The appeal of content marketing is abundantly clear to anyone who takes the time to take a close look at the strategy. Branding yourself as an expert, giving people answers that will encourage them to buy your products – who wouldn’t want to be part of that? Content marketing is the solution to the proverbial question for how to advertise your business while serving the needs of your customers at the same time. It’s a total win-win.
The problem with content marketing is that it’s a bit intimidating at first. A successful content marketing campaign requires a lot of moving parts to work in concert with each other. How do you even get started with such a daunting proposition? And how much content do you really need to get a campaign going?
For Starters…
Many companies have elaborate content marketing strategies that will keep viewers on their pages for hours. While these layers of content are nice, they’re by no means essential. After all, everyone has to start somewhere.
You can start a content marketing campaign with one solitary piece of content. Just one! All you really need is something that provides information about your industry and how your company stands out in that industry. As long as the piece is relevant to the concerns of your customers, you’re golden. Advertise that one piece of content through your social media channels, add a form to your webpage so that viewers can receive future content offerings via email, and you’ve just created a very basic content marketing campaign.
Now, your first piece might not be anything special. It might be easily surpassed by subsequent efforts. But that’s okay. As long as you’re answering the questions of the customers in your industry, you can’t go wrong.
How Much is Too Much?
It’s understandable that people think that dozens of compelling, keyword-optimized pieces of content are necessary for a campaign launch. The reality is that you don’t have to go to such extremes to get eyeballs on your content.
According to Hubspot, as much as 70 percent of marketing content never even gets used. That means that if you create 100 pieces of content for your big launch, only 30 of those pieces will be of any use to anyone. Those other 70 articles or videos were a total waste of resources.
A better approach is to take it slow with your content marketing. Figure out what kind of a chord your content strikes with your customers, then tailor your message to their needs. Website analytics will give you a good idea of what people are really looking for, and odds are decent that their needs aren’t identical to your perceptions.
While it’s true that many large companies have all-encompassing content marketing strategies, you shouldn’t feel compelled to create a ton of content just to meet a self-imposed quota. The real key to content marketing is listening to your customers and providing the answers that will move them along the buying process.
Bryan B is a freelance writer based in Long Island, NY. He can’t wait to see how the New York Mets will let him down this year.
