The Perfect Content Marketing Mix that You Were Looking for Your Internet Business
Are you a new-fledged business, just starting to wet your feet into marketing it, but don’t know how?
If yes, then you are in the right place. Today we are talking about the most inexpensive but highly effective method of marketing that can generate qualified sales leads and gain your business more traction in the digital market. And this method is none other than the “content marketing”.
Content marketing is an age-old strategy that has been employed by companies for decades. Remember, the colorful pamphlets, leaflets and the coupons that you got handed while on a visit to the supermarket? They are nothing other than a part of content marketing. Though these methods still exist, with the boom of the internet, the concept of content marketing has been revamped to better fit the online market.
Content marketing nowadays is a highly profitable method of digital marketing that gives you three times more returns while costing less than the other marketing strategies. It is the ultimate way to attract consumers by providing them solutions to their problems through your content. Your content must be informative and should be both relevant to your business and valuable to your target audience.
No matter what the business, “Content is still the King” and if done right will do wonders for your sales as well as inundate inbound web traffic to your business website and thus creating more leads. Once your content is up and live on the internet, all you need to do is to promote it aggressively and sit back and let the consumers come to you.
Now that we have established the ‘WHY?’ of using content marketing, let’s move on to the ‘HOW?’.
Before you start creating your content, there are a few important things that you should keep in mind. Here is a simple and short checklist that will help you in streamlining this process.
- Identify your target audience
- Analyze their problems and what they exactly need from you
- Plan out the types and formats of contents that will help your consumers
- Identify the internet places where you can share your content to increase your business’s visibility
Now with your checklist in hand, you are ready to start creating content.
Next step is content marketing. There are several ways in which content marketing can be done and today, I will give you the perfect mix of content marketing avenues that will help any business to grow, be it a big corporate company or a medium-sized agency or a small local business.
So, let’s get started!
Blogging
The written word is a major portion of content marketing that gets results. Your content should have the ability to educate and inform your consumers. So, post content on your website about relevant topics and provide the solutions to your audience’s problems in an approachable and engaging manner.
A post that showcases your products or services as a problem-solver that satisfy your target audience’s needs will get you a ton of conversions. Through your written word, you can establish yourself as an authority in your niche and earn the trust of your audience and online customers.
A post that adds value to your consumer’s lives will gain you loyal customers who will stay with you throughout. Use your business blog to create a community of consumers who will be the champion of your business and help you increase your business’s visibility and recognition.
Guest Posting
How do you direct traffic to your business website, if no one knows you? No problem.
A simple yet effective solution to this dilemma is guest posting. Post your content on websites that already have loads of visitors. They will check your content out and the interested visitors will be sure to follow your link and reach your business website. You get a chance to increase the visibility of your business while creating a follower base of your own.
Target those websites that have a follower base coinciding with your target audience, then post a content there that will best resonate with their readers while being informative and engaging. Give the readers a reason to check out your business site. If they like what they see, they will become your followers and potential customers eventually.
The backlinks that your business website will gain from this will be highly beneficial in increasing your search engine rankings on Google, which is another great achievement from the SEO point of view.
Guest posting increases your business’s exposure. It gives your potential consumers to know you better before making the final leap and becoming legitimate customers.
Video Content
Since the emergence of YouTube, the face of video marketing has been redefined. With over 30 million visitors per day and an average of 5 billion videos being watched every day on this one single platform alone, video marketing has become an avenue of content marketing that cannot be overlooked.
Do the same what you have been doing with the written content but in the form of a video. Post informative, promotional, how-to videos and a whole lot more to promote your brand.
Approach already established content creators on YouTube in your niche and collaborate with them to spread the good word about your business.
Viewers are generally attracted to engaging videos that have a unique flare. So, use your creativity to come up with fresh, out-of-the-box video content that will appeal to your target audience and gain you the coveted subscribers and views.
Same like YouTube, Facebook is another channel to host your video content, so be sure to promote your videos there as well.
