10 Infallible Strategies for Success
The term ‘content’ can feel a bit unwieldy. At one time content meant ‘blogging’ or webpages; now it’s expanded to include videos, infographics, social media, white papers, case studies. Just looking at the sheer range of options can be dizzying. Which is where content marketing strategies are useful.
However good your online content, without infallible strategies for success it’s unlikely that it will stand a chance of competing, ranking, or achieving the views it deserves. At Outsource Your Marketing it’s our job to get our clients in front of as many prospective customers as possible. Over the past decade we’ve successfully increased online traffic for eCommerce brands, financial services, healthcare organisations and the construction industry.
Want to see what content marketing strategies we use? Right this way…
1. Who is Your Audience?
No matter what kind of content you’re creating, it always starts with the audience. How else are you going to know what topics to cover, and how to make those topics engaging?
Segmenting lies at the heart of all successful content marketing strategies. Create different segments for each of your customer types, or personas, and tailor your content to each one. If a piece of content fails to drive any traffic to your site, rework it with the focus on one of your segments. Alternatively, a popular piece of content can be tailored across your segments to maximise engagement.
2. What Does Your Content Aim to Do?
Every piece of content has a job to do, and the more clearly defined that job is, the better chance it has of succeeding. An opinion piece, for example, is building authority and focusing debate on a specific topic; ultimately its goal is to increase brand awareness. A landing page has as its goal an action towards conversion, either by gaining more information, taking a free trial, or making a purchase.
Create a content chart that clusters topics around each of your key services or products. Make sure that each of the topics serves one of the 3 key stages of the buyer’s journey: awareness, evaluation, and purchase. This helps to define the goal attached to each topic and clarifies the goal each piece of content is required to fulfil.
3. Provide Ways in to Your Content
Your audience is looking for interesting and engaging stuff online; content marketing strategies are all about ensuring content adds value, offers a fresh approach, has an innovative way of engaging. Imagine a video game that doesn’t let you play. It’s the same for content; your audience wants to explore, try things out, encounter new ideas, or learn something. You just need to give them the opportunity.
Try including:
- ‘How to’ blogs and videos
- Quizzes
- Surveys
- Questions from the Google ‘People Also Ask’ panel
- Case Studies
- Visual data (charts and graphs)
- FAQs
4. The Job of Content is to Generate Demand
Content that sees its role as selling looks a bit old-fashioned now. Content marketing is all about inspiring interest, stimulating curiosity, and creating an appetite for more. Brands that are able to achieve this have a successful growth model that will create loyal customers who not only make purchases but also spread word-of-mouth about the great experience you offer.
Keep broadening out the range of perspectives you can provide your audience with. Invite guests to interview or ask expects to provide an opinion on a hot topic. The more you grow your content base, the greater the audience you’re likely to attract.
5. Content Becomes Visible Through Keyword Research
The foundation of any successful content marketing strategy is detailed and ongoing keyword research. These are the search terms your audience uses to find your product or service, and they change over time. Use online tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs to identify high-performing keywords that align perfectly with your product and incorporate them into all your content.
Whilst the high-volume keywords are important, they’re not the whole story. Long-tail keywords (4 words or more) usually have lower volume, but they can be far easier to rank for. They also allow you to tap into niche audience segments effectively.
6. Promote Content Across Multiple Channels
In an increasingly mobile-centric world, optimising your content for mobile devices is non-negotiable. A responsive design ensures that your content is accessible and visually appealing across all screen sizes, improving user experience and search rankings.
Leverage the power of social media platforms to amplify your content’s reach. Share your articles across various channels, engaging with your audience and encouraging them to share, comment, and interact.
7. Make it Personal
Effective content marketing strategies may be driven by data, but they’re dependent on authentic communication. Whatever your business, be generous in sharing it with your audience. Introduce the team, offer product related tips and giveaways, make a video showing the team at work. Most important, share your expertise. If you make fudge, tell your audience:
- Where you source your products and why.
- Where the recipe for the fudge comes from.
- What makes your fudge so delicious.
- How it’s made.
- What happens when it goes wrong.
- What you’ve learnt from running your business.
8. Use Images to Tell a Great Story
For most people content means words, but that’s certainly not the case any longer. An image is worth a thousand words, and in the digital era, and visual content is a powerful medium. Here’s what the Search Engine Journal has to say about the importance of imagery:
“We use five critical senses daily to solve problems and get through our daily lives, each of which helps humans significantly.
But vision is responsible for 80% of everything humans learn.
That’s why visual-rich media – photos, images, videos – have a huge impact on the success of written content and overarching content marketing strategies.”
Incorporate captivating images, infographics, and even videos to enhance user engagement. Visual content not only captures attention but also facilitates information retention.
9. Keep Improving Your Content Marketing Strategies
Analysing the data that your content generates not only tells you whether your current content marketing strategies are working; it also shows you the direction of travel as you move forward. Use the Google Search Console to check how you’re ranking, check Google Analytics to see how many page views you’ve had, and which blogs are attracting the most traffic. Keep an eye on bounce rates which tell you when your content doesn’t match the search intent.
Creating a schedule that includes regular data checks will, over time, give you a real sense of how your audience is changing, and what the topics are that are now attracting more attention. Data keeps you ahead of the trend – which is the perfect place for your content to be.
10. Take Deep Dives
As well as the social media posts, blog posts and videos, ensure that you offer your readers some long-form content. This refers to articles that are between 1,200 – 7,000 words long. Whilst much content online is targeted at people with little time or concentration to spare, the long-form articles invite readers to consider a carefully developed argument, a rare topic, a research project, or a long view.
One of the major benefits of long-form content is dwell time, which not keeps your reader engaged with your brand, but also helps to boost your page’s position in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS).
About Outsource Your Marketing
Outsource Your Marketing is a UK-based network of marketing professionals offering a range of outsourced services to business. We do the big stuff – like creating content marketing strategies, But we also tackle the smaller tasks like blog writing, keyword research, SEO enhanced content creation, or ongoing SEO marketing.
