We’ve all heard the adage that content is King.
But, as someone marketing a business, creating content that drives ROI can feel elusive.
In fact, it can feel downright impossible.
Whether you’re flying solo or working within a team – finding the perfect balance, rhythm and flow for your online content is crucial.
So where do you begin?
Last week I was honored to Keynote at the Arizona Interactive Marketing Association where I shared:
- What type of content drives ROI
- How to attract the right type of customers
- How to conduct relevant content marketing research
- What channels work best to promote your content
- What content marketing tools every digital marketer should be using
- How to measure content marketing success
If you’ve ever wanted to learn the same, then you’re in luck! I’ve broken down the highlights below and shared the presentation on Slideshare.
Read on to learn how you can use content marketing to tell your story, break through the noise and connect with your target market!
Become a Content Marketing Powerhouse: Secrets to a Super-Sticky Strategy
What is Content Marketing?
My answer to this question is always simple.
Content marketing at its core is connection marketing. It’s offering the right content to the right people with the right frequency and consistency.
But it’s also relationship marketing – something many companies are still (IMHO) failing at.
Many see people as numbers rather than looking at the engagement process as this:
How can I bring more food to the table then I came with?
In other words, how can you become a resource so vital that the marketplace simply can’t live without your product, service or app?
The key to that is through the content you create.
Whether it’s blog posts, videos, presentations, webinars, Infographics or podcasts, your content – when shared with the right people – helps tell your story in a powerful and meaningful way.
Great Companies Tell GREAT Stories
And that’s the secret great companies understand. They know that stories can create an emotional bond with customers.
Just look to brands like Apple, Coca Cola, GE, Facebook, and Disney as examples. Each one weaves storytelling into their marketing in a way that immediately connects their audience to their mission and vision.
But it’s not just big brands that get it’s the WHY that connects people to you, not the WHAT.
Stories:
Create differentiation
Look to social media marketer Peg Fitzpatrick, author of “The Art of Social Media” and you’ll see a brand that stands out from the crowd. No matter where you look, Peg’s signature look is undeniable.
Allow you to stand out in a crowded marketplace
Denise Wakeman of “Adventures in Visibility” uses stories to bring her fans and followers along on her adventures. By creating a fun and interactive space, Denise shows others how to use a personal journey to make better (and stronger) online connections.
Offer maximum impact with little effort
Donna Mortiz of Socially Sorted is a master at taking one piece of content and turning it into many. She makes storytelling and content repurposing look effortless!
And the beauty behind this tactic? You offer maximum impact at a lower cost.
In other words – more bang for your marketing dollar.
Why You MUST Make an Impact
And given how crowded the online marketplace has become, making an impact is more important than ever before.
- Twitter has 284 million monthly active users
- Instagram has 300 million monthly active users
- Facebook has 1.35 BILLION monthly active users
- 23% are on Twitter
- 71% are on Facebook
- 74% of online adults (ages 18+) use social networks regularly.
While those stats are staggering, they don’t show a complete picture.
In fact, you may see those stats and think – if you’re going to be seen or heard – you have to produce and share more content.
To that I say – STOP!
The idea isn’t to create more content, but rather the right content that connects with your audience.
The only way to differentiate your business is to realize that it’s your message and the value you provide to your community that set you apart.
Steps to Become a Content Marketing Powerhouse
1. Define Objectives:
What are you looking to achieve with content marketing? As Chuck Palahniuk says,
“If you don’t know what you want, you end up with a lot you don’t.”
Grab a pen and paper or your favorite app and start writing. What are your objectives? Here’s a few examples:
- Raise awareness
- Extend your reach
- Build thought leadership
- Grow your brand
- Launch a product
- Promote a book
2. Get Specific
Now drill down into specific goals. They might look something like this:
3. Do Your Research
Who is your target market?
What do they look like, do for a living and what problems do you solve?
Build out your persona by looking at the data. Uncover who you’re talking with and how you’ll be able to help them on a daily basis. Look to this article from Boxes and Arrows to begin your research.
4. Identify Content
What content do you currently have in place and what will you produce?
To become a content marketing powerhouse, you have to create SHARE WORTHY content!
Don’t worry about reinventing the wheel. Begin by identifying what you have and how you can repurpose it for your online marketing.
Then look to tools for content curation. My favorites are:
- Post Planner
- Buzzsumo
- Twitter Lists
5. Know Your Networks
Understand each social network: how will they support your objectives?
Here’s an example of what Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest and YouTube might look like for you.
6. Commit to Consistency
Commit to a consistent content creation and posting schedule.
Download this free template from Hubspot and begin to look ahead at what and when you’ll share content.
