Content is the thing that every marketing organization knows they should be doing but aren’t always sure if they’re doing right. Chances are, if you’re aware of the power of content marketing at all, then you’re headed down the right track. But here are 5 content marketing strategies you should start implementing right away if you want the full benefit of what content marketing can offer.
Combine Content with SEO
The whole point of creating content is to get it in front of people’s eyes. If traffic to your content is lagging, then consider spending time building up your SEO efforts. Neil Patel, founder of analytical and marketing companies Quick Sprout and KISSmetrics, says, If you are trying to grow your qualified search traffic, you have to combine your content marketing with your SEO efforts. Isolating the keywords that are driving good traffic to your website can be time consuming but it’s worth it for building benefits for your company and content.
Get Serious About Storytelling
Everyone has heard at some point or another that storytelling is at the heart of successful content marketing. This is true but we often forget to incorporate it. Find a way to turn your product or service into a narrative. Stories have historically drawn an audience in, so if you want to do the same thing with your content, get into the habit of turning everything into a compelling tale.
Find New Ways to Incorporate Data
Like storytelling, we all know the value data can bring to marketing when it’s integrated in intelligent ways. The same can be said for integrating your data with your content. It’s more than just throwing out a bunch of stats and hoping your audience digests them in a way that helps them understand the value of your product or service. The key is finding ways to use the data you have mined in a way that integrates with your content to provide a whole view of the benefits you can provide.
Track Everything
Your content marketing is no different than ads that you place on offline and online platforms: you should be tracking it all. The same way you would put a unique trackable phone number on your advertisements, you should be using those call tracking numbers on the content you put out into the world. You need to know which pieces of content are generating leads, and call tracking is an easy way to do so.
Don’t Be (Too) Afraid of Being Boring If It Means Being Practical
With all the splashy, exciting content running around on the Internet these days, it’s often tempting to focus solely on entertaining content as opposed to the stuff that, while practical, is dry. Don’t fall into this trap. While your content should never be boring, don’t ever feel the need to forsake content that provides actual tangible value for content that has some good jokes and pop cultural references. The bottom line of your content should always be providing value, so whatever that means for your audience stick to it.
Want to learn more about what you can do to improve your content marketing? Download this white paper, The Marketer’s Guide to Proving (and Improving) Content Marketing.