Since blogging is really a form of content marketing, this course is not "just" about content marketing. It is also about blogging.
Following this article will help you as a blogger as much as it will help you as a content marketer.
Let's dive right into our first lesson about content marketing:
One of the most dangerous things I have heard when it comes to content marketing is “The best content will win.”
People focus on creating better and more content and when results don’t come in they try to create better and even more content.
And then results for this awesome content still don’t show no matter how much time and effort and maybe even money went into it.
That is heading straight towards frustration.
Because content marketing or blogging for a business is never “just” about creating great content.
The thing is: If you get everything else in place that is part of content marketing, you do not need that much content and you can make it to success with content that serves your audience - not necessarily the best content out there.
Do you see the difference?
If you have a content marketing strategy, clear goals and a plan for how to get there, you can act and create exactly the content that will get you there.
What most people do when they say they start blogging or content marketing is they start creating content and only when results don’t show they start asking why they fail and what they should do.
I know what I am talking about. I have been active in content marketing for near to 10 years now. I have tried the not-so-targeted content creation approach and have seen the change when I finally made a plan for my content marketing.
Since then, I taught many customers how to find success through a strategic content marketing approach.
So what is it that you are lacking if content creation is your content marketing strategy?
1. Set goals
What do you want to achieve with your content marketing efforts? And how can you measure if you are getting there? If you don't know WHY you are doing it you will fail.
2. Who is your target audience?
Only if you know who you want to reach you can decide where to find them and which content is of interest to them.
3. What content will speak to your audience?
For whom will you produce what kind of content? Why and how is your content speaking to your target audience?
Yes, I know that some content forms are more popular than others. But this decision should still be made with your target group in mind.
4. What is the relation between your content and your sales funnel.
In the end, you want to sell something. Not all content is going to get you there.
Need an example? If I want to sell a Twitter Marketing Course, content about Pinterest marketing may not be the best to do it - even though it may align with all other aspects of my content marketing strategy.
5. Plan your distribution.
Without distribution, all your content marketing efforts are bound to fail.
Don’t try to get your content into every distribution channel you can think of.
Focus on 2 or 3 channels but get your distribution right in these channels.
The focus will give you far better results with far less effort.
6. Find a schedule.
Don’t plan on creating one post every day if that means you have no time for distribution. Make sure you define a schedule that you can stick to and that leaves time for all the other tasks - and life.
7. Measure and optimize.
Nothing is set in stone. Be prepared to adjust, tweak and optimize. Don’t follow a plan that does not work just because you made it.
8. Stay on it.
The crucial part. Many bloggers give up far too early.
You cannot see big results after 10 blog posts if you are still trying hard to figure out how to grow your audience and neglected your distribution.
Content marketing is always about building: building a reputation, building an audience and building trust.
The above 8 steps may seem like a lot of work - but you do it once. And then you can follow a targeted approach. And you will see results far quicker than if you start throwing out content piece after content piece and barely have time to take a look at your distribution strategy.
Do you still feel that you need to concentrate on creating better, shinier content?
What if you have the best content you can ever create? And what if your target audience just is not interested in it?
Or if your audience never sees the outstanding content that you created because your distribution failed?
What if you have that outstanding content and you even manage to get some readers to it - and then it never converts any customers?
Does it not make sense to focus on creating the right content that will help you build your brand and reputation and then focus on distributing this content to your target audience?
That is what I will give you next time: A list of things you have to do AFTER you created your content. A list that will become your routine for every piece of content. Just following this list for every piece of your content will tremendously increase your content marketing success!
Don’t forget the crucial steps in your content marketing. Your work is not done when you publish your content.
That is all for today's lesson. Stay tuned until tomorrow, when it is all about content promotion.
Best,
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