Topics: Inbound Marketing
After reading this post you might find it necessary to change your job title to Publishing Manager. This is not an exaggeration. Consumers and buyers seek information and, as a marketer, it is your job to provide it. This means creating relevant content of a high quality and lots of it.
This is the most important characteristic of good quality content. The internet is flooded with content. Every second of every day more content is added to the web. That’s a lot of competition. It’s no longer good enough to just have a website that publishes press releases and notices, the consumer demands much more. They require information that has value to them, answers their questions and to a degree, educates them.
From that point of view depth of content is crucial. Information should be reliable and well-researched. It should also be personalised to a targeted audience [read about The importance of buyer personas in your marketing strategy here] and written authoritatively. Try and be as specific as possible, as good content is always buyer orientated. Making use of branded content tools, like infographics is also a good idea. Think of information that is useful to your target market and present it in a detailed, easy to follow format. When content stands out it is more memorable. [ For 7 Tips to Maximise Your Content Marketing Campaign click here]
Content is everything that is being published by the company, no matter the platform. From blog posts, to downloads, to Tweets - absolutely everything. Words, images or videos. Most of your information dense content will be in the form of blog posts and educational type content.
Wondering what to write? Think about the questions that your prospects ask you. Talk to your Sales Team to determine what those questions are. [Apply Smarketing]. Turn the answers you get into blog posts and educational content and remind the sales team to use these blog posts in their own communication with leads and clients. In this way you are solving the buyer’s problems even if it’s just in general and not specially geared towards products and services.
Each time you blog and blog properly (using keywords, links, etc.), you add another indexable page to your website. The more you proactively deliver information of value to your prospects, the more you are able to show your expertise and establish yourself as an authority.
You should aim to create as much educational content for your prospects as possible. The more content you create, the more leads you are likely going to get. Educational content includes: whitepapers, tip guides, research studies, presentations, eBooks and videos.
Blogging and the publishing of educational content should be followed with social media updates. The more you post to your social media networks, the more visitors you lead to your website. Think of your social media platforms as a courier service that delivers your content to your prospects’ front door.
Offer your content to people who do not yet know you. Guest blogging on industry-appropriate websites is a perfect example of achieving this and another avenue to build your online authority.
Here are a few ways, besides blogging, that you can use to structure content creation for your campaign:
Video is becoming increasingly important. Facebook has once again changed the Edgerank and videos are the most shown content. For that reason it is a must, but don’t think that you have to hire in a film crew to do it, even small simple and quick videos done with a camera or even a smartphone camera can produce great content that will be valued by your audience. Authenticity is the key here - the more authentic it is, the less polished it needs to be.
The most important thing to remember is that no inbound campaign can be successful without good quality content, and lots of it. It is the key element of this modern type of marketing to work as a lead generation tool. Is it worth it? According to “The State of Inbound” the cost of an inbound lead is $70 on average and an outbound lead $220 for medium sized companies.
This study has further interesting statistics concerning inbound and content marketing.
Keeping up with the latest trends and innovations across the marketing spectrum can be demanding and challenging but essential for the best marketers.
Month on month the digital world evolves and with it the need for marketers to be on top of the impact it has on digital marketing.
Hear it from Google and Hubspot, two influential forces in digital and content marketing to give insights on the future for PPC and content to help with your future marketing strategies.
Additionally, we’ll look at the significance of holistic digital campaigns that compliment all your marketing and PR efforts.
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