7. Get Involved
Get involved in the conversation. It’s critical that if you’re going to use social media, you stay interactive.
And most importantly – create content that shows you’re a giver, not a taker!
A few of my favorite tools to make listening and injecting yourself into the conversation effortless:
8. Create a System
Now its time for you to put your content marketing into a system. The goal is to use what works best for you.
While there are many tools to choose from, stick with what’s easy.
- Excel
- Google Calendar
- Co-Schedule
9. Promote Your Content
A mistake I see many make is posting content once and then moving on.
It’s not enough to tweet or post once. Not only do you miss getting that content in front of a larger audience, you lose the ability to touch every single one of your fans and followers.
Because let’s face it – not everyone is online at the same time.
Promote, promote, promote!
Check out this great breakdown of how to best promote your content from Marketo.
10. Create Your Daily Workflow
What does a basic social media marketing workflow look like? Buffer has broken it down!
All that’s left to do now is synthesize this great pipeline of information you’ve created and find all the ways you can begin to act on the results you’re seeing. As you do so, make sure the information keeps flowing. If you’re on your own or at a small company, it should be easy enough to share and act on what you’ve learned so you can keep getting better.
Create your daily workflow – rinse and repeat!
Final Thoughts
No matter how you’re using content marketing in your business currently, in order to survive – you must create a roadmap to ensure sustainability.
Whether you face seasonal or economy issues – prevent them from impacting your business.
Instead, allow your business to thrive, regardless of conditions – and cater to a community that’s living online 24/7.
Such a great post to know different useful information.
This article surely helps the peoples who want to become a content writer. Here some of the very important points are discussed fully which would be helpful.
I always read your articles and I read this article too.
I am waiting for next articles.
Hi there, I agree great stories are benefit to content marketing bussines. I have been blogging now for almost three years on a small slovenian furniture market and I can confirm at least my buyers preffer far more stories that brutal facts and technicalities about furniture. Thanks, Matija
Nailed it! It’s not a matter of churning out as many posts as you can (we look down content / fluff mills bordering on spammy as much as Google does, thank you very much), but on getting quality posts to the right people, who in turn will share it with their own networks. Thanks for the guide– I know resources like these exist already on the web, but I do love the presentation slides in the end! 🙂
It seems like an easy enough concept to understand, doesn’t it Dawn? Yet so many still miss the point. Create the right content and deliver it to the right people – a win for everyone!
Super guide Rebekah. I love doing content marketing and it’s more fun (definitely) for some niches.
I definitely need a lot more work on my own blog though. Still a lot more ground to cover with content marketing 🙂
There’s always a lot of ground to cover Dennis. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it, right? 🙂
Just pick one area you can improve and give that a try. There’s no reason to try to reinvent the wheel all at once or add in too many layers at once. That’s a recipe for disaster.
What an epic blueprint for crafting a killer content marketing plan. This kind of ‘long game’ content marketing strategy is a piece I was missing in my biz for a long time. Taking the time to understand the fundamentals of content marketing and crafting a specific plan for my end goals has made a WORLD of difference.
What do you know, planning pays off! 😉 Great resource as always, Rebekah!
You might have missed it initially, but you’ve definitely kicked it into high gear now Andrea. Your marketing is amazing and your visuals, well – they are nothing short of fantastic!
I’ve got your article through Google search, really amazed to find your powerful content in social media marketing. Most perhaps, your blog is my right powerhouse to learn what I look for. I’ve learnt 10 tips two times and got a powerful idea over content marketing with significant inspiration of social media marketing success. Thanks.
Hi Swapan! Welcome and thanks for stopping by. Glad to hear you found exactly what you were looking for!
Hi Rebekah,
As always, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this gem of a post! There is so much goodness here that this instantly got bookmarked for future reading with a notebook and additional cups of coffee.
I have to totally agree with the telling great stories part. The more I read about effective personal and company branding and about sticky content, the more I become convinced about the requirement of having a consistent and effective storytelling at the forefront. In fact, Dan and Chip Heath’s book Made to Stick also mentions storytelling as a powerful means for creating sticky and memorable content. I loved it that you weaved stories of examples in your post. Also it is worth mentioning that research in learning has pointed out to the stickiness of stories of experience that can create emotional bonds vs. simply memorizing the subject matter. Stories last far longer in our long term memory when compared to any other means of delivery (not sure about music though since that is a powerful way of invoking emotions and ensure stickability as well).
And as you mention, relationship marketing and adding value instead of getting bogged down with numbers is the critical missing component of an effective strategy. I believe that some people are inherently better at communicating and forming relationships that others and recognizing those strengths or weaknesses may also be an important piece of the puzzle.
