The 30-Day Content Marketing Plan
How Influencers Can Help Promote Your Content
Marketing your content on your own is doable. But it’s easier if you ask an influencer to help you out. Influencers are people who’ve got a considerable following. When they recommend something on their sites or social media channels, their followers go and check out their recommendations.
Let me give you an example. For instance, an influencer dined at a small restaurant and found the food to be very delicious. He raves about it on social media, and the next day, his followers flock over to the restaurant to go check out their menu! Of course, the restaurant will be very pleased. They’ll have more business thanks to the influencer helping them get the word out about their great food!
Can you see where this is going? Can you see yourself using someone else’s influence to promote your content?
Think about how powerful influencer marketing is: if you work with a lot of influencers, your network could potentially grow exponentially! You don’t need to rely on your own audience helping you get the word out. Instead, you’ll be leveraging the influencers’ to get to their followers.
But how do you get influencers to come help you out?
For starters, you can go on social media and look for people in your industry with sizeable followers. You don’t just want anyone to promote your business. You have to look for influencers who work in the same industry as you.
For instance, if you work in the dog industry, you wouldn’t want influencers who promote make-up and other beauty products. Their followers will find it odd they’re promoting something so completely unrelated to their niche. This can cause people to unfollow the influencer, and of course, you’re not going to get good conversion rates either. However, if you look for influencers who share the same interests as you, then their followers would most likely click on through to your content.
Once you’ve identified your influencers, it’s time to approach them. You can straight up ask them to help you promote your content in exchange for something. Or you can build a relationship with them, try to get in their radars by commenting on their content. This will take time, but when you’ve gained their trust, they’ll be happy to put in a good word for you with their followers.
Quality vs. Quantity In Content Marketing
There are two groups of marketers. The first one says we should focus on publishing as much content as possible (quantity). The second group says quality trumps quantity anytime. In this article, we’re going to put a full stop to the “quality versus quantity” debate in content marketing.
In the old days, quantity got you a lot of traction on search engines. You could publish very short blog posts and articles (maybe a few hundred words or so), and you’ll find yourself at the top of Google. However, this strategy doesn’t work anymore.
If you check the first page of Google search results (for any keyword), you’ll find that the articles on the top 3 spots average at least 2,000 words. And that’s just the average.
Nowadays, ‘skyscraper’ content is gaining in popularity. Brands and businesses are competing for the top spot by publishing long-form articles.
What does this mean for you?
Well, it means that if you want search engines to give you some ranking love, then you need to publish long-form articles!
Note, however, that not all long-form articles fall into the high-quality camp. After all, it’s so easy to string together a bunch of sentences and paragraphs to come up with 2,000 words.
Good thing search engines have become so much smarter nowadays. It’s harder to game the system, and blackhat SEO tricks in the old days don’t work anymore (and could potentially backfire on you big time).
If you want to rank up high on search results pages, then you need to more than just publish a 2,000-word (or more) article. It can’t be all fluff and no meat.
Search engines can detect the amount of time people stay on your site. If people bounce far too quickly, then it’s telling Google that your content is no good.
Therefore, when creating content make sure you don’t just do it for the sake of search engines. Rather, you should always put your human audience first. Make sure they love your content, and you’ll be rewarded by Google and other search engines!
To conclude, it’s best to focus on quantity while also making sure you publish consistently and regularly. Here’s our best-of-both-worlds suggestion: publish a good quantity of high-quality content, and your chances of dominating the search engines will be so much higher!
Why Effective Writing Is Key To Your Content Marketing Success
There are many factors that contribute to the success of your content marketing strategy. In this article, we’re going to focus on one of those factors – effective writing.
In a nutshell, content marketing is really all about the content you put out. Sure, there may be a 20-80 rule which states only 20% of your time should be devoted to making content and the other 80% should be spent promoting that content. But let’s not fool ourselves here.
If you’re promoting a poor-quality piece, your marketing efforts will all have been in vain! To put it simply, content marketing actually refers to ‘quality-content marketing.’
If you truly want your content marketing efforts to succeed, then you need to know how to write effectively and communicate directly with your audience.
Writing content is so much more than just typing a bunch of words, sentences, and paragraphs on a word processor. It’s about cohesively bringing to life your ideas and your thoughts in such a way that your audience will find it extremely valuable and helpful.
