The Ultimate Content Marketing Guide for 2020 – A How-To Tutorial for Every Business
Content is marketing’s secret sauce. It’s why people click. It’s how new brands establish themselves. It’s how existing brands sell more products than the competition. All industries are reliant on quality of content.
Content marketing is increasing in value. Even as consumer behaviour changes, content is something every business needs to learn to specialize in. Here are the best content marketing strategies and guides on how to do content marketing.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is your best form of advertising. It’s an ‘ad in disguise’, in a way. The vast majority of Internet users are using some sort of ad blocking software. Your traditional Internet marketing PPC ads no longer work.
Why content marketing is great advertising is because you’re giving value to your customers without selling or pretense. It’s genuine communication. Blogs, articles, podcasts, infographics, and videos all fit the definition of what content marketing is. Create this content correctly and they will form the bedrock of your marketing campaign.
How content marketing changed the sales and marketing game
For years, marketing was classically done by building a short-term relationship with a customer. You’d start with creating awareness, qualifying the interest of the customer, and eventually, completing a sale based on this short-term relationship.
Content marketing isn’t short-term. It’s an ongoing effort. The relationship you cultivate is long-game. Why content marketing works is because it doesn’t treat the customer like a number or some sale. It’s constantly providing value to the user in a long-term relationship.
How do I get customers to click on my content?
Content must be valuable to your target audience. ‘Fluff’ pieces and fillers have no place in content marketing.
Algorithms have also become smarter about how they classify content. Search engines are looking past keyword optimization and at how content is written. If you’re putting out nonsensical keyword-dense writing, there’s no value in that. It will rank low or not at all. You won’t get the attention you want or generate awareness.
There are three ways to get customers to click on your content marketing. Be useful. Be informative. Be entertaining.
Is my content marketing useful to my target audience?
Millions of users are on search engines and social media to find useful content. That is content that assists a user in some way. If they are reading and your content is helping them achieve a goal, they will remember you. Make it useful. Think a how-to guide, a step-by-step tutorial, or something similar. This isn’t direct selling. It’s a value-contribution that will ultimately generate awareness and trust from the user to your brand.
Is my content marketing informative to my audience?
Some content is more informative than helpful. Information-based content marketing is educational and generates awareness through information rather than selling. Informative content has got to teach readers something, contribute information that’s new or interesting, and/or should have a value that will last long-term.
Is my content marketing fun and entertaining?
Some of the most memorable content online is pure entertainment. Clever. Funny. Engaging. Memes have been made famous based around this content marketing approach. For entertainment-based content to be successful, you must know your audience. Content like this should be delivered in the tone and feel of the audience.
How do I share my content?
Once you create the most amazing content marketing you can, the next step is getting its attention. Where do you use your content – pretty much everywhere? Post your link to social media, attach it in emails, and feature it on your website.
If you make your content easy for customers to find, they will find it. Content doesn’t get its spotlight without having earned it first. You’ve got to get the word out. Combine your content marketing with other aspects of your digital marketing including social media, email, SEO efforts, and more.
How do I build long-term momentum with my content pieces?
Your content marketing shouldn’t burn out in a week. It should have some lasting value. ‘Evergreen’ content is that which continues to attract clicks for weeks, months, and sometimes years after it is posted. Aim to write blogs, articles, and content that fits this definition.
Content doesn’t have to grow old. It can keep paying off for a long time to come. You will get customers clicking on articles because of their usefulness and over time, as you add to your collection of blogs, this will mean more and more views, clicks, likes, shares, and sales.
What does the future of content marketing look like?
‘Content is king’. You’ve probably heard this before. Marketers love saying it. It’s not untrue. However, if the content is indeed considered ‘king’, whole future kingdoms will be built from the video.
The future of content marketing is video. More than 85 percent of Internet traffic is related to videos. It is the preferred content type of many users. Video, like other forms of content, are designed to either be useful, informative or entertaining or a combination of the three.
There are evergreen content-style videos hosted on YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms. These are very high-quality, professionally-produced. You also have ephemeral content, i.e. videos only accessible for a brief time. There are more live video opportunities on Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms.
When discussing content marketing, do not think we are just talking about writing blogs and articles. Images and video matter – arguably, more than text.
A great strategy is implementing video into your blog. This gives users the chance to consume different forms of content while keeping them engaged.
What’s the most effective video marketing strategy?
The best video marketing are tutorials or demos. A close second are videos which are fun and entertaining. Every video in a campaign, ideally, fits into one of these categories.
If you have a product or service that requires some explanation, make a video. If you want to teach something new to your customers, make a video. If there’s a job a customer’s going to perform with your product, demonstrate how to do it the right way in a video tutorial.
As effective as detailed written articles can be, often it is better to use video. This way, it’s more visual. You can blend in actions, animations, some entertainment when or if appropriate, and speak from one human being to another.
SEO tactics you can use in your content marketing to maximize success
SEO is still very valuable in the landscape of content marketing. The correct keywords allow you to be found by search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines. Keywords have to be in the right place.
The technical aspects – such as metadata – also have a significant influence on whether your content can be found or not. Images and video rely on it. Strong, good SEO practices are a dominating factor in determining whether content marketing succeeds or fails in various arenas.
The vast majority of your consumers are also viewing content on mobile screens. This should be taken into account when putting together a video or writing a blog. Ensure your website’s responsive. Smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices are the primary screens on which content’s going to be viewed.
More consumers are using voice search as well. Voice assisted searches are having a fundamental role in re-shaping how SEO is done and how content is written. Developing any content, trends like these and consumer behaviours must shape what you’re doing. Being adaptive is a strong recommendation in content marketing because the rules are always changing.
Content marketing holds some mighty power. If you don’t deliver high-quality content, any campaign around it will fail. Produce quality, meaningful, useful, informative content. Quality content is not something to be forgotten. Get yours today from Unlimited Exposure.
