The Ultimate 2021 Content Marketing Guidebook for Entrepreneurs
“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing” – Tom Fishburne
What does content marketing
include?
According to SmartInsights, 84% of B2B marketers swear by content marketing. Content marketing, in simple terms, bridges the gap between what brands produce and what consumers want. It’s the practice of creating, publishing, and sharing content with the goal of building your brand’s reputation and visibility. What drives valuable content is attracting prospects and converting them into customers. It’s all about providing the best possible answer to the question that consumers sought out for.
Nothing you do is complete if you can’t tell your story right. When it comes to advertising, it’s not the best content that wins, but rather the ‘best marketed’ content. As the baseline of a content marketing guide, here’s what your story should precisely be- clear, compelling, and concise. Through generations, we have come a long way in transcending the barriers of traditional marketing. Back then, you talked to consumers. Today, you talk with them. The best way to go about this is for the reader to say ‘This was written just for me’.
Here’s your one-stop guide for content marketing in 2021:
What does content marketing
include?
Gear up on the research
In addition to search engine optimization, this also helps you get to know your audience better. The right keywords are essential for boosting organic reach and connecting with the masses. For starters, the intent-based search is the most gravitated towards. The best way to approach it is through foundational keywords, auto-suggest, and prioritization. Surveying your consumers and comparatively analyzing your competitor’s keywords is also important
Content research
This is the process of ensuring the principles of the subject matter at hand and its features, benefits, pros, and cons. This cumulatively helps you in creating an informative, compelling, and all-rounded draft that adds value to consumers’ knowledge and connects with them. Another aspect of content research involves talking to your consumers, taking email surveys, analyzing the blog comment sections and reviews, checking popular questions on Google, and researching industry trends.
Content writing
This step deals with improving your digital outreach by creating engaging content. Content writing is all about getting acquainted with your audience and establishing what blend of words and information can be presented to them. The goal here is for your content to be relatable and, eventually, profitable to your brand and its visibility. To ensure this, always try to visualize the target audience to understand their needs and the things that can convince them. Aim to create content that isn’t just another advertisement but a piece of writing that conveys significant information to the audience before they think about giving a shot to the product or service that is the ultimate destination of your content.
Promotion
It’s all about connecting with your audience in the right place and the right time. And today, that’s online. Email marketing and social media campaigns, free classified ads, and social media optimization tools are the way to go to improve your brand rankings on Google advertising. This can majorly contribute to get traffic to your website and progress your business goals
How does one go about the
process?
Strategize
Your content marketing strategy is the answer to why you are creating content, who you are targeting, and how your product or service is unique? Define your business goals and key performance indicators, conduct research, and never rule out brainstorming. Always revisit your content strategy and ensure that it’s up to date and in line with consumer requirements
Plan
A well-sketched plan will always keep you on the right path.
- Carry out content audits
- Set realistic goals
- Know your audience
- Determine the type of content to be published
- Create an editorial calendar
- Plan promotions
- Keep a track of your content marketing success and ROI
Produce
Start with establishing your content creation model and assemble your creation force. Weigh factors like your expertise, competition, team, and budget resources. Once you shape your content pool, align it with creativity and strategy. Allot a dedicated time to evaluate formats and content type, i.e., blogs, videos, emails, e-books, podcasts, live events, etc. and find your unique approach.
Analyze
This is an important step in maintaining a consistent approach to unique and differentiated content. A competitive analysis will help you stay one step ahead in your strategy and use of your competitors’ efforts to your advantage. It looks at a variety of metrics like frequency of publishing, visitors, stats, keywords, and traffic pattern. Demographics are also an important part of the analysis as it helps you reach the right people. These aren’t fixed, unvarying facts, because they change over time according to how businesses grow and adapt. Keeping in touch with these developments will help you minimize disruptions and maximize new opportunities.
- Analyze data around existing or previous customers
- Has your product been designed with a specific user in mind?
- Who can your knowledge and expertise benefit?
Amplify
This is an amazingly powerful technique that, if done correctly, can deliver incredible results and can expand your audience immensely. This is the process of ‘pushing’ your content towards better horizons using a variety of techniques.
- Amplify your best content
- Leverage the power of influencer marketing
- Use re-marketing
- Explore niche communities
Now that we’ve had a journey
through the process, here’s a glimpse at the benefits of content marketing:
Brand awareness
Good content allows you to precisely show what your brand represents. This isn’t just about the customers recognizing your name, but how well they understand what makes your story unique. Awareness fosters trust, creates an association, and builds good, strong brand equity.
Website traffic
As we integrate content marketing and SEO, it gives way to increase brand visibility through traffic. The better the content, the more the traffic.
Client engagement
Content-driven engagement can never go wrong as it is always associated with a value exchange. As you deliver creative products and brand experiences, clients get more of your brand than just the product or service. This also involves the paradigm shift from one to many and then many to many.
Leads and conversions
Leads are the most important component that measures the outcome of your content marketing strategy. Leads are a great metric how well your strategic planning is working, what is your profit ratio, how well is your return on investment. Content is one of the best tools to create qualified leads that actually convert into tangible sales. Content also enables lead nurturing where you begin to build relationships with prospects at every stage of the buyer’s journey and sales funnel by using the relevant content.
Media visibility
A huge visible platform is of crucial value to your brand, as it opens up a fresh batch of options for your brand and makes your job easier.
Competitive advantage
As you get more visibility through sites and referrals, you get more customers as compared to other benchmarks. This means more revenue and a great opportunity to pursue expansion.