Content marketing requires a unique type of investment. With most outbound marketing, the investment is cost related. But with inbound marketing, while there are costs, the biggest investment is time. Content marketing is a process and typically requires a good amount of work until you see meaningful results.
But don’t let that deter you. As we see in the infographic below, content marketing has many benefits aside from lead generation.
To improve the odds of succeeding at content marketing, you’ll need to create a content strategy. Here are a few guidelines you’ll want to remember:
- Above all else, create value. To succeed at content marketing, you’ll need to focus on creating great content that educates. Everyone wants some intellectual stimulation and it’s your job to provide that. If you don’t help solve problems or answer some question, you haven’t done your job. Focus on your audience and solving their problems.
- You’re not limited to text-based blog posts. If writing isn’t your thing, you’re better off doing not doing it. Focus on where your energy and passion is. Ideally, you should create content you know your audience will regularly consume. This can be podcasts, blog posts, videos, infographics, etc. Find how they prefer to consume media and what you’re passionate about, and go do it.
- Attract a consistent amount of traffic. Content marketing needs an audience like a car needs fuel. Without fuel, cars don’t work. And without an audience, content marketing won’t work. For many, content marketing is grown organically, typically through SEO. Advertising your blog is usually expensive and not sustainable if you want to get an audience significant enough to generate a respectable amount of leads. At KISSmetrics, we get the traffic we do today because we’ve been doing it for nearly 5 years, have stuck with a consistent posting schedule, and a pretty strict with what we post. To get an audience, you’ll need to focus on creating great content and following good SEO practices.
- Convert. You’re not a content marketer if you can’t convert your audience into buyers. For your content marketing to be successful, you’ll need to attract the right audience and convert them to trying your product or service. Even a small conversion rate on a high traffic site can be enough to grow a business, assuming you can convert those leads into customers.
If you want to take your content marketing to new heights, this infographic can help get you zeroed in on what you need to focus on. We thank Captora for providing us with today’s infographic.
