Content marketing has the ability to impact lives. It invoke emotions and can change the way you feel towards a brand.
Now more than ever, brands are acknowledging the power of content strategy – voice, visual, and videos — and are going all in to produce great content designed to drive attention.
Content is the bedrock of your success. Investing in consistently good content will always play out in the long run.
But too many businesses go for the quick sale. Instead of creating a connection and experience, they try to go for the wallet on their customers first interaction.
And this is why so many businesses are not willing to invest in content…until now.
Brands are starting to realize the importance and impact of content. This mass adoption has given rise to a flood of new, but not necessarily great content across social media and search.
Everybody is scrambling to come up with great content. And that is not easy by any stretch of the imagination.
In this article, I’ve put together a list of marketing tactics your business can use to create consistently great content.
I hope you get value from it!
Content will always be king
Why do people like Neil Patel and Gary Vaynerchuck produce such amazing content? It’s because they have mastered the art content creation.
#1. Storytelling
Your brand will live and die by the story you tell.
The art of storytelling is focused on cultivating a deeper connection with your audience.
In the world of social media, transparency is everything. The story you tell should be centered around solving problems, making your customers’ lives better, and empathizing with your audience.
It all comes down to understanding the psychology and motivations of the people you want to engage with.
#2. Know what you’re talking about inside out
When you begin to tell your story, it is important to add to your story.
Meaning, don’t just come up with content for the sake of content. That will be the quickest way to lose the attention of your audience.
You have to understand what you are talking about, why you are talking about it, and to whom you are talking to.
I will never talk about web design or database schemas, because I am not a practitioner.
We all have that friend who likes to talk about EVERYTHING — they seem to have experiences that span the stars. But when it comes to doing, they are the first ones to not show up. Coincidence? I think not.
Don’t be that “guy.” Let your content reflect your expertise and experience. Stick to it and your brand will be poised for long-term milestones.
I stick to things that I know — marketing strategy, pay per click and eCommerce.
#3. Distribution of your content
Delivering your content across various channels is the key to diverse and mass reach.
Your audience spend time on social media, search, forums, podcasts, etc. So if you only put your content on, let’s say, Facebook, you are limiting your brand’s exposure.
Put your content in front of your audience wherever they are.
A mistake that many brands do is that they wait for their audience to find their content.
That’s the wrong approach. Content distribution must be a pro-active activity on your part. Prioritizing your brand’s content over quick sales will bring you long term growth, authority, and more sales.
A good content distribution strategy will include paid and organic tactics.
Buying ads augments your content. Boosting your posts on Facebook broadens your reach. This will not have an immediate ROI — most likely ZERO sales. That’s fine. You are not trying to make the quick sale. You are building your brand.
#4. Testing your content before doubling down
If you’re not sure whether your content is going to resonate — test it.
You can spend as little as $5/day on Facebook and run split testing using excerpts from your content.
Want to create a new video to sell your new software? Great.
Run a lot of ads in Facebook to test different taglines, images, ad copy, etc.
You will get instant feedback and insights into how you should create AND position your video content.
Social media is by far the largest audience you can use to run experiments to validate your ideas. What will set you apart from other brands is your willingness and commitment to test, test, test.
Let’s say you want to increase your site traffic by 10% in one year.
And your team came up with a huge list of content ideas. To find what topics will yield the results you want, let your audience guide you.
There is a singular purpose for your content — add value to your audience.
#5. Branding will always come before the sale
Everything you do should converge into prioritizing your brand. Don’t go for the quick sale.
“OK Derek, it’s easier said than done.”
I understand. You’re under pressure to generate sales to beat last year’s numbers.
So go ahead and run your Google ads and Facebook ads. Those are necessary to generate revenue that you can reinvest into your business.
The one thing I implore you to do is spend equal if not more time on your branded content.
This can be anything from short videos, podcasts, articles, interviews, webinars, guest appearances, etc.
Remember, your story lives on forever on the internet.
And in social media, if your audience love your story — you have just formed the biggest army for your brand.
The truth is, people who are looking to make a quick buck will never last long. They churn and burn then disappear because someone like you who have invested in the long term brand story have created loyalty with your audience.
#6. Collaboration to add different perspective on topics
Agencies that are paranoid will withstand the rapid changes happening in the industry.
A lot of marketing agencies fight to be the agency of record, which I feel is a very antiquated model.
As skills become more specialized, agencies need to collaborate with other agencies to complement each others’ skill sets. And content creation is no exception.
Running a Facebook campaign today is totally different than it was 2 years ago. You need to be agile with your ad images, copy, testing, analytics, and reporting for example. This alone could take an entire team’s resources.
It’s like building a jet engine for a fighter plane. Dozens of engineers work on ONE part of the plane – the engine. And another team will be required to architect the wiring, etc.
I work with different agencies to complement the work we do for our clients and vice versa. And we are 100% transparent about it.
If our client needs photo shoots or video production, we will bring in the experts — you know, the media agencies that do this full time and have experts on their team.
When you create content for your brand, think about what other companies you can align with.
Curating content and sourcing from other partners can get your content shared by more people, adds authority by association, and who knows — you might create lifelong friendships.
If you’re a small business trying to get off the ground, think about content you can collaborate on to broaden your reach quicker than you going at it alone.
Remember, together we are stronger.
#7. Analyze your content engagement, bounce rates, and other metrics
Ever since I started Fullmoon, I have gotten more and more excited about producing content – specifically articles for our company blog.
In order for your to maximize the power of your content, you need to be familiar with the fundamentals of analytics.
You don’t need to be an expert on using Google Analytics or other software, but you must have a core understanding of data and how your content is being consumed.
When I started my career, I was afraid to ask questions. Why? Because I didn’t want to feel stupid. I’m not going to lie. It was intimidating to ask a question when I didn’t have as much industry knowledge as I do now.
If there’s one thing I regret, this is it.
Being brave enough to ask questions, whether they sounded dumb or not.
Right now, as I’ve accumulated almost two decades of experience and knowledge, I ask the right questions, am more confident in the data I’m looking.
But it’s amazing how so many brands are not leveraging data to understand their content — it should be a mandatory skill for every content marketer in the world!
Content is such an amazing tool right now to build your brand for long term success. Whether you do it in social media, search, etc — now is the time to do it. Do not get left behind — it doesn’t get easier with time.
I hope this article has helped you! ?
