Even in the XXI century, many organizations fail to understand the importance of content marketing. Getting a leg up on the competition is impossible without engaging blog posts, social media publications, videos, and more.

The recent studies by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) show that as much as sixty-three percent of organizations lack a proper content marketing strategy. These worrying statistics could be changed for better thanks to the tips and tricks listed in this article.

Target the Audience Properly

To begin with, it is critical to define your industry and explore the market. Find out what is in trend and what the consumers want to get. Who are the potential customers? How can your business idea help the customers? Facebook Insights and Google Analytics are some of the tools that can help you get the answers. It is enough to have a look at the demographics, age, and gender of your visitors. Put yourself in the shoes of your readers. Then, you’ll be able to come up with the specific buyer personas and compose only relevant, engaging pieces of content.

Set up KPIs

The primary stage is to come up with the so-called SMART goals. This abbreviation stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. The Corporate Financial Institute (CFI) offers more details about this topic. The milestones may vary depending on your business and objectives (e.g., search engine optimization, traffic, profit, etc.) To be more specific, have a look at these examples of KPIs:

• Obtain a particular amount of email subscribers
• Attract more traffic
• Generate more leads
• Get a specific number of shares and comments
• Reduce the spending on various campaigns
• Ensure that your entire team is aware of the milestones so that you stay on the same track.

Optimize Your Content

One may say, “I am not really good at SEO, so why should I care?” You do not necessarily have to hire SEO experts to optimize your content. Some tools like Ahrefs and Google Optimize allow tracking the positions of your web pages at no charge. Pay attention to different indicators like conversion rate, CPR, CTR, and others to decide which posts have to be optimized or replaced.

It is vital to check keywords and collect new semantics at least once per 2-3 months. The requirements for Google and other search engines change frequently. Sure, Google matters in the first place, as, according to the recent statistics, this engine’s organic search is responsible for 59.2% of the global internet traffic. Focusing on a single keyword in your text is not enough. Try to come up with several-word key phrases and multiple keywords. The tools mentioned above will help determine the recommended density for each buzzword.

It goes easier with the written content, but how about interactive elements like pictures and videos? Just insert buzzwords in the titles, headings, and video/image descriptions so that Google can recognize them. Add key phrases into the ALT tags, names of the files, and Meta (Meta title and Meta description).

Decide on the Appropriate Distribution Channels

Multiple content distribution channels exist. It is critical to know the places where your target audience is hanging out. Social media platforms, open-source encyclopedias, and specific blogs – you should start with those services where you already possess some market presence. That could be YouTube or Facebook, for instance.

Once again, you will need analytics and research tools. In Google Analytics, for example, it is enough to click on Overview to get the full picture and understand where you are going. Choose any content analysis instrument that you want. You will need the one displaying such things as:

• Top-ranked content during the recent year
• Shares by type of content
• Shares by network
• Shares by volume

Which numbers are the highest? Select the network based on these factors.

Focus on Audience instead of SEO

Search engine optimization is, of course, a critical factor to consider while developing a marketing strategy. However, some businesses and bloggers often forget about the human factor. To make the audience trust you, involve more examples, success stories, show the faces of people who stand behind your organization, link to the partners, etc.

Use keywords appropriately, meaning that they should look and sound natural. Do not over spam your content with buzzwords. Otherwise, you risk getting a penalty from Google.

Allocate Resources

In this article, you can find various content types that you can use on your site. Once you find out how to properly allocate resources, you should ask yourself several questions like, “Which type of digital instruments do you require?” or, “How do you plan to schedule your content?”

Start with the staff responsible for content creation and publication, choose the best option: a full-time in-house team, freelance authors, or robots. Mind that experts in video production and web designers are part of the content team. Assign the tasks according to the required volumes of content and deadlines. Once you decide on the staff for your project, come up with an outline. It should be an action plan to post high-quality content on time:

1. Develop a content plan with the technical requirements
2. Compose the text
3. Insert visual elements
4. Submit the article to the editing team
5. Let the proofreaders and editors polish the piece
6. Upload the finished piece of content
7. Publish!

Voila! That is a perfect plan for creating quality content for your website or blog. It is better to prepare and establish a content calendar for each week, month, and year and then share it with the entire team. It will be easier to follow the plan and update any requirements if you have such a schedule. Google Calendar, Asana, and CoSchedule are some of the examples of tools that you can use.

Combine Different Types of Content

Conduct A/B testing analysis to find out which types of content and lead magnets work the best. For instance, you may create several clones of the same page, changing only the headings or the infographics. Then, check out the performance of every version to decide which option is the most suitable.

While many bloggers and businesses focus on the textual part, you should not ignore other types of content. Test them all the time as the trends may shift. For example, infographics and videos are becoming popular. Diversified content will help capture the attention of various audiences.

Most Popular Types of Content for Your Site

• Blog Posts

How-to tutorials, interviews, summaries, essays – you can implement any ideas into your blog. If you are not a copywriter yourself, you have several options. First, you can hire an in-house team of professional writers. Second, it is possible to use AI-based content generation tools, but do not expect the highest quality. Finally, it is possible to buy essay or recruit freelance copywriters for a temporary project.

• Case Studies

Success stories interpret the personal example after reading your post, using your product, or benefiting from your service. Experts call this type of content the most versatile. It is better to associate a case study with the real person who enjoyed using your offer. Often, success stories appear in the shape of testimonials, but long-reads for media also work perfectly.

• eBooks

You may prepare a book for Amazon or Google. The challenge is to stick to all guidelines and insert a brief promotion of your service so that the service will not ban your work. You may create an eBook to post it on your own website. It is an excellent lead magnet that makes the users subscribe to your news or register. It is enough to have 1-2 eBooks on your site.

EBooks are an integral part of inbound marketing strategies. An excellent example of its usage: your page visitors read a short annotation to your product. They’re interested in the topic but lack details. Here is where you may insert a link to your eBook in the shape of a CTA. The main idea is to motivate your audience to download the eBook, whether free or paid.

• Infographics

An infographic helps to interpret the topic in a more compelling way than an ordinary text. It is about explaining how to do something step-by-step with the help of corresponding images or comics. Just add a short textual description.

You have made it through! Now, you know the best content marketing practices that will help you to boost your online presence and generate more leads. Be creative when choosing the topic, analyze the latest market trends, use SEO tools, and experiment with different lead magnets. Be ready to face the challenges!

Bio

Elsa Avendano is a 26-year old business and academic writer from Texas. She is an expert in content and SMM. Elsa has obtained several certificates in SEO. Despite the young age, her experience is more than five years. This writer from wiseessays.com analyzes the latest market trends to share the most useful tips with everyone interested in copywriting.