Doing keyword research is important, too. Knowing which keywords to target and knowing the search volume for each keyword will give you an idea of the topic’s overall demand. Of course, with search engines becoming smarter every single day, keyword research is more of a guide than anything else. But it’s still powerful, especially if you uncover profitable keywords that not too many people are writing about!
To write effectively, you need to put your content’s message front and center. The best way to go about this is by storytelling. People love stories. Your message will be easily understood if you wrap it in a story. Use your introduction as a hook to capture people’s interests and keep them scrolling down your page.
When writing for the web, it’s also essential to break down your content into an easy-to-digest structure. With the plethora of content online, people have become masters at scanning content. They’ll scan through the subheadings until they find the section they’re interested in. So, make sure you use this strategy when writing your content.
Lastly, don’t forget to follow SEO best practices. If you’re using WordPress, you can use a free plugin called Yoast SEO (https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo) which helps you make sure your content is search-engine friendly. It won’t matter how effective and valuable your content is if search engines aren’t going to be able to find it!
How To Generate Tons Of Content Ideas Using 3 Simple Techniques
Content generation may seem simple enough when you’re just in the beginning stages of your content marketing strategy. However, what happens when you start running out of ideas? What are you going to do then? When that time comes, you can use these 3 simple techniques to generate tons of content ideas quickly.
What are your competitors doing?
Keeping tabs on your competitors is important. You’ll know what their latest products are, you can identify any upcoming threats to your business, and you’ll know probably know the latest news in your industry.
Find out what they’re doing and why their customers like doing business with them. Browse their website, their blogs, their social media accounts, their forums, etc. See if you can put your own spin on things and then create new content out of that information.
Make bold predictions
You can check the latest trends in your industry, and try to foresee the future based on this trend. Your bold and interesting opinions will be the talk of the town, especially if you get it right! When you’ve established your brand as a thought leader in your niche, then it’s okay to make even more bold predictions (a.k.a. educated guesses) about the future.
Questions like where your industry is headed, any upcoming trends you think is going to happen, what’s going to get left behind, and so much more. Of course, you can’t exactly see the future, but if your predictions come true, then you’ll only be cementing your status as an industry leader.
What are people asking?
There are plenty of question and answer sites on the Internet. The top one right now is Quora, but Yahoo! Answers still remain popular to this day. There are also plenty of forums you can browse and industry-specific pages and groups on Facebook and other social media channels. If you keep your ear to the ground, you’ll find plenty of questions (and answers) you can use to build your content on.
You don’t even have to look very far to know what people are talking about. You can go over your blog’s comments and check if anyone’s shared some interesting tidbits. You can even ask people on your mailing list to tell you what kind of content they want to read on your website! Many people will be happy to share if you ask nicely.
6 Key Steps To Creating A Successful Content Marketing Strategy
Don’t be intimidated if you’re new to the world of content marketing. There are tons of resources you can look up online to help make sure you’re on the path to success.
To help you get started, we’ve written this article to give you an idea of the 6 key steps you need to undertake to create a successful content marketing strategy.
Set your goals
Having the right goals can mean the difference between success and failure. Identify what you hope to achieve. Look under the hood and see if it’s a feasible goal.
A solid plan of action should then accompany your goals. Break it down into milestones to make it easier to achieve. You’ll get extra motivation everytime you cross something off your list.
Know your audience
Knowing your audience can’t ever be underestimated. It’s one of the backbones of a successful content marketing strategy. Without it, you could be very well shooting in the dark. If you want to make the most of your content marketing, then know who your content is for first.
Identify your content platforms
There are a lot of platforms you can choose to publish your content on. Of course, having your own website should be at the top of your list. A solid social media presence is also very important. Find out what other platforms are preferred by your audience.
Decide on content types
Once you know where your audience hangs out, then it’s time to decide on the types of content you should be publishing. In addition to blog posts and articles, you can repurpose your content into many other formats like videos, infographics, podcasts, etc.
Create content
Now here comes the hard part. Creating content is going to take time whether you do it yourself or not. If you’re building your business all by yourself, expect to spend a significant amount of time in front of your computer. If you don’t want to do that, then you should consider outsourcing. It’s probably going to be pricey, but you do get your free time back.
Promote and market
Your content is not going to get discovered on its own. You’ll need to go out there and promote your content! You can make it easy for your audience by adding social media sharing buttons on your site. Then you can straight up ask them to share it with their own networks!