Infographics and Image
After written and video content, it’s time now for images to take the stage. With powerful and popular social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, the saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” has gotten a new meaning.
You can now market your business with nothing more than a single image. Use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to showcase your business, inform your followers about your business and to promote your brand. Reach your targeted consumers easily through these platforms and interact with them on a more personal level.
You can use proven strategies like User Generated Content (UGC) to better engage your audience. Organize contests and ask your followers to be a part of it by posting images promoting your brand in exchange for prizes and features on your feed.
Besides images, you also have the option of infographics as a promotion tool. Infographics are images but with more detailed information in an eye-catching way. You can boil down a 1000-1500-word content in a single colorful infographic which is very effective. Infographics are an information powerhouse that can be shared with ease across multiple platforms.
Podcasts
Podcasts are audio contents that present a unique and different way of content marketing. With over 750,000 active podcasts available for download on-demand, it is a great way to connect directly with your consumers.
Podcast best serves consumers who are on the go most of the time. It can accompany your consumers everywhere and allow them to multitask. Besides being convenient, it is also a potent but mostly unexploited channel of content marketing. They are more visible, can be shared in large quantities, and can be published simultaneously on multiple podcast channels.
Through podcasts, you can directly address your consumers that builds trust. You get an avenue to produce and broadcast content that provides transparency to your consumers and boost your brand’s authenticity.
Though not as popular as video or written content, podcasts still have a loyal base of audience, which you can easily tap into for promoting your business and amplifying your reach and visibility.
Email Marketing
In this era of social media, most businesses dismiss email marketing. But do not be one of them.
Email marketing is an oldie but a goodie. It’s an effective marketing tool that helps you nurture your leads and convert them into loyal customers.
You must optimize your business website and blog using popup forms or free downloadable resources like eBooks to capture email addresses from your site’s visitors. It will allow you funnel consumers who are already interested in what you are selling. Now all you have to do is use their budding interest and convince them to turn into customers.
Once they sign up, regularly communicate with them through emails. Keep them informed about new updates while also enticing them to convert to sales. This builds trust, reputation and most importantly upsurges the sales.
Social Media Content
Marketing your content on various social media platforms increases the visibility of your business. Through your content, you can give your brand a face and a voice that resonates with your target audience.
By utilizing all the methods that I have talked about till now, you will be able to rake in organic consumers who are most likely to stick with you and convert to credible leads. If you want to take your marketing a notch higher and if your budget allows, then you can also go for paid marketing on all social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. and indeed on Google, to reach more consumers.
You can never go wrong with paid content marketing as long as you keep up with your organic content marketing parallel to it. Keep in mind, that the benefits of ‘paid’ content are only for the amount of time you have paid for, whereas that of ‘organic’ marketing will stay with you forever.
E-books and Free Courses
Educating people and giving them a working solution to their problems is the main objective behind creating content. Creating E-books and free courses to help them overcome a few hurdles in their niche is an outstanding way to achieve your audience’s trust.
Create free resources to educate and empower your followers and help spread knowledge which in return will establish you as an authority in your niche.
The more powerful free resources you create that fulfill your target audiences’ needs, the more it will make your brand a positive source of information and give it a consumer-friendly image.
White Papers and Research Content
White papers are a great way to show your knowledge and authority in your niche to your audience. Through white papers, you provide a comprehensive, in-depth content outlining the problem and at the end of it, provide the necessary solution to the same.
These types of contents are research-heavy and a little dry but work wonders in establishing an image for your brand that your consumer will associate with helpful and advanced problem-solving guides.
Wrapping up
Now you know what are the possibilities and the best avenues where you can market your brand contents. So, buckle up, devise the plan, create your content assets, and launch your content marketing strategy.
Measure your results, improve when and where you can. Be what your consumers want you to be. Content marketing is the future of your brand, so proceed with keeping that in mind.
Being an entrepreneur and digital marketer, he loves to share his knowledge and experience in topics related to internet marketing, SEO, SEM, social media, content marketing, branding, entrepreneurship, and many more.
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