Content marketing is still one of the cheapest and most effective ways to get targeted visitors hitting your website on a regular basis, and according to a research marketer who prioritize blogging at first are 13x more likely to see a positive ROY. Content marketing is 62% less expensive than other marketing methods and is like to get you three times as many leads.
So, let us start with the basics of what content marketing is. Simply put, content marketing is the process of creating and promoting content to attract and retain targeted audience. Meaning, you are creating blog posts, videos, podcasts, promoting it, and your content’s job is to lead people towards a profitable action. Content marketing aims to educate and show what is possible and in doing that people are going to think of you as the expert they want to work with. This might seem like a bit of a slower process that way, but it is a lot more efficient too. This is because that way people make buying decisions has changed over the past 20 or so years. Now that they have the internet. Most of your best clients are going to put in the research to know their options and only the most trusted businesses are going to survive. This is where content comes into play.
The content you produce will bridge the gap between the cold audiences that have never heard about you to and your warmer audiences and finally your paying clients and customers. So, when you provide superior quality information it helps build trust and trust sells more efficiently and successfully than selling does. Through the power of content marketing, you can intentionally integrate your company and your products within their purchasing journey.
Now the two main parts of content marketing is to create content and to promote/distribute it.
Your content can be in various formats. It can be in the form of blog posts, podcasts, online courses, infographics, free tools, templates, eBooks, checklists, you name it. If there is demand from your audience for that type of content, then pretty much everything is fair game. The type of content that you choose will depend on the topic of your content piece. For example, a recipe would work well as a blog post and a video, but it would not be great as a podcast. Whereas an interview with Gordon Ramsay could work as a podcast, video or even as a blog post, but it would not be valuable as a checklist.
As a rule of thumb, start with one format that works for you and rinse and repeat. Then, consider exploring another channel. Now, creating content alone is not enough because content is different from content marketing. It is important to have an idea of where you will be distributing this content. Some common distributions channels would include search which can be done through search engine optimization or paid ads, social media networks, forums, and communities or even email newsletters. Now, if you have a site on golf, you might want to consider google, YouTube and forums and communities because these are all places where your target audience would most actively be looking for information on this topic.
Let us have a look at blog content now. The two most popular promotion channels will be social media and search. When you create content with social media as your primary distribution channels, you are taking on a lot of risk.
Getting your blog content to start with a bang on social media is very unpredictable. There are too many variables which is one of the main reasons why you should stay away from creating “viral” type content. Plus, social media traffic tends to start with a big spike, but it ends up flatlining, leaving your content to suffer. With SEO traffic it is much easier to create consistent and predictable results that will stand the test of time. There are three basic steps to this process.
First step is to find topics that are meaningful to your business. This step is often referred to as ‘keyword research.’ To get started use a keyword research tool and enter some topics that are broadly related to your niche. It will show you keywords frames as questions as well as the search volume for those questions, and questions are often problems that your target audience might be facing. You might want to look at topics that are closely or at least related to your product.
The next step is to create the correct category of content. Google tries to give back the most relevant research for any given keyword. So, the right type of content from and SEO perspective, it the one that meets the searchers needs. You can decide this by looking at the top-ranking results and go that route too to have a fighting chance at ranking. The last step is to promote your content. Promotion can take many forms and it is best if you go with an inside out approach, meaning start with channels closest to you and then move outwards to reach new audiences.
As far as YouTube content goes, there are three main ways we can select topics for content. The first way to get YouTube organic search views. To do that go to a keyword’s explorer, select the YouTube tab, and enter a broad keyword related to your niche. Now, since YouTube content is always informational you can skim this report and look for relevant keywords for your business. So, you take that keyword and type it into YouTube search. Look at the top three video and see if there are and commonalities and do your best to create a video that matches searchers intent.
The second way is to create unique topics that might draw out your audiences. The reason we do this is because YouTube is both a search and a social platform. And because there is that “special” aspect to YouTube, there algorithm rewards videos that attract a lot of clicks that lead to high watch time. The third way is to create a series. Series work well because they are meant to be watched in a sequential order. This can lead to overall longer watch times. The longer people watch your content, the more YouTube will promote your videos. Potential series idea might be courses, case studies, building something in public, vlogs and shows.
Think of content marketing as planting seeds. If you want to grow an apple tree it might take 8 years for it to bear fruit. But that same tree will continually put food on your table for years to come. The longer you wait to plant the seed the longer it will take for you to start reaping the rewards.
