I don’t mean to be presumptuous, but I’ve seen this too many times to ignore it. I also think I owe it to you to get you to think about this.
What’s your strategy when it comes to content marketing? Do you have a well-thought-out plan for every phase of your marketing process?
I ask this because when most people think of content marketing, they approach the task in a very linear way. They think that all they need is good content, a decent headline for their ads, some good social media posts and tweets, and the rest will take care of itself.
I’m certain that anyone reading this who has tried that approach will agree that nothing could be further from the truth. Content marketing strategies need a clear focus and objective. They require forethought on a number of variables. It’s not just about selecting good content; it’s about knowing what that content is going to do for you, and different things work at different points in the marketing process.
In a previous article, I went into detail about writing copy around your visuals, not simply adding visuals to your copy. The same principle holds true with the rest of your content. Everything has to work together. So how do you do this? It depends on what your objective is with your content. Here are a few common scenarios and some ideas for how to build a good content strategy around them. You should recognize that together, these things lay a foundation for a well-conceived overall strategy.
1. Site Visits
Getting people to your site is the first and most important aspect of any content marketing strategy. You accomplish this in a number of ways. For starters, you need to make sure that your site and all of the content there has great SEO. As I’ve stated before, and as many industry leaders agree, SEO still matters. You want to set your site up for long-term success.
Of course, it can take quite a while to generate traffic solely on SEO, so the next two steps can help spur things along quickly. I’m talking specifically about social media and paid traffic. Oddly enough, both of these things work about the same way and use similar tactics to gain clicks. In both instances, it’s all about finding great visuals and writing headlines around them that pique the reader’s interest. If you can do that, you’ll get better click-throughs and get more people to your site.
2. Branding
Branding strategies are very visual. They rely heavily on creating pictures in people’s minds, and they accomplish that by associating pictures and colors with short, concise phrases and keywords that will be remembered the next time they’re seen.
Once the brand image is in someone’s head, the seed sown needs to be fed. This is accomplished in content marketing by always keeping your copy on-point and by keeping the brand images in front of the user.
Once the right image has been achieved, relevant content that accentuates the brand message needs to be put in place. This helps to maintain people’s attention and create associations between the content and your brand. At that point, you can sell practically anything that lines up with your branding strategy, and there is usually a good bit of wiggle room in terms of products or services. Whether you are developing your own products or selling affiliate products, if your branding strategy is supported by your content, they should sell well.
3. Conversions
There are different ways to go about getting sales, but if you are going directly for conversions, your content has to be very concise. Suppose you are using web articles or quizzes to set up your pitch. Both are very effective strategies and can lead to high conversions, but once they reach the end of the article, you must already have given them a good reason to click through to view sales copy. Landing pages, squeeze pages, sales letters, and other closing strategies need to have several key elements in order to persuade people to buy:
Relevance – whatever strategy you used to get them to your sales page, the content of that page needs to line up perfectly; otherwise, you aren’t going to make the sale. A good custom writing service can help you create a conversion strategy that includes social media, email, and web copy that accomplishes this task and increases your odds of success.
Presentation – The most important ideas in your sales copy need to be the most visible to the reader. The simple fact of the matter is that people are never going to read every word of a long-form sales letter unless you hit on the most important points in headlines or block lettering that attracts attention to them. Isolate the ideas that are key to making the sale and decide first how to present them visually, then write powerful, short, and concise copy around them.
Power Words – You don’t need just words isolated like points in an outline. The words you choose need to be powerful and emotional, and they need to motivate people to listen and to act. Don’t zero in on product benefits. Instead, focus on the feelings of the buyer.
Now here’s the most important bit: All of the above need to have their anchors in whatever content you used to get them there. If they don’t feel as though there is congruity between the ads, the messages in your site content, and in the sales copy, you’re done.
The good news is that it’s not that difficult to put this together… if you start out with an actual plan. Far too many marketers fly by the seat of their pants when devising their strategies, and the result can be very messy. Don’t be that marketer. Give your content marketing strategy a good roadmap beginning with these three steps, and you’ll find that your content does most of the actual work for you.