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, etc. to measure performance. It doesn’t have to be complicated, especially at first.
We hope these tips have been helpful. Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions for additional tips below!
What’s so great about content marketing, anyway?
You’ve probably noticed by now that consumers are not responding as they once did to traditional marketing strategies and techniques.
They fast forward through commercials, ignore banner ads on websites, and are skeptical of – if not downright put off by – any overt attempt by a company to “win their business” or even get their attention.
So what’s a business to do? How are you supposed to attract new prospects and customers if you can’t market to people anymore (at least, not in the way you used to)?
Read More “What’s so great about content marketing, anyway?”
The Center Of Attention: Email as a Primary Source of Content
What is The Future of Email Marketing?
By now you’ve heard the question: Is email a thing of the past? Social media is a major phenomenon in marketing, and the speculation abounds about how it will impact current online marketing methods.
Let’s answer this with a few questions of our own:
- Has email made landing pages a thing of the past?
- Have landing pages made websites a thing of the past?
- Have websites made telephones a thing of the past?
- Have telephones made storefronts a thing of the past?
You see where I’m going with this. We’ve all forecasted the decline of postcards, television ads, billboards, and every other type of advertising and marketing method based on what was new. Yet we still receive mail, drive past billboards, get phone calls, and dodge television ads every day. And every time, the new methods turned out to have drawbacks of their own that create new problems and opportunities.
Read More “The Center Of Attention: Email as a Primary Source of Content”
Email Marketing Blog 