Marketing is a massive, relentless beast. With the munchies. Its insatiable appetite means companies of all sizes face constant pressure to share memorable messages across multiple channels.
In today’s fast-paced, digital marketing world, success in business requires a solid online presence – including fresh content marketing for search engine rankings – to stand out, engage customers and earn top-of-mind status. The pressure can feel overwhelming.
The good news? You don’t need a massive budget to create high-quality, versatile content that expands your brand reach and influence.
Use these tips to tell your company’s story in new ways to feed the voracious marketing beast:
Plan it
Make the most of your precious time by proactively planning your content marketing efforts:
1. Create a content marketing strategy, including how the content will align with your business goals and your target’s needs
2. Develop an editorial calendar to keep your work on track
3. Research your target so your content provides valuable information that solves their top pain points and questions
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Source it
Why do it all yourself? Use internal and external resources to bring a refreshingly diverse range of voices to your content:
4. Share your PR team’s content, including press releases and highlights of executives’ speeches
5. Ask your customer service team to summarize the answers to prospects’ and customers’ most common questions
6. Ask your sales team to describe your targets’ top pain points and how you solve them
7. When your company participates in conferences and industry events, share PowerPoints, videos, and photos
8. Live tweet during events to give others a glimpse of the meeting highlights
9. Your company is filled with smart, passionate people, so encourage employees to contribute to content creation
10. Identify guest contributors who could write for your business blog or e-newsletter
11. Ask happy clients to write a testimonial for your website and marketing materials
12. Spotlight your customers in a video
13. Interview others in your sector to share others’ rich perspectives
Publish it
To be seen as an influential brand or thought leader, McKinsey attests that creating original, quality content is an essential (and cheap) way to do it:
14. Start a business blog
15. Distribute an e-newsletter
16. Profile your greatest success stories through case studies
17. Share industry insights in a white paper or special report
18. Offer a free e-book on your website
19. Write a guest post for other blogs that serve your target market
20. Submit articles to industry associations’ newsletters and magazines
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Promote it
Good content is only effective if other people see it, so capitalize on the power of your networks to drive people to your website and build your brand:
21. Post on LinkedIn under your profile, your company page, in relevant groups and on LinkedIn Publisher
22. Post on Facebook on your company page and personal profile
23. Post highlights of your content on Twitter, using strategic hashtags. Longer content, like a white paper, can generate 5-10 tweets with a link to the copy.
24. Add your content to Google+, Pintrest or Instagram if your target uses these platforms
25. Email it to a handful of contacts you think would benefit most from the content
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Present it
Transform your written content into verbal content to reflect your target’s different communication preferences:
26. Turn a white paper abstract into a public speaking proposal for upcoming industry events
27. Add your PowerPoint to SlideShare
28. Create a helpful or entertaining video. Keep it simple: 1-2 minutes in length
29. Develop a podcast of best practices or insights for your target
Repurpose it
Publish faster by breathing new life to older content:
30. Distribute printed content, such as a one-pager of top tips for your target, at tradeshows
31. Turn the highlights of your special report into an infographic using strategic keywords
32. Turn that huge white paper into 5-10 distinct blog posts
Curate it
I repeat, why do it all yourself?:
33. Select and add editorial context to other people’s content – without plagiarizing.
34. While gathering other sources of content, use tags with keywords so you can quickly find all the copy on a related subject
35. Generously share others’ online posts to increase their likelihood to reciprocate
Measure it
36. Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) and analyze your content to see which campaigns drive the best results. Key metrics may include:
- Number of social shares
- Email open and click-through rates
- Number of high-quality website visitors
- Conversion rates (e-book downloads, blog subscribers, etc.)
- Number of leads who turned into customers
[RELATED: Measure Your Marketing Muscle]
Since content marketing thrives on being constantly refreshed, these tips will help you minimize the time and effort required to produce new content. By increasing the volume of content you produce – without compromising quality – you can achieve meaningful business results and fill the marketing beast.
How does your company keep up with the relentless need for fresh content?
Lisa Goller helps businesses tell their story. As a Toronto-based Strategic Freelance Writer & Editor, she helps executives and entrepreneurs stand out, look good and save time. Learn more at lisagoller.com
Sources:
Content Marketing Institute, Forbes, HeidiCohen.com, Marketing Magazine (UK), Marketing Profs Today
