Digital marketing is no longer just about blog posts, updating your presence on social media, and hoping for the best. Today’s digital marketers must be thoroughly knowledgeable about their audience, armed with authentic and dynamic content, and ready to implement new strategies at a moment’s notice. Let’s talk more about these 9 actionable content marketing tips for digital marketers.
Let’s face it: Content marketing has become one of the most prevalent digital marketing strategies because it works. In fact, according to a study by Demand Metric, 90% of all organizations use content marketing in their strategy. That’s good news for you!
1. Content Is King
The first and most important tip we have for you is to remember that content is king. If your goal is to drive more leads and sales through content marketing, it will be useless to put out mediocre, uninspired posts that don’t address your audience’s needs. Remember, your content has a specific purpose. Whether you’re trying to generate leads, inspire thought, or drive engagement, make sure you have a clear vision before you start publishing.
2. Plan Before You Create
With so many different types of content available, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. To make sure you’re publishing high-quality, relevant content, plan before you create. Planning your content in advance allows you to stay focused, follow a consistent publishing schedule, and make sure your content is always relevant. Planning your content also helps you stay on budget.
If you know what type of content you’ll be publishing in the coming months, you’ll have time to create and test new strategies that might be more cost-effective. Planning your content also helps you create better content. It will help you stay focused on your target audience, their needs, and the goals you’re trying to achieve.
3. Understand Your Audience
Before you start publishing, it’s important to understand your audience. You can use tools like Facebook Audience Insights and Google Surveys to better understand your audience’s background and preferences, but it’s also important to get out there and talk to people. Try to meet with at least three different types of people: potential customers, current customers, and experts in your industry.
When you talk to people, try to ask open-ended questions that will allow you to understand what’s important to them — not what’s important to you. Make sure to take notes throughout the process, and take time to review what you’ve learned. You don’t want to forget any of the valuable information you’ve been given, and taking notes will help you commit all of it to memory.
4. Develop A Content Marketing Strategy
OK, so you’ve figured out what your audience wants, and you’ve planned out the type of content you want to publish. Now it’s time to put your strategy into action. As you’re publishing new pieces of content, try to develop a long-term strategy that will help you scale your content marketing efforts.
The best way to do this is to create an editorial calendar. Your editorial calendar will help you stay focused and consistent. It will also provide you with a clear path toward achieving your long-term goals.
5. Make Quality Content Your Top Priority
Before you publish anything, ask yourself one question: does this post add value to my audience? If the answer is “no,” go back to the drawing board. Most marketers struggle with creating enough content, but the problem usually stems from prioritizing quantity over quality.
If you want to be successful with content marketing, you have to make quality content your top priority. That doesn’t mean you can’t publish frequently. In fact, the top content marketers publish hundreds of posts a year. The key is to make sure each piece of content is helpful, easy to digest, and adds value to your audience.
6. Use Data To Find Out What Works
Now that you’re publishing regular content, you’ll want to track your performance. Doing so will allow you to make adjustments as needed, so you can continue to publish helpful content and drive leads and sales. There are many tools available to help you track your content marketing performance.
A few favorites include Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Hubspot, and Woopra. When you track your content, you can discover what’s working and what’s not. This will allow you to make necessary changes, so you can focus your energy on publishing even better content.
7. Be Authentic And Earned
Content marketing is a long-term strategy. While it will likely drive leads and sales sooner than other online marketing strategies, it’s not a quick fix. To be successful, you need to be authentic and earned. Earned media is coverage you don’t pay for.
It includes mentions in the news, blogs, social media posts, and more.
Authentic content is written with your audience in mind, is helpful, and doesn’t sound like you’re trying to sell something. By being authentic and earning your success, you’ll gain the trust of your audience. This will make it easier to convert them into leads, and eventually sales
8. Don’t Rely On Big Brands For Growth
It’s tempting to rely on big brands for growth. They have massive audiences, and you’d love to get your content in front of them. Unfortunately, you don’t control when or where these brands publish their content. You also don’t know what topics they’re going to cover in their posts, nor do you have any control over their publishing schedule.
You do, however, have control over your own publishing schedule and topics. You can post at the times your audience is most engaged, and you can post about the topics they want to read about. This will help you avoid the roller coaster effect that comes with relying on big brands for exposure.
9. Don’t Forget About Twitter And Instagram
Social media is the most powerful free tool there is to connect to your audience. You’ll want to make sure you’re posting on platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, and you should be sure to include your brand name and URL in your posts. Just make sure you stay consistent and don’t forget about these platforms.
Summing Up 9 Actionable Content Marketing Tips For Digital Marketers
Now that we’ve talked about content marketing, let’s recap what you need to do to be successful. Remember, content is king. If you want to be successful at content marketing, you need to create high-quality content that adds value to your audience.
And that’s not all: you’ll also need to plan your content in advance, understand your audience, and develop a content marketing strategy. And don’t forget to make sure your content is authentic and earned, and that it adds value to your audience.
Ready to put these content marketing tips for digital marketers into action as one of your marketing tactics to help grow your business? These tips will also help you be more visible in search engines and have a better online presence. Start by creating a list of topics to cover and a publishing schedule. Then, determine which tools will help you create and publish content more efficiently. Finally, start publishing!
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