Content Marketing – Making it work for you.
March 18, 2016
Does Content Marketing actually work? Well I suppose the best way to answer that is to say you are reading this are you not, and there will have been others before you and more to follow, but what makes this content work whereas other content will not get the exposure it deserves?
“Type of Content & Audience. These are the two main things you need to be thinking about when it comes to what content you wish to share and where this content is to be shared.”
Let us look at some key factors that determine the success of content marketing, Type and Audience examined with some suggestions appearing on both:
Type:
- Pick a topic that is current, that deals with the end goal you want it to deliver you. This means that you should pick a theme / topic to your content that is either specific to the industry sector you are in, that is current and topical, that deals with debate or entices comments / social sharing.
- How do you communicate your content, ie is it better delivered by podcast or blog format, is 200 words better or a longer more detailed piece is required?
- Use other platforms to steer traffic to your blog. Is the reading of your blog the most important or you getting traffic to your website to entice further click-through – This will change the way you should push your content. Social Media (have the right audience so that others will read and share your content), Industry News Channels who will release your news story to increase exposure and readerships, release on your own website and share that out to your own community, ie via email newsletter.
- A great way to get noticed is to interview peer individuals or key people in relation to the theme of the content you are compiling. If it is house prices in Sunderland you are focusing on, then have you comments from the local authority for instance on planning, or maybe style the content on future property price growth on increasing employment figures so get in contact with your local councillor who will always be happy to share positive news.
- Facts and figures. Try and research any topic you are writing / reporting about, some simply figures can really attract the attention of your readers. Think about showing the likes of graphs, charts etc such as house price growth over the last 50 years or how buying a home today compares to 1966.
- You may get lucky and you write one amazing piece of content that is shared virally and internationally with audiences of thousands and that simply can make all the difference, but it is likely you have to think consistency over one-offs. Try and be seen as a source of great content that updates regularly, give people a reason to follow you / come back for more.
- You’ve got to be quick! Do not wait for someone else to write that all important piece of content that gets them great recognition, be the first to release it. Just like national news channels online / newspapers, it is all about who finds the best news stories and photos are generally the ones people will be reading, the same for blog content, especially news related.
Audience:
- Subject of content you write about – Will it appeal to the audience you are after?
- Style of writing you need to adopt in order to engage readers.
- Accompanying media and facts, what will your audience engage with better, should you lead with animation images, fun GIFS,s, hashtags, videos etc.
- Time and location to share content. When is your audience most responsive (especially important when sharing on social media) and where are they most active? Maybe a video will deliver far greater results over a blog post on LinkedIn?
- Headline for the content is sometimes what your audience will see first, especially if shared on social media – Titled your blog correctly. As an estate agent, think down the lines of ‘House prices in Sunderland could collapse if new bi-pass is passed‘ over ‘Proposal for new bi-pass in Sunderland‘.
- If you have no audience or it isn’t significant enough, then think about growing one and the best places for that is social media. Show to the industry / consumers that you are an expert in your industry (yes, many do not like the word expert, but it is a widely known and respected word for many).
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