4 Reasons You Should Explore A Persona-Based Content Marketing Plan
There’s a reason why buyer personas / customer personas / audience personas are widely used in various marketing activities – they work. If you’re still not sold on the idea, then here are 4 pro-persona reasons which may help you change your view.
You’ll understand their needs
Creating buyer personas isn’t necessarily simple. You don’t just put a name on your target audience and call it a day. Instead, you’ll be writing down the details of what makes this persona a great representative of your audience.
You’ll note down their job title, their personal demographics, their goals and challenges, their values and fears, and so much more. When you have all these details down, then you can easily understand their needs. And you’ll be able to craft content that will fulfill these needs.
You’ll know where they are in the customer journey
Having a sales funnel in place is important for brands of all sizes. Knowing which stage your ideal customer is currently in will help you customize content based on where they are in the funnel.
Are they still in the Awareness or Consideration stage? Or are they about to make a Decision? Create content based on these stages and lead your persona down your funnel.
You can build a better marketing plan
Without knowing your audience’s specifics, it would be near to impossible to develop a marketing plan that caters to your audience. A great marketing plan will allow you to conquer your audience, but you need to know who your audience is so you can successfully carry out this plan.
It’s kind of difficult when you think about it. But the point is you can always adjust your plan as you go along. Sooner or later, you’ll know your audience, and you’ll be able to make the perfect marketing plan to draw them into your business!
You’ll get better and more qualified leads
When you’re targeting the right kind of people, then it follows that you’ll also be getting better and more qualified leads. Your content is made specifically for them. They are able to relate to your content because it provides a solution to their problems.
Therefore, you’ll have people signing up to be your customer or your client, simply because you were able to address their needs. All thanks to your persona-based content marketing plan!
Pro Tips To Successfully Outsource Your Content Marketing
The truth is creating content is time-consuming. Even if you’re a fast writer or you’ve got someone on your team who churns out quality content like a robot, it will still take some time. If you’re not willing to spend all your energy creating content, then how about you leave it to the experts?
Outsourcing is a great solution to help get your content marketing strategy moving along. Of course, the downside is outsourcing can get quite costly. But if it’s an investment you’re willing to make, here are some tips to help you outsource successfully.
Choose the right freelancer
There are plenty of freelancing platforms you can use to look for the best writers. The general consensus is that when it comes to freelancing, you get what you pay for. So, if you pay peanuts, you’re most probably going to receive work that won’t ever meet your standards.
Provide clear instructions
If you provide vague instructions, you’re going to get a piece of work that’s also going to look vaguely like what you were expecting. Setting the right instructions will help your freelancer submit jobs that will meet your expectations.
Treat your freelancers with respect
Just because you’re paying someone to help you out, doesn’t mean you can treat them like slaves. This means paying them fair rates and setting appropriate deadlines for various projects.
Have an editorial calendar
An editorial calendar will you help you manage and streamline your content marketing activities. Without it, you’ll be all over the place. You wouldn’t know which content types to assign to which freelancers, and you’ll find it hard to keep track of content that’s already been published and what hasn’t been yet.
Provide timely feedback
Freelancers thrive on feedback. Just make sure, however, that you provide constructive criticism. You don’t want to go all in and destroy a freelancer’s morale. It’s not going to help either of you. Helping your talented freelancers to improve and create content that fits your requirements will help your business in the long run.
Build long-term relationships
When you find good freelancers, make it a point to build long-term working relationships with them. They’ll be more loyal to your brand, and they’ll be more motivated to continue creating high-quality content.
Top 10 Content Types For Your Content Marketing Campaigns
Most people think there’s only one type of content – the written kind. Namely, blog posts, articles, eBooks, and the like. And that’s what many brands focus on. But the truth is that if you want to make the most of your content marketing campaign, you’re going to have to explore other types of contents as well. This will help you cast a wider net over your target audience. So, here are top content types you can implement in your content marketing strategy.
Blog posts
Blog posts are an essential component of a successful content marketing strategy. When you blog consistently, you establish your brand as an authority and people can quickly see all the other posts you’ve published on your site.
Case studies
People love case studies. If you’re selling a product or a service, you can do a case study on how your product was able to help people.
Videos
Some people dislike reading and would prefer watching videos. You can choose your most popular content and repurpose it into video format. This will make it easy for you to reach those segments in your audience who prefer to consume content in video form.
