Content Marketing. It’s the foundation of keeping your audience fully engaged and interested. Is it really? Let’s face it – you can’t effectively market without great content, but times have changed. Gone are the days where businesses could just write a few articles and blogs and attract your ideal customers. Now, content marketing is much more than that, and keeping up with these changes can make a difference. It’s time to get savvy! Here are a few tips:
Start with the metrics
You’ve heard it all before – the metrics, the metrics, the metrics! You may hear it, but do you live it? Three metrics that really make a difference are the bounce rates, the conversion rate, and your ROI. Does your audience come to your site and then disappear? That’s important to know. RocketFuel says the average bounce rate for a website is 41 to 55%. What’s yours? Now, consider your CTA. Do your visitors respond? Conversion should be a major goal. Test out a newsletter sign-up or download to see how well people engage with your content. Finally, your ROI shows how well your marketing is doing. If you’re spending more on marketing than you earn, it’s time to turn things around.
Switch it up
Do you use video? Studies have shown consumers spend 33% of their time watching online video content. That’s huge! While consumers still read (especially when reading reviews), video is much more engaging and interactive. If you’re on the go, you may not have time to sit down and read an entire article or blog, but you do have a few minutes to watch or listen to a video. It’s time to meet your consumers where they engage the most.
Use your content in multiple ways
It’s amazing how many things you can do with just one piece of content. While you’re doing so much work trying to come up with new things, many content marketers don’t realize the value of one piece of content. If you’ve invested the time and effort to create something great, don’t stop with one engagement. Create a video. From that video, you can write a blog. That can turn into a responsive piece, then a podcast. Don’t forget your social media posts! One article can give you an Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more. You can also create an infographic and eBook. Each piece of content can have a different title, structure, some new copy surrounding the old, new pictures and a new tone. You’ll have different audiences that enjoy each piece of content in different ways that can save yourself time and money.
Do things differently
Everyone looks for new ways to deliver their content marketing, but how have you fully utilized the old? Create a free course and deliver it by email auto-responder. If you’re doing a podcast, take the most popular 10 and turn them into an eBook. Look at popular headlines that have nothing to do with your topic. Can you use those to garner attention?
The objective is to think and do things smarter, not harder while infusing old and new techniques. You’d be surprised how much traction you can gain when you go against the grain (even if it’s just a little bit). The key is in knowing your audience, paying attention to what’s going on around you, and creating content that involves them. Follow these steps and you won’t go wrong.
You’ll learn more about what you’re doing and where you’re going with our Content Marketing Roadmap which you can download today. Now, who’s ready to get savvy?
Allaire W. has over twenty years experience in the Marketing, Literary and Communications industries. A versatile writer, she has a strong background in creating clear and concise content for articles, blogs, white papers, case studies, web copy, press releases and e-books. She has worked in a variety of fields, including a stint at a major publishing house as an editor. A published author, she currently teaches marketing and writing classes to extend her love of education to others.
