Almost every marketer will gladly tell you that content marketing is the top way to drive traffic to your website and increase revenue. There’s a very good reason all of the best marketers feel this way.
Content marketing generates three times the leads of outbound marketing and it has the benefit of costing a staggering 62 percent less.
Now, we know what you’re thinking. “I’ve tried putting out content for my business website’s blog, and it didn’t seem to have a strong impact.” The truth is, many people come to this conclusion without wondering one simple question — why?
There’s a reason that content isn’t working for your business. Instead of assuming it doesn’t work, think about why your last batch of blog articles left you listening to crickets with no substantial revenue boost.
If you’re here to learn how to step up your content marketing game once and for all, prepare to learn how the most successful companies create killer content that gets results.
Research Your Audience
It seems obvious, right? Research your audience before you post content. Believe it or not, an alarming number of business owners fail to dig deep into their targeted audience.
Because most people have access to the internet all day, every day due to the inventions we all have like smartphones, tablets, laptops, and even video game consoles, people are exposed to brands more than ever before.
Social media scheduling app, Buffer, reports that people are now exposed to around 10,000 brand messages every single day. Due to this surge of brands in our face 24 hours a day, many companies get overlooked. You have to “speak” directly to your audience in order to get them to engage with your business.
There are plenty of ways for you to gather information about the people who would be interested in your content. You can create surveys for those who shop at your site (perhaps offer them a coupon for participating), use your website’s analytics to gather information, or look at the people who are going to your high-ranking competitor’s websites. The people who like their content are typically going to be the ones who enjoy the kind of information you’re offering.
Create Content with Value
How many times have you visited a blog only to find nonsensical information filled with information that’s not even remotely helpful? Did you want to go back? The obvious answer is a resounding “No.”
When you’re trying to step up your content marketing game you have to not only think about your audience but think about what information is going to be relevant to their lives. Most people browse blogs because of the following reasons:
- They want to learn generally about a topic
- They have a specific question that needs answered
- They are looking for an opinion
While crafting your content, make sure you can answer one of these three requirements — the more, the better. Are you offering them broad information about a specific topic? Are you answering a specific question about a topic? Are you qualified and expressing an opinion about a topic of an event?
Share, Share, Share
The last time you created content for your blog, did you make sure to share your content on all of your social media platforms? If not, you missed out on a key opportunity to expose your blog to a wider audience.
You should always make sure that you’re keeping up to date with your latest blog post and pictures on your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram. It’s possible to diverse your content to make it easier to post to multiple platforms.
For example, if you discussed a piece talking about email marketing statistics of 2018, you could create an infographic and share it on your Instagram with a link to the post. Small tweaks like this can result in an explosion of traffic and sales. All you need is one piece to go viral and your business’s name is on the map.
Not only do you have to share your content, but you have to also make it shareable. When people visit your website they should be able to share your blog posts in a couple of quick steps. You can make it a breeze by adding social media share icons to your blog so someone can simply click the button, and bam, your content is instantly shared with their friends. It’s even possible to add “like” and “follow” buttons so people who discover your content organically can like and follow your social media page.
Sharing your content is crucial and if you want to step up your marketing game you have to make the content to social media (and vice versa) flow seamless.
Have Clear Goals in Mind
If you ask most business owners what their “goal” is when creating a blog, you’ll likely get a simple answer like, “I want to grow my revenue,” or, “I’d like more followers.” There’s nothing wrong with these broad goals, but you must narrow it down and come up with specific, long-term goals.
Ask yourself questions like, how much do you want to make in revenue due to your content marketing? How many new email subscribers do you hope to get with this batch of content? How many more unique page views are you looking to get this week? Month? Year?
You must ask these questions because they play a key role in goal setting. When you create goals for your business, you can follow up and tweak your formula over time.
If you say “I want more revenue,” and make an extra 100 dollars, is that enough? Probably not. Instead, set a goal like 1000 extra dollars a month. If you reach your goal, great! Look through your analytics and make sure that the increase in revenue correlates with the new blog posts.
However, if you only make 500 dollars, you can go back through and find out what you did wrong. Your analytics are key to figuring out what you need to change and what’s working. If your content on email marketing is getting tons of views, but content on customer service is oddly quiet, it might be time to ditch the customer service content and shift your focus to email marketing.
Conclusion
Content marketing is a mix of trial and error, luck, and skill. The good news is luck plays a very small role in how well you do.
You can control the trial as well as your skill. The hope is that this piece gave you some insight as to why your blog and content marketing is on the decline or not moving at all. Tweaking the way you write, the audience you target, your sharing methods, and your goals can help you turn your website from no traffic to reputable powerhouse if you keep at it.
There is no instant key to success. You have to work hard and keep at it. Constantly evolve your content, toss out the things not working, and improve on the things you’re doing well. Before long, you’ll be a content marketing whiz!
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