Infographics
Infographics make it easy for people to see your content’s main points in just a few seconds. They don’t have to read thousands of words, they can just scan your infographic, and they’ll know what you’re talking about.
Checklists
Checklists are especially useful for highly actionable content. It gives people a framework of what they need to do. You can also use this as content upgrades to get people to join your mailing list.
Social media posts
You can repurpose your content into graphics that will make it easy for your audience to share your content on social media.
Presentations
With presentations, you can simply copy and paste the most important points in your content into a visually attractive PowerPoint template. Then upload the entire presentation to sites like SlideShare.
Quizzes
Quizzes have become popular in recent years. And it really shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, quizzes are highly interactive as it lets people engage with your content!
Online courses
Online courses are a huge hit. They’re easy to consume, and people can find all the information they need in a single place.
Memes
Memes are popular on social media. You can ride on the hottest topics of the day, post it on social media and if it catches your audience’s fancy, then your meme may even go viral!
Essential Components Of A Successful Content Marketing Strategy
Your content marketing strategy needs to be well thought out. You can’t just rush into it and expect to succeed. In this article, you’re going to learn the 3 most essential components of a successful content marketing strategy.
Setting the right kind of goals
There are smart goals. And there are non-smart goals. Non-smart goals are basically those that don’t fit the S.M.A.R.T. criteria. What does that mean? Well, for your goal to fit this criteria, it should meet the following:
Your goal should be Specific / Significant
Your goal should be Measurable / Meaningful
Your goal should be Achievable / Acceptable
Your goal should be Realistic / Rewarding
Your goal should be Time-based / Tangible
Having a SMART goal in place will help you achieve success much faster. You’re basically eliminating the fluff and focusing on what can help you accomplish your goals. You’d probably need to do some trial and error to find out what works best for your business, but you’d still be closer to your
goals than if you decided to just ‘wing it.’
Building an audience persona
Not knowing who to create content for has caused many content marketing strategies to fail. Quality will always trump quantity anytime. And one of the best ways to guarantee quality is knowing who your audience is. Armed with this information, you can create the kind of content that will appeal the most to them.
It will be easier to present yourself as an authority because you identify so well with your audience’s needs and their pain points. Fail to create an audience persona though, and you could be wasting all your hard work for nothing.
Creating valuable and shareable content
Of course, the last ingredient to a successful content marketing strategy is the content itself. When you create content that strikes a chord with your audience, then it will be so easy to persuade them to follow your call to action.
Your audience will see you as an authority, hence, it will be easier to convince them to join your mailing list. They’ll be more likely to listen to your recommendations, and you can easily monetize your content by inserting your own products or other brands’ products you’re affiliated with!
Ways Content Marketing Can Benefit Your Brand
Content marketing is not just a fad. It’s a solid marketing strategy that has brought success to brands and businesses of all sizes. When you do content marketing correctly, you can expect to benefit for a long, long time. So, here are the top 5 ways content marketing can help your brand.
Valuable content brings hordes of traffic to your site
Who doesn’t want traffic? No webmaster in their right minds would say they don’t want traffic. The truth is we build websites and establish a presence on the Internet because we want people to know more about us.
The good news is with content marketing, you can bring a ton of people over to your site without paying exorbitant amounts of money for advertisements!
You’re building your brand identity
When people see your brand on many valuable posts and articles, you’re essentially letting the world know what your brand is all about. You’re establishing an identity online.
When people go looking for information that falls right up your alley, then chances are people will be able to better recall your brand over your competitors!
You’ll gain your audience’s trust
It takes a lot of work to gain people’s trust. And it’s essentially what content marketing is – it’s a lot of work. But once you’ve successfully established yourself as an authority and your brand starts sticking in people’s minds, then it will be easier to gain their trust. You’ll find that when you’ve captured people’s trust, getting them to follow your calls to action becomes much easier.
Get higher conversion rates
The most successful content marketing campaigns have excellent conversion rates. This means they’ve successfully positioned themselves as authorities in their industry, and they’ve created content that resonates with their audience. Factor in great web design, and you’ve got a recipe for success!
It’s great for your site’s SEO
There are plenty of SEO benefits to content marketing. When you consistently publish valuable content, you’ll be able to eventually rank for more keywords on search engines.
You’ll have a highly engaged audience on your site, meaning they’re not going to bounce right after they land on your page. You’ll have many people linking to your content (search engines love this!) which will help boost your rankings on search pages.
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