How to Become a Champion at Content Marketing! Use your content portal as a platform for people to share their pains and gains

With the rise and emergence of new trends to reach out to the public, content marketing is believed to have an ever-rising effect on the marketing graph. Content marketing is nothing new, but people have become aware of its more strategic uses in the last few years.

According to a survey conducted by the Content Marketing Institution in 2017, 62% of B2B marketers say their organizations have benefitted from content marketing more than what it was a year ago.

This finding can drive our attention back to the point that content marketing has a lot of opportunities.

However, a lot of companies would claim that they have their content marketing department on point, but it has not brought about a lot of good changes. So, to make sure that your content marketing strategies are well-planned and will bring you success, follow these rules:

Set a Goal

While setting goals keep in mind the five Ws, because without them, you will not be able to decide on appropriate content or even a topic. Content can be required for various reasons: for a social media platform, for blogs, or for any other special purpose. Focus on the timeframe within which your clients are most active on the respective platforms that you are posting on. This will greatly influence the responses to your content.

Content Generation

The second step is to look out for a topic that would interest your target clients. Going through this process, you will realize that there are a lot of topics that can be talked about, but a wise decision would be to choose one going with the latest trends. While writing, make sure that you cover the topic to the fullest and optimize all the potential aspects of it. Try to include as many keywords and inbound links as you can, as this will enhance the SEO and make your content more informative. The key to any good content is research or case study.

• Become well-acquainted with the topic that you are going to write about.
• Know about the targeted platforms where your audience is most active.

Plan Out the Framework

You can't just throw all the content that you have written out on the media. Working in chunks will result in better outcomes. Plan a strategic framework about when you will be posting and on which platform. Work on all of the phases individually. Also, putting everything into a particular timeframe would result in a rigid schedule. So, to avoid any kind of mess later on, keep your time slots a little flexible, because a little wiggle room will always help in accommodating unexpected delays or chaos.

Why Content Marketing

According to research, 80% people prefer a series of articles versus an advertisement; 70% agree that content marketing makes them feel closer to a product or business, while 60% of the general public credit content for helping them make better product decisions. Apart from the statistical facts, here are other proven reasons why your company should focus on content marketing.

• It acts as a building block for trust and brand identity
• It improves SEO and, hence, the organic search traffic
• You can portray your ideas on various topics and other business-related affairs that would build a rapport with your clients
• It attracts even those who are not part of your cold trafficking.
• It requires a lesser investment, but offers a higher ROI.
• It gets you more website visits.

What Not to Do

The amount of success a well done content marketing strategy can offer to your business can also be the amount of damage it can bring if not done properly. Read these common mistakes that can be a hurdle to an impactful strategy.

• As discussed earlier, it is important to write about things that interest your audience. Sometimes, you just simply "assume' what is going to catch their eye instead of conducting proper research about their interest areas, or without any detailed discussions. Don't make such unplanned decisions.
• Placing keywords in your content is necessary, but do not get so caught up in generating a lot of content around your keywords that you forget about the quality that your readers would want from an article. Quantity is important, but so is the quality of the content; both go hand-in-hand. Do not choose one over the other.
• After putting a lot of blood and sweat into your content, it would be remiss to not track your results. Keeping an eye on the outcome of your efforts is crucial, as it will lead to further correction, and improvements, if necessary.

Something to Learn From

Recently, I met Ron Malhotra, Founder of 'The Successful Male'. He believes that too much technical information and lack of insight on a topic are some of the mistakes that companies are making in their content generation. People should not stick to one niche. They should share thought-provoking and high-quality knowledge that their prospects and customers care about.This will turn lead prospects into loyal customers.

Anyone with any expertise should not have a problem coming up with a topic. Writing stories would also be effective. It's never very healthy to only talk about what centers around your company or the product that you offer. Rather, other unrelated issues are going to prove to be cohesive for the interests of the reader, and your blogs.

Now that you have read about how content marketing works, you should know that it doesn't work uniformly for everyone. Every company has their own nuts and bolts to join together to make their unique strategy. Here are some amazing and absolutely brilliant content writing approaches, or rather, innovations, brought up by different brands that have proved to be very effective.

• Make it easy- We understand the significance of big data or well-though-out plans, but sometimes, keeping your content uptight can get a little boring and something that the reader might not find interesting. To make your content attention-grabbing and interest-holding, put a little bit of wit or maybe some sarcasm in. This is popular on the internet these days.
• Engage your readers- Who does not love to read about themselves? Well, your readers will really appreciate if you generate content wherein you can tell them about your best customer experiences or write success stories.
• Use your content portal as a platform for people to share their pains and gains- You can talk about some social cause or event that will provoke your reader to give their opinions on the same.