Recently I spoke to Bill Sheikh, the founder and CEO of U-Thrive Marketing, one of the premier digital marketing and website design companies in Tulsa, Oklahoma USA. He's helped hundreds of businesses across the Midwest United States put their business on the map online. Bill specializes in creating more customers for the businesses he works with by utilizing proven online marketing tactics such as SEO, Pay Per Click Advertising & Social Media Marketing. He also has a team of experts that work on his team that specialize in website development, website design and graphic design. Along with having an extensive background in digital marketing, He's been personally featured in many national and local publications with subjects related to variety of digital marketing topics.
We had a chat about content marketing and it's connections with the rest of your digital marketing plans.
Boosting Your Digital Marketing
If you’re a businessman, a marketer, or a website owner looking for ways to generate better brand appeal, then you’re likely going to look for ways to better boost your marketing efforts. However, did you know that you’re likely going to get the results you’re looking for if you amp up your brand’s content marketing game? That’s right - interestingly enough, modern trends suggest that you may actually give your marketing campaign the kind of push it needs by focusing on content.
The Power Of Content: Marketing At Its Finest
Interestingly, one might want to take note of the efficiency of content marketing as a tool for businesses to boost brand appeal. In fact, content marketing is considered to cost 62-percent less compared to other marketing strategies, but can generate three times as many prospects under the right direction. Interestingly, this also affects a lot of consumers today - in fact, 61-percent of online consumers in the United States make purchases after reading blog recommendations. And for the kicker, content marketing can actually gain six times more conversions than other traditional marketing methods. If you’re interested in making an investment towards content marketing, it seems that decision is right all along.
Boosting Marketing Efforts Via Content
Given how content can drastically affect the way your marketing works, it’s important to have a general idea as to how good content can be achieved by marketers. Stay sharp and stay on your toes, as here are power tips on boosting your marketing efforts through content:
- Tap into your audience’s interests: One of the most important tenets of marketing is making sure your brand generates appeal to your audience. Creating content that is informative, entertaining, and relevant can help accomplish this for you. Remember that it’s important to be aware of what the audience needs in order to curate content appropriate for their needs. Digital marketing companies such as U-Thrive Marketing can help you achieve this.
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- Marketing relies a lot on the way you understand your audience and how you use that understanding to make sure you create content that is valuable to them. Observe the way your audience interacts with other brands and your own posts and assess what you feel is the kind of content that appeals to them the most.
- Relying on analytics is perhaps an essential component towards boosting your marketing via content. Understanding which posts are appealing to which kinds of audiences can give you a rough idea on where to begin when it comes to researching the kind of content you should make.
- Keywords count more than you think. Try to search for the most popular keywords being used in the industry and check just what sort of dimensions and components inside these keywords generate the most appeal to audiences. Try to tap into aspects of those keywords and make content revolve around them.
- Plan for content that is representative of your message: Your brand and your company will most likely have a “voice” you want your audience to remember. This can be a company policy, a company vision, or some form of message your particular product or service represents. You need to be able to create content that represents this message in order to relay value to your audiences.
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- Find your voice as early as now. How will you be presenting your content? What sort of voice will you use? Are you conversational? Are you formal? Are you informal? Knowing this as early as now can help at least dictate the kind of language you’ll use and the forms of content available.
- Is your message the most efficient way of tackling your brand? Sometimes, you need to make a reassessment of the kind of impact your message may have and if it’s something you can use for the long term.
- Find your intention and tap into that: Just what sort of intention do you have with your content? Marketing campaigns often fail because they don’t plan far ahead and into specifics. If you want your audiences to rely on your brand for some form of need, how will you urge them to do that? If you want your audience to get to know your brand, in what way will you generate appeal?
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- Find something that gives value to your audience. What sort of problems do they have that you think you can solve? How will you present this solution to them? These are always the questions asked when it comes to finding the right kind of content that will be appropriate for consumption.
- How will your content manage to help your audiences? How will your content motivate them to approach your brand and seek for assistance? Just how will you give them that nudge?
- Content isn’t always about writing: If you’ve noticed, the term “blog” was barely used (if not at all) in this article. This isn’t because blogs aren’t important, or that blogs aren’t content, but rather blogs aren’t the only kinds of content you can create. While blogging does have its own appeal to readers and consumers, using blogs alongside other forms of content can actually make your marketing team a powerhouse.
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- When you write blogs, try to consider creating other posts in other social media platforms to go along with the blog. Not only does this create other content for your other channels, but also makes sure there’s cohesion with your pieces. Don’t just make content that’s similar, however, but rather content that’s interrelated.
- When you make or write something, try to make sure you’re scheduled to update it every few months. This can be an update to the article itself or an update in the form of new posts.
- When you plan to create content, create a content calendar along with it. Make sure everything you create - from your topic, to the medium, to the platform of posting - are documented so you’re always aware of what’s going on with your content. It’s much better if you have columns and other portions reserved for data such as metrics and analytics, so you can have an overall view of your content marketing campaign all the time.
- Always brace yourself for expansion: When you create content, don’t make your content something that is supposed to be isolated from the rest of your blog. Make sure your content is something you can always build upon or update or improve. Likewise, make sure you’re always open for adjustments as well, especially when it comes to trends.
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- When you make content, try to make sure they can be connected one way or another to your social media presence, and that content you make in the future can be in some shape or form be related to the piece you’re creating. That way, readers and visitors will always have something to go back to.
- Observe what forms of adjustments the competition are making towards their own content and branding. Sometimes, you can take a page or two off their books and create your own modifications to your content to make them more appealing.
- Transitions are supposed to come slowly. If you feel as though there’s a trend you need to follow, make sure you take a careful study and slowly implement a transition towards your new kinds of content so the change won’t be too abrupt for audiences.
The Takeaway: In Marketing, Content Is Still King
In today’s digital era, it’s getting increasingly easy - and at the same time challenging - for companies, businesses, enterprises, and brands to reach out to their audiences. After all, with millions of websites out there and millions of social media accounts, connecting with one another online can be as easy as clicking a button. Motivating individuals to click these buttons - alongside making them followers of your particular brand - however means that your marketing game should evolve as well. If there’s anything the above has shared, it’s that in today’s era, your content marketing strategy may need to have some modifications in order to jumpstart your branding’s success to a wider audience.