Effective content marketing can be your company's greatest asset, or its biggest downfall. Creating and maintaining a level of high-quality content is no small task. Often, it requires the coordinated efforts of an entire team of people in house or, more commonly, outsourced to freelance professionals.
Inc. recently explained that content marketing offers a huge return on investment if you know how to make the most out of the budget you have to work with. No matter if you're starting small in order to get a handle on creating your own content or want to jump in and make a splash, these tips will help you get more bang for your marketing buck.
Embrace Multimedia
Some companies don't feel comfortable using videos, games and other multimedia marketing devices. Starting out with these mediums can be difficult at first, but broadening your approach will help you not only to reach more customers, it can help reboot your entire brand. The average user spends a full third of their time online watching videos. That translates into a huge audience if you're willing to reach out to them in their preferred format.
Scrap the Sales Pitch
Running a business means you want everyone to know about everything you do and you often feel as if you're always in Promotion Mode. Constantly pumping out a sales pitch can actually hurt your business, however.
Customers today prefer companies that offer information and personal empowerment through high quality content that aims to inform, educate and entertain. Want clients to know more about your legal services? Develop a series of articles about legal issues making the news or affecting local issues.
Be Approachable
Using a blog gives your business a chance to relate to clients and customers on a more casual level and makes you look more approachable when you use the comments generated by posts as a forum for discussion. Blog posts also offer a relatively easy way for you to generate regular content which can be easily SEO optimized. This influx of content on a regular basis coupled with SEO optimization helps your website become the "Go-To" place for information, insight and discussion.
Get Specific & Make It Custom
In a recent piece written for Fast Company, LinkedIn exec Jonathan Lister explained that custom content is, hands down, the best way to approach your content marketing strategy. Some companies begin by offering access to content originally hosted through other sources as a way to offer more information to clients and become associated with established and respected content. While this can help in the tentative stages of content develop, custom content is the only way to develop an effective marketing campaign.
A whopping 90% of internet users find custom content useful and 80% of decision makers prefer to receive information on a brand or service through custom written articles as opposed to traditional advertising. Making your content unique, original and aimed with your specific audience in mind tell clients that you're a force within the industry and shows a commitment to sharing knowledge.
Know Your Customers
Just as you tailor your products to appeal to your customers, so must you tailor your content. Make sure the topics you cover relate to issues affecting your customers while bringing a new perspective or innovative solution to light. Offer content that speaks to those new to your industry as well as seasoned professionals. Most importantly, relate to your clients on a personal level by including them and making them a part of social media campaigns and online forums. This way you'll be bridging the divide between your online marketing and real world applications that will keep your company at the forefront of your customer's mind.
With this approach, you can engage with your customers, grow your brand identity, and enjoy bigger sales. Feeling overwhelmed about adding another thing to your to-do list? Just leave the marketing to us.
Image Credit: [Flickr/Doug Aghassi]
