Content Marketing For Beginners
If you’re new to content marketing and you want to learn how to use it for your business, then you are at the right place. Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing content to attract and retain customers. Meaning, you’re creating blog posts, videos, podcasts, or whatever you are promoting, your job is to lead people towards a profitable action.
Content marketing always helps to create awareness and attracts potential customers to your content. Your content engages them and builds credibility for your brand, it converts visitors into customers, it allows you to build a loyal following. For example, a content for a software product, helps retain customers because they learn how to do new things
Best of all, your revenue compounds because unlike advertising where your ads stop appearing the minute you stop paying, content that surfaces where and when your customers are searching, is consistent.
But it’s important to note that no matter how good your content is, if your products aren’t up to scratch, then content won’t save you at least for the long haul.
Now, the two main parts of content marketing is to create content, and promote it. And whatever you create, you must have the goal of attracting and/or retaining customers.
Content Marketing Fundamentals
Content marketing is a strategy that involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a clearly defined audience with the goal of driving profitable customer action. Some key elements of content marketing include:
1. Understanding your target audience: Define your target customer and create content that speaks to their specific needs and interests.
2. Creating valuable content: Produce content that is informative, educational, and/or entertaining.
3. Distributing your content: Use a variety of channels to distribute your content such as social media, email marketing, and your website.
4. Measuring your success: Use analytics to measure the success of your content marketing efforts and make adjustments as needed.
5. Consistency: Create a content calendar and stick to a consistent publishing schedule to keep your audience engaged.
6. Repurpose and Optimize: Repurpose your content in different formats and optimize it for different channels to get more mileage out of your content.
Content marketing can help you establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry, drive traffic to your website, and ultimately convert leads into customers.
Let’s talk about the content creation side of things. Your content can be in various formats, it might be blog posts, podcasts, videos, online courses, infographics, free tools, templates, ebooks, checklists, you name it. As long as there’s demand from your target audience for that type of content then pretty much anything is fair game. Now, the type of content you choose will depend on the topic of your content piece.
For example, a recipe would work well as a blog post and video, but it probably wouldn’t be great as a podcast.
Whereas an interview could work as a podcast, video or even blog post, but it probably wouldn’t be very valuable as a checklist. As a general rule of thumb, start with one format that works for you and rinse and repeat. Then, consider exploring another channel. For example, start with blog posts and then eventually branch out to videos as your team grows.
Now, creating content alone isn’t enough because content isn’t the same as content marketing. And unfortunately, the notion of “if you build it and they will come” couldn’t be further from the truth.
And that’s why it’s important to have an idea of where you’ll be distributing this content. Some common distribution channels would include search which can be done through search engine optimization or paid ads, social media networks, forums and communities or email newsletters.
For example, if you have a recipes site, then you’d probably want to optimize your content for Google search, YouTube and/or Pinterest because these are channels where lots of people are actively looking for recipes every month.
Now, if you have a site on golf, you might want to consider YouTube, Google Search, and forums and communities because these are all places where your target audience would actively be looking for information on the topic.
Again, a general rule of thumb would be to pick 2 to 3 networks to work on and get really good at them. For example, two main content distribution channels are Google search via. SEO and YouTube. Your website will get over million visits from Google Search every month and million views on YouTube every month.
Let’s talk about blog content first. The two most popular distribution channels will be social media and search. When you create content with social media as your primary distribution channel, you’re taking on a lot of risk. Getting your blog content to blow up on social media is very unpredictable.
And while there are tools that can help you see how many times a post gets shared, you don’t know why they were shared. I mean, did they do outreach to get influencers to share their content? Do the creators of that content already have large existing audiences? Or are all of these shares fake because they were purchased to inflate popularity? There are way too many variables which is one of the reasons why we stay away from trying to create “viral” type content.
Plus, social media traffic tends to start with a big spike, but it ends up flatlining, leaving your content dead in the water. As for SEO traffic, it’s much easier to create predictable and consistent results that will stand the test of time. There are 3 basic steps to this process.
The first step is to find topics that are relevant to your business. And this step is often referred to as keyword research.
To get started, use a keyword research tool like Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer and enter some topics that are broadly related to your niche. So assuming you have a site that sells an online course on parenting, you might search for “parenting” and “toddler.” Next, go to the Questions report, which will show you keywords phrased as questions as well as the search volume for those keywords. And questions are often problems that your target audience may be facing.
Now, since you’re selling an online course, you’ll want to look for topics that are closely or at least somewhat related to your product.
So something like, “how to discipline a toddler” might be a good fit since you sell a parenting course.
The next step is to create the “right” type of content. Google tries to surface the most relevant content for any given query. So the “right” type of content from an SEO perspective, is one that meets the searchers needs. This is called search intent, which represents the reason behind a searcher’s query.
And you can determine this by looking at the top-ranking results or if you’re using Keywords Explorer, you can hit the SERP button to see the top 10 pages along with their SEO metrics.
In this case, they’re all informational blog posts where many have gone with the “tactical” angle. So you’d probably want to go this route too to have a fighting chance at ranking.
And the last step is to promote your content.
Promotion can take many forms and it’s best if you go with an inside out approach, meaning, start with channels closest to you and then move outwards to reach