What they don’t tell you about content marketing.

Everyone loves content marketing, or at least that’s the impression you get. Since Hubspot exploded onto the scene and revolutionised inbound marketing, creating content has been an ever growing priority for businesses and individuals.

Create content and the world will come knocking at your door, they all seem to say. Create content to grow your business. A couple of YouTube videos and you’re a global superstar, right?

But it’s not easy. Does it even work as advertised, or at all?

Here’s what you need to remember…

You have to be persistent.

I was going to write ‘stay patient’, but that’s too passive. Be persistent. Keep working, keep listening, keep reading, keep learning, keep creating great content.

Successful content creators haven’t achieved their success overnight. It takes time. And work.

Look at Casey Neistat. He is one of the rising stars of YouTube, but it’s taken him YEARS of great content creation to get to where he is today.

Don’t just ‘create.

It’s too easy to just write content based on ideas that spring to mind one afternoon, but doesn’t target a specific audience and their needs. Spontaneity can be a good thing, but it needs to have a focus.

Get to know your audience better, and write with them in mind. Don’t write for you, but for them.

Think about building some buyer personas to get to know your audience better. Follow the link to download a free template, and ensure you put real thought into understanding your audience and their needs.

Your content needs to deliver value, and make a connection.

Blogging isn't enough.

Blogging is definitely a good place to start, but if you want to grow your business with content or inbound marketing, you’ll need to do more. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of what else you can be doing…

• SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).
• Web page optimisation. Keep your marketing and site up to scratch.
• Social sharing and engagement. Twitter / LinkedIn / Facebook.
• CTA optimisation. Work on implementing a good Call to Action on each page!
• Build a form for collecting visitor email addresses in exchange for something of value. Check out SumoMe.
• Create email campaigns. How will you reach out to new contacts or leads?

Blogging isn't enough Pt. 2

Blogging is only one part of an inbound strategy, and it’s only one facet of a content plan. What other types of content can you produce?

• Webinars.
• White papers.
• Infographics.
• Videos.
• Podcasts.
• Articles.
• Newsletters.
• Case studies.
• Presentations.
• Audio books.
• Ebooks.
• Industry research / polls.
• Product reviews.
• Use cases or examples.

There are so many options; you have no excuses! If you can’t make any of this work, you have two options. Either you LEARN or you outsource to an expert. That’s your call, depending on what stage your business is at.

Content is king, but distribution is queen.

So, we have established that they won’t just come to you if you have good content.

If often feels like you’re writing, creating, building and then sending your blood, sweat and tears into a black hole. In many ways, you are.

Your content is worth little if nobody reads it, particularly if nobody that’s interested reads it.

How do you get your content in front of the right people? Here are a couple of distribution options, each of which deserve an article on how to best exploit:

• Email your content to leads, contacts and anyone who you think might benefit.
• Share it on Twitter, and not just once!
• Facebook.
• Reddit.
• Instagram.
• Snapchat.
• LinkedIn.
• Slideshare.
• YouTube (if it’s a video!).
• StumbleUpon.
• Digg.
• Medium.
• Guest posting on other blogs or platforms.

You need a CTA.

Creating great content and getting it in front of the right people is a major part of the puzzle, but what happens after that?

Ideally, you build a relationship, based on a value exchange, that ultimately ends up in a monetary transaction.

Make sure that you have a good Call to Action for each piece of content, asking your readers / viewers to get in contact, sign-up, learn more, book a consultation, like, comment or share your piece etc.

Try different CTAs for different types of content to discover what works; not every platform or reader will respond in the same way.