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Content Marketing Basics Your Business Needs To Know About

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Business owners and executives should always be mindful of content marketing. In effect, this is the practice of using various forms of content to market and promote your business. It’s proven to be effective, and this particular marketing technique has risen in prominence over the last decade.

Nowadays, content is king. Every single marketing strategy is based on a strong content marketing campaign. There are a few reasons for this, but we won’t go into them today. Let’s just say that content marketing is less in-your-face than other ideas, and consumers love that.

So, if you want to enjoy business success, you need to get on top of your content. In today’s piece, I’ve delivered a few of the basic principles and ideas surrounding content marketing. Make a note of them as they will help you devise the perfect strategy!

Content comes in different forms

I touched upon this in the intro, but content comes in various forms. The most common form is written content. This includes blog posts, website copy, and so on. You could even throw social media posts into this category, though some people put social media as a content category on its own.

Then, you have visual content like photos, infographics, videos, etc. These days, there’s been a rise in audio content as well – mainly through podcasts.

The point is that you need to remember all the different forms of content available to you. Every successful strategy uses a variety of different forms to keep the audience interested. You need to captivate your target market, and you can’t do this by putting out the same type of content over and over again. Eventually, they get bored with your blog posts. So, switch things up and release a video or an infographic, etc.

Everything must relate to your business & target market

One of the cornerstones of content marketing is that everything needs to be relevant. All of your content must relate in some way to your business and to your target market.

What does this mean?

Well, consider what your business is all about. What do you sell? What industry are you in? Then, create content that aligns itself with your industry and what you do. An obvious example is a fashion business creating content about fashion. This could include videos showing off different outfit ideas, blog posts on the latest trends, or even more specific things about particular items of clothing. In this scenario, would it make sense to produce content about general business tips? Not really, because it’s not something your business relates to.

In turn, your content should also relate and appeal to your target audience. Think about what they’re interested in, then produce content that aligns with this. Realistically, this will be the same sort of stuff that aligns with your business! So, going back to the previous example, writing about business tips for a fashion brand is pointless as that’s not what your audience is interested in. They come to you to buy clothes or shoes, they’re interested in fashion; cater to this!

It’s common to write about things you think are popular, just to try and gain attention. In reality, this is a waste of time and effort as you get nothing out of it. Sure, people may read your blogs or watch your videos, but then what? If your content has nothing to do with your business, and it targets the wrong audience, then you’ll never generate leads and influence sales. Keep things relevant as this is how you start to reel in some new leads.

Be consistent with your content

This is another area where lots of businesses mess up. A content marketing strategy needs to be just that – a strategy. You have to think things through and plan everything out. Content shouldn’t be something that just comes on a whim. If you don’t make any plans, then you post things sporadically. This makes it hard for people to commit to your content because they don’t know when any new stuff will be released.

Instead, you should have a content calendar where you decide when you’ll release your new content. This brings more structure to everything and gives you time to work on each piece and get it ready before the deadline.

In doing this, you create a solid foundation for your campaign. It’s much easier to grow a loyal audience when you post regularly.

Watch out for duplicate content

Duplicate content is content that already exists and is basically copied. There are two things you should be wary of here:

  • Duplicating other people’s content
  • People duplicating your content

If people copy your content, then they’re benefitting from your hard work. Also, they could steal traffic and clicks away from you. Thankfully, you can try and track your content using software online and then call upon a DMCA takedown service to have it removed for you. This stops other companies from stealing your ideas and capitalizing on your hard work.

Similarly, the same thing can happen to you if you copy someone’s content. It seems like an easy way out; just copy a successful blog post from another company’s website. In reality, it will come back to bite you, and you’ll damage your reputation. So, be original!

Repurposing your content

While you don’t want to duplicate content – even your own – you can get more out of one piece by repurposing it.

Effectively, this is the concept of taking a blog post, for example, and then turning it into a video or a podcast. It’s still the same content but in a different format. This is a smart way to diversify your content and appeal to people who have different preferred methods of consumption. For example, some of your target audience prefer to read, while others prefer to watch or listen. By repurposing, you cater to everyone while ensuring nobody misses out on the content.

In conclusion, content marketing is a fundamental aspect of your digital strategy. If you want things to run smoothly and effectively, then make sure you understand these content marketing basics.

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