Content marketing has become even more important in 2020. According to data, 92% of marketers view content as a business asset. While the basics of content marketing remain the same, the tools and channels we use to re-purpose and distribute have changed and will continue to evolve this year and beyond.
This is a step-by-step content marketing guide that will help you right from creating a good content strategy to distributing it on all platforms. Let’s start!
1. Make a Content Strategy
Data suggests 64% of marketers want to learn how to build a better content strategy. And why wouldn’t they? Content marketing needs to be strategic. Basically, it should answer these 4 things: What, When, Why & How.
There are a lot of benefits of having a content strategy in place – whether it’s weekly, monthly, half-yearly or annual. Apart from giving the team a set direction and plan to work on, it also gives accountability and an eye for budget or resource allocation.
How to Create a Robust Content Strategy:
Segment Your Audience – Know your audience. It is extremely essential to figure out who you will be writing for and understand their needs. After you have your target audience, make a plan for the following:
- WHAT – What is it that you are going to deliver with your content? You could make a list of topics that you may want to write on through thorough research. You can use the topic- cluster approach to be more strategic about what you want as your main blog or the pillar blog and clusters.
- WHEN: Create a content calendar on when would you publish what content. It could also include the time of the day, date, etc.
- WHY: Give a thought to why do you want to write on a specific topic and would it be relevant or useful for your target audience.
- HOW: Spend some time finding out where the target audience engages the most, what platforms they use, where they are comfortable etc.
Read here to know more on How to Plan Effective Content Marketing Strategy.
2. Create Quality Content
It doesn’t matter if you are creating a blog, a newsletter, a presentation or a video, there are some techniques that you can use to enhance your content.
While the key point shall always be to produce original content, it is important to start the piece in a way that it grabs attention. Tell your target audience why they should read or listen, what is in it for them and how will it add value for them.
Make sure that your content keeps them engaged and curious throughout and pushes them to take the desired action. Also, close your piece of content with a specific action like “sign up here,” or “click here to read more,” or “get in touch with us”.
Want to know How to Create Content That Brings in Maximum Conversions.
3. Choose the Right Keywords
It is extremely important to know which keywords would be beneficial for your business! The right keyword helps in boosting your SEO and ranking higher in search engines. To start with, make sure the keyword you choose is 2-3 words long and related to the products or services you are offering.
Think like your customers, what they would search for in Google for a product and service and then select the keyword. For instance, if you are selling yoga pants, a good idea would be to use “women’s yoga pants” as your keyword.
Also, don’t forget to check at the end of the search page to find related searches for the same. You could decide on your keyword seeing those searches too.
#Tip: Use a keyword tool such as Google Adwords
You can use Google AdWords Keyword Planner to get ideas for your keywords. Just enter the keywords and press enter. The data will show you average monthly searches for the keywords, its relevance, and the competition. You can compare different keywords and decide which one is better!
4. Diversify Content-Type
Don’t be bounded to just creating blogs and articles for your business. There are different types of content that you could try such as eBooks, email campaigns, videos, research/whitepapers, industry reports, case studies, podcasts and audio to increase traffic and drive sales.
While blogging is mostly effective, newsletters and eBooks are a good way of generating leads and sign-ups. A diverse content marketing strategy is the best way to get significant results out of all the campaigns.
5. Re-purpose Your Existing/New Content
In simple words, repurposing or recycling your old/new content would mean making most of your efforts! A content that has been written in a particular style, can be recycled for better consumption and outreach. You can re-purpose your content into infographics, videos, and presentations.
For instance, if your target audience has missed on the blog, you can provide the same information to them on YouTube or Slideshare or other platforms and extend your reach. However, make sure the content you re-purpose is:
- Evergreen: Is or will be relevant in the long run.
- Popular: Something that your audience likes reading about!
- Old but relevant: Once updated, the content might grab eyeballs!
Stats tell us that, only 29% of marketers repurpose content. However, this would increase as more and more people discover its benefits with this content marketing guide.
#Tip: You can use tools such as Animoto and Canva to re-purpose your content.
6. Distribute It Everywhere
After you have created your content, it makes sense to distribute it on social media and other community forums to bring more traffic to your site.
To start with, create a content distribution strategy wherein you name all the channels you want to distribute your content on. You may want to re-publish your content on channels such as Medium and Reddit. Your content distribution strategy may look like:
Apart from these, you could distribute your content on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and more. However, after the distribution of content, make sure you analyze it with the number of views, comments, etc. you are getting for each post.
Click here to read in detail A Step-By-Step Guide to Perfect Content Distribution Strategy and maximize your traffic growth!
7. Do Community Marketing
Community marketing does not mean talking about only your content, but sharing information, networking, and learning. It’s all about engagement.
There are several marketing communities such as Quora, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter etc. that invite people to network while sharing knowledge. Become a part of such communities and participate in conversations that interest you!
Publish educational articles such as how to blogs or videos that are informative and help your audience understand your product or service and then talk about it! Answer all the questions like an expert in your industry and see your views and profile grow in months!
If you want to leverage communities to build your business, here is how to create an effective community marketing strategy.
8. Keep a track through Analytics
Google Analytics has a big part when it comes to analyzing the performance of your blog such as the number of sessions, bounce rate, the total number of visitors on the site, etc. How these visitors coming to your site: through referrals, social media or its organic traffic?
Apart from Google Analytics, you can use tools such as CelevrTap or Sendy to monitor your email campaigns. Also, you can use tools such as Hootsuite to analyze your social media data.
Regular monitoring of data will help you in understanding what works for you as a brand and what changes you need to bring in your content marketing strategy.
Want to know about the most important metrics on Google Analytics for your website?
Follow This Guide to Do Content Marketing Right In 2020
Establish your goals clearly and you will see a growth in the traffic on your site. The first step of a content marketer should be to have a great content plan or strategy in place. Use the tips used in this guide for better outreach and business growth!
With all your content marketing efforts in place, it makes sense to invest in a good payment gateway on your site for smooth and seamless transactions. PayU is India’s leading online payment solution provider. For more details,
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