Often, even after obvious value a brand is bringing, they put on the front lines people who are ill prepared or willing to genuinely interact with others. This compromises the brand and content marketing strength and turns off customers. In a relationship type position, a company has no excuse but to provide the better than the best welcoming service and genuine care and concern for the customer and the audience. For companies with great stories like Apple and Disney as you mention, this becomes a lot easier because of their strong “why” and their willingness to place ambassadors who understand relationship marketing.
Thanks for a great post, I promise I will be back with my moleskine notebook in hand and freshly ground and brewed coffee in another! 🙂
Harish
LOL Harish – you’re speaking my coffee language. 🙂
Storytelling certainly isn’t a new concept, but wow is it powerful when injected into a content marketing strategy. Unfortunately, I think too many are afraid to tell their story or share the “why” behind their business.
Putting yourself out there and genuinely sharing who are and why you do what you do can strengthen your brand and set yourself apart in a big way. There are so many benefits to telling a compelling story.
Beautiful and detailed post, Rebekah. Wow!
It’s funny, because content marketing is one of those concepts that can be painful to explain to clients… they really don’t understand why we don’t just post ‘Buy Now!’ to Facebook 17x a day.
I think I’ll just forward this guide to clients in the future… 😉
So funny and true Brent. The “one-off tactic” conversations can be painful. Hopefully this will help ease the pain. 🙂
Hey Rebekah,
These tips are really similar to what I’m doing. As a matter of fact, I’m looking to work smarter than working harder. I don’t have a lot of time of my day to day schedule, which is why this is important.
But for those that don’t have any type of direction, this would be the perfect roadmap for them to get going. If they follow this, they’ll be sure to see more of the results that have been hoping for!
And it all starts out with great personal stories. At least from my experience!
Thanks for sharing Rebekah! Have a great rest of the week!
It sounds like you’re right on track Sherman. That’s awesome! It’s hard to find your own groove, but once you do – you’re golden!
Agreed the online marketplace is super crowded, and everyone blogs because they’ve heard content is king, however the content space is also super crowded. It takes time and effort to sift through messy content to find great nuggets like these. Thanks for sharing!
Glad to hear you enjoyed it Trybe!
This is a massive article with a ton of great info. I love the quote by Chuck Palahniuk which reminds me of Alice in Wonderland & the Cheshire Cat. “I don’t much care where…” “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
Thanks for the link to the Marketo plan. It’s really useful as well. So much to digest in this one post – I’ll be back for more.
Hi Matt! That’s such a great quote from Alice in Wonderland. One of my all time faves.
Marketo puts out amazing info. You can fall into that hole of content and never come out. 🙂
Good insights Rebekah, I have noticed that blog writing is popular in vernacular language too. Even it is being used in Haryanavi( local language spoken in northern India) and when I was in my native state Punjab. My relatives were showing me it in Punjabi too.
But, Rebekah, problem in front of me is how to start it. It is okay to keep on reading insights from experts but when these are used in practical only then it create impulse of excitement and thrill.
I know exactly what you mean Dharam. It’s all about implementation and execution. I would start small. Pick one or two things you can commit to. Then measure those results. See how it’s working and then start to implement other pieces.
Such an insightful post! You’ve got so much information here, I’ll have to read it again to make sure it sinks in 😉 I used to be a pretty haphazard blogger, but since I’ve started blogging on more of a schedule, and planning my content in advance, I’ve definitely noticed the difference in my traffic!
That’s great to hear Kelly. It’s difficult to commit to a schedule, but it really makes a huge difference.
Hi Rebekah,
Great article and this struck me a lot. I have not been consistent enough which … I need to do so immediately!
Thanks for ‘smacking’ it on me! Great post and love the images by the way!
No problem Reginald – happy to provide that smack. 😉
Fantastic article and what a surprise to see a mention of Adventures in Visibility. Thank you, Rebekah. I’ll be passing this along to my students with whom I’ve been discussing strategy and planning. You Rock!
How could I not include you Denise? You share so much and the fact that you take us along on your adventures…it just makes everything all that much better!
Thanks for great prompts for organisation and planning. This is something I struggle with so very helpful.
I also find reminders sink in when I can see everything in a pathway or string of ideas so I found the structure here very useful.
Thanks.
Hi Karen – that’s great to hear. I’m a linear thinker too, so I completely understand the need to see the whole picture from beginning to end.
I’m pretty sure this is the best “how to” SMM piece I’ve read this year. The Deck at the end was the perfect ending to an A+ article. Really enjoyed the read Rebekah!
Now that’s a huge compliment coming from you Neil. Thank you!