Top Content Marketing Strategies
Top Content Marketing Strategies : Make no mistake, content marketing is the best way to build authority and have people attracted to you and your business proposition. However there are so many different ways to provide that content from SEO, video, social media, articles, blogs etc so how the heck do you choose which is the best for your business, how do you get started and best of all how do you achieve all that without spending endless hours writing content yourself. In this article we will cover first of all an introduction to content marketing and then share with your more from some of our favourite sources so that you don’t have to go out there for yourself looking for it …. more on that secret a little further on 🙂
What Is Content Marketing
Let’s first look at what content marketing is. Wikepedia describes it as “a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services”
Content marketing is not new as you can see from our friends over at Hubspot They’ve got a great infographic called Back To The Future :
In all seriousness, have you ever thought about where this whole idea of content marketing really began? Perhaps you’ve wondered what its earliest forms looked like, before there was social media, blogs, or even — gasp! — the internet. After all, it’s the very thing that, for many of us, can make or break an online presence.
Why Is Content Marketing Important
Yesterday we were listening to a webinar by the guys over at Evergreen Profits talking about how important it is to create content for your potential customers because of the simple fact that information is the new economy (and best of all it evens the playing field for the solo entrepreneur)
The facts :-
- There are current 3.7 billion internet users worldwide … and counting
- Over 62% of people use the internet ot search for information (content)
- The average American spends approximately 3 hours per day browsing the internet
- The average US consumer spends over $1800 per year online
- The online information publishing industry is currently worth over $165 Billion
- By 2023 this number will grow to a staggering $240 Billion
- There has never been a better time to profit by publishing information (content) online
Content drives the web and of course that’s why Google is the #1 website in the world. People are using the internet ot search for information (content) on a given topic and that’s going to give you a huge advantage.
People find you as a result of your content allowing you to demonstrate your expertise and position yourself as the authority in your niche.
So just how do you take advantage of that in a cost effective way and not be stuck in front of your computer writing all day?
They’ve come up with a brilliant strategy called curation where you as an entrepreneur can leverage other people’s content to generate targeted traffic and thereby convert visitors to your blog into email subscribers and then be able to sell those subscribers products and services they want to buy. Their content creation strategy using the curation method is awesome and we’ll be using it ourselves 🙂
According to Marketo, today the buyer is the expert and the one proactively reaching out to brands and businesses for help. For example:
- The average buyer guides themselves through 60% to 90% of the traditional sales funnel before ever contacting a brand or salesperson.
- 81% of shoppers research online before setting foot in a store.
- Consumers spend an average of 79 days conducting online research before buying.
That’s good news for entrepreneurs because the bigger brands no longer have an advantage because of big marketing budgets and we’re able to attract potential buyers to our products and services through creating high quality, valuable content through providing the search results they are looking for and which we are uniquely positioned to offer. Knowing your customer avatar or buyer persona as it’s often referred to will help you determind who you are marketing to and the best way to speak to them in your content. If you don’t do this then you can create the best content in the world but it won’t be attractive to the person you best want to buy your products and services. Each content asset should appeal to one (or two) personas at each stage of their buying journey, gently nudging them to the next stage
In short buyer personas help you:-
- Determine what kind of content you need
- Set the tone, style, and delivery strategies for your content
- Target the topics you should be writing about
For more help and inspiration in filling out your content marketing strategy you can get a copy of their content marketing plan over at Marketo – we highly recommend it as it designed for all levels of entrepreneur from start up to more experienced brands
Here’s a look at some of the top content marketing strategies being used by companies today courtesy of Marketo …. and not surprisingly, social media accounts comes out top with 79% followed by articles at 78% and blogs at 51%
So you can see that even the start up entrepreneur has as much chance of creating great content searched by their perfect client as the bigger brands and that’s great news for all of us.
To round of this article and give you some of the top content marketing strategies so you can research for yourself and find those appropriate for you to use check out this article from Curata Blog by Mitchell Hall listing the top content marketing blogs.
They’re sorted into six categories:
- Social Media Content Marketing Blogs
- SEO Content Marketing Blogs
- Content Marketing & Strategy Blogs
- Marketing Technology Blogs
- Analysts & Research Blogs
- Blogging
And they’ve got a great downloadable PDF called Your Content Marketing Pyramid which we’re sure you will find very useful whether you are a newbie entrepreneur or a more seasoned entrepreneur looking for better content marketing management.
Last but by no means least this article from our friends at Digital Marketer – Perfect Content Marketing: How Content Generates Leads and Sales at Every Step of the Funnel is packed with strategies and importantly, as we always stress, creating the right content for the right market through knowing your customer persona. As they say “before you can start selling to your audience, you need to know who your ideal customer is, where they are, and what they will buy” – music to our ears!
A cold prospect cannot evaluate your solution until they are first aware of the problem AND your solution. And conversion is impossible until the prospect has first evaluated the possible courses of action.
- Awareness – The prospect must first become aware that there is a problem and that YOU or your organization have a solution for it. (This is where your blog EXCELS.)
- Evaluation – Those that move through the Awareness Stage must now evaluate the various choices available to them, including your competitor’s solutions and, of course, taking no action at all to solve the problem.
- Conversion – Those that move through the Evaluation Stage are now at the moment of truth — purchase. At DigitalMarketer, our goal at this stage is to convert leads into frequent and high-ticket buyers.
Do read the full article here
Thanks for reading and hope you have enjoyed finding out about the top content marketing strategies being used in business today and the secret tips from the experts to save you time and money creating your content.
As we always say money invested into your business education will pay you back many times over
Who Are We
We’re former accountants of a certain age (60+) with 5 great kids and 4 grandchildren. We love skiing and traveling the world and have achieved a fabulous life helping others to start and build a successful business online and now speak on international stages following that passion. We’re Co-Authors of two books on entrepreneurship and write for the Mobe Consultant Insider Magazine – A Monthly Magazine covering all all aspect of entrepreneurship and marketing. Our worldwide educational business is centered on online marketing business education, financial literacy and wealth creation and a desire to help you create financial freedom online through online entrepreneurship whatever your age or experience.
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