Content is key, but having a content strategy will unlock your brand’s success.

You might have the most revolutionary idea and inspiring content to match, but if it’s not reaching an audience then it won’t lead to conversions. Traffic = sales. So, when it comes to creating content - you need a strategy.

You can’t bake a multi-tiered cake by skipping the dough-making process. In the same way, content marketing requires a well-thought-out plan to ensure all efforts have been made to gain maximum exposure for your brand. Churning out content for content’s sake might get your voice out there but it won’t be enough to attract and retain paying customers.

So without further ado, let’s look at how to create quality content that sticks.

Why is content marketing important for brands?

The point of content (aside from being nice to read!) is to be seen and shared. It’s getting your brand’s voice out there. If you have a product or a service or an idea to sell, then you need customers to buy it. Content marketing, therefore, is a way to promote your services and convince people to pay for them.

Now the problem with selling products online is that you’re competing with millions of other websites just like yours. This is where a content marketing strategy comes in. As part of your strategy, you can ask yourself:

• What sets my brand/product/service apart?
• What is the overall goal for my website/Blog?
• Who is my target audience/customer base?
• How can I make my brand/product stand out?

The best brands are the ones that have a marketing strategy that meets every customer touchpoint. They also produce consistently high-quality content that:

• Builds their brand and credibility
• Builds customers trust
• Strengthens their reputation
• Impacts their customer’s decision-making
• Generates leads

This is what’s needed to increase conversion rates, achieve revenue growth, and position your brand as an authority in your industry.

Tips and tricks for great content marketing

Successful content marketing requires a successful content marketing plan. If you start creating content without a strategy in place, then you could be wasting your time and money.

Creating a content marketing strategy isn’t hard to do. Let the following steps help guide you.

1. Set content goals

Every piece of content you create should be working towards some sort of wider marketing goal. Ask yourself - What is it that I want to achieve? What is the purpose of this piece of content? Surely you’re not creating content for the sake of it - and if you are, then there’s a good chance you’re not seeing the results you’d like.

Typically, common content goals include:

• Driving social engagement
• Building a platform for your brand
• Educating an audience
• Ranking higher on Google SERPs
• Selling your product

Once you’ve clearly established your content goals, you can then determine your content marketing plan.

2. Research your audience

Every piece of content you develop should be created with someone in mind. Suppose you’re selling dog toys. In this example, you want to target dog owners. The next step would be to define your audience persona. You’ll want to consider everything about your target audience including:

• Their age
• Gender
• Demographic
• Location
• Income

Following the example of dog toys, you want to determine what exactly your audience wants and what problems they may be facing. It could be that they want good quality dog toys that stand the test of time. These people are pet owners who consider their dog as part of their family. In which case, they want a product that is also safe for their dog. Pet owners also love expressing their personalities through their dogs. In which case, you can develop content with a unique selling proposition (USP) that sets your brand apart in a distinct way.

3. Choose the right content type

In this step, you need to ask yourself, what type of content will my target audience respond to?

Would you be better off writing fun Blog posts that connect to audiences on a human level? Or would your audience prefer the interactivity a video brings? Perhaps your audience is searching for a how-to guide that gives them the answers they’re seeking yet can’t find anywhere else.

Let’s get back to dog toys. Instead of Blog posts as your main strategy for audience reach, perhaps you’d be better off at creating videos demonstrating real-life dogs and dog owners using and playing with your products. This can be supplemented with Blog posts or how-to guides centering around caring for your dog and pet ownership.

Different types of content include:

• Blog posts and articles
• Ebooks and whitepapers
• Infographics
• Videos
• Social media posts
• Podcasts
• E-courses
• E-newsletters

4. Don’t forget about SEO!

SE...what?! Three letters with one mighty impact. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. Implementing SEO helps to increase the quality of traffic to your website by increasing your brand’s visibility in search results.

This might sound technical but it really comes down to clever use of keywords.

Creating SEO content requires you to first research the keywords that will attract your target audience. So, taking dog toys as the example, these can be:

• Dog toys Australia
• Dog toys for bored dogs
• Dog toys for chewers
• Dog toys for big dogs

You get the idea. In fact, the easiest way to research keywords is by entering your phrase on Google search. Auto-suggest will show the most popular keyword phrases that people are using. By doing this, you will make it easier for your website to rank for highly competitive keywords and make you more visible to your target audience.

5. Promote your content

Once your content is created and published, you need to promote it!

This is no time to stay humble! Promote, share, hawk, and advertise your content far and wide. Use social media accounts such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and send your content to anyone you think might be interested in what you’ve got. This can also include e-marketing as well as paid ads, guest posts, incentives, giveaways, and engaging with online communities such as Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Quora. Don’t forget the power of traditional advertising methods, either. Send out business cards with your website or drop flyers in letterboxes! The greater the reach, the greater the chance you have at attracting and retaining customers.

6. Managing the process

In order to maintain the momentum of your content strategy, you need a project management tool.

Using project management software will help you to plan your content production schedule and keep you publishing regularly. It’s important to stay on top of your projects and define actionable tasks so that you remain productive. A good project management tool will also make it easier to stick to your content goals and stay consistent.

This is also useful if you’re working within a team, as it allows for collaboration by making it easy to share files and communicate without email.

7. Measure results

The final step in your content marketing strategy is to monitor the success of your campaign. It’s easy to create content, publish then promote it without ever returning to it. However, whether it’s daily, weekly, or monthly, you should never leave your content without tracking the results. This includes view counts, click rates, feedback, and comments. Here are some of the most important metrics to track:

• The time audiences spend on your site
• Bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who land on your website and then leave without clicking on other pages)
• Organic leads
• Click-through rates
• Lead-close rates
• Inbound links
• Amount of social shares
• Landing page views

As you can see, creating marketable content is more than just writing killer content. Creating a content marketing plan will help you to define your goals, understand your audience, and devise ways to ensure maximum exposure and interaction with your audience. This will help to boost your brand’s reputation and improve sales, ultimately working to grow your business and remain competitive. Consistency is key when it comes to content marketing. Many times, brands fail to hold a consistent growth rate because they become lazy with their marketing. By using tools such as project management software and regularly reviewing your strategy, your marketing strategy will continue to evolve.