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Feb 17, 2016Content marketing has gone from a niche within the industry to full-fledged industry of its own in a relatively short time. Results have proven than in this world of ad blindness and demands for instant satisfaction, content delivers.
However, not everyone is getting it right. Smaller companies or those that are simply too busy coping with the day to day, or those who dip a toe into content marketing are letting opportunity pass them by. Content marketing, like anything in business, needs to be done right or not at all.
You have two choice to improve your content. Work with Coastal Content and let us take care of everything for you, or use these five ways to improve the impact of your content marketing.
Embrace content marketing
Just about every business in every industry can benefit from higher engagement, more customer loyalty, increased visibility and a better online reputation. All things content marketing can deliver.
Whether you?re a pet shop or multinational organisation having a coherent marketing strategy in place will get you noticed. It doesn?t have to cost much and it can be focused tightly to your specific needs.
Measure it
Once you embrace content marketing as the way forward, you have to give it some goals. Are you looking for more web traffic? More Facebook likes? More downloads? Purchases? Or leads generated? An effective content marketing campaign needs to have a goal in mind and some kind of metric to measure success.
Move beyond the blog
A blog can be very effective as the centrepiece to your content marketing efforts but it shouldn?t be the only string to your bow. You can use video, podcasts, eBooks, infographics, leaflets, mailshots, webinars, radio and TV advertising, brochures and more too.
An effective strategy will assess the demands of your target audience and deliver content in the form they are most receptive to. It will also assess your ability to deliver quality content to each medium and select only those you can do justice.
Free content is free publicity
Content marketing is an investment not a cost. Giving stuff for free is the single most effective way to get people interested in what you have to say. It may cost money but it soon repays it. You can include case studies, white papers, infographics, how-to booklets, ideas and support content and anything else your customers could make use of.
Concentrate on offering value to those customers instead of selling and they will be much more responsive to it. Free is only free is there is nothing required in return. That means no sales pitch and as little self-promotion as you can manage.
Variety keeps them coming
Content marketing has a vital role to play in building a business profile but it isn?t all you need. Combine content with onsite SEO, email marketing, social media, PPC, advertising, offline promotion and other mediums that your audience is likely to use. The more exposure someone has to your business, the more likely they are to remember it.