How to Create Effective Content Marketing

If you’re looking for ways to grow your business online, content marketing is a great place to start. You may have heard the words “content marketing” as a buzzword around the conversation of digital marketing, but if you don’t know exactly what it is – content marketing is essentially creating and distributing free content as a marketing tool to attract and convert new customers. This could be blog posts (like the one you are reading right now) social media, podcasts, videos, whitepapers, and more.

As a digital marketing agency with clients in all different industries, content marketing is usually something we recommend to clients that don’t have a huge budget for paid advertising like Google or Facebook Ads. Some can even argue that content marketing can be more effective than paid ads because it provides something educational or useful for your customers – building a sense of trust between you and them and establishing you as an expert in your industry.

That being said, there are a few factors that will be the difference between your content leading to real results and getting you new business and being a waste of your time and resources. Here are our top 3 ways to create effective content marketing.

Create for Your Target Audience

The #1 rule of effective content marketing is to create with your target audience in mind. Before you create any piece of content ask yourself – how is this helpful, educational, or informative to my target audience? At Atilus, as a web design and marketing company, we often create content that is related to digital marketing and web trends, but we are always sure to make it useful for our clients to understand or learn new things. For example, if we are writing about a new Google algorithm, we try to not focus too much on the overly technical aspect of it and break it down in a way that’s understandable to our client, who might not have a high level of technical knowledge, and highlight what’s important to them.

A great way to create effective useful content for your audience is to think of questions that your customers might have relative to your service. When coming up with blog posts ideas, we often try to think of questions that come up often with prospects or clients, and then think of how we can answer them through our content. This can also help with SEO because it can help you create content that will come up for relevant searches. This also, in turn, creates good resources you can share in the future when these questions come up with a new client.

Create with A Purpose

Once you have established your target audience and are creating useful content with them in mind, think about your purpose with writing the content. Do you want to try to upsell existing clients? Get at least 5 new leads? Convert existing prospects you have? Establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry? Hopefully, useful content can help you with multiple things, but it’s important to have a clear goal in what you want your content to achieve and create it with that in mind.

Incorporate your brand’s voice throughout and be sure to include clear calls-to-action in your content, while still striking the balance of not being too “sales-y.”

Create for Multiple Channels

When creating a new piece of content, think about how you can repurpose the same piece of content for multiple channels. Not only will this save you time, but it will keep your brand’s message cohesive. When pushing content to multiple channels, start with your website. This will drive all other things you do back to your own site where you can track visits with Google analytics and hopefully get leads through phone calls or contact forms. So, whether it’s a blog post, whitepaper, or video, have it be posted somewhere on your company’s website.

From there, you can share it on any organic channels you have – like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Also, utilize local listings like Google My Business & Bing Places which have features to share posts that will appear in local searches. If you have a list of emails, you can also create a marketing email that shares the same content and message.

Also, consider how you can repurpose the same content in different ways. For example, if you have a popular blog post on your website, you could create a short video or podcast for those who prefer to consume content that way, that could be pushed out through other channels like Youtube or Spotify.

 Work with A Digital Agency On Your Content Marketing Strategy

If you are interested in content marketing for your business but not sure where to start, working with a digital agency that brings expertise in marketing your business online could help you. At Atilus, we offer customized digital marketing services including content creation, social media management, search engine optimization. If you want to learn more about what Atilus can do for your business, click here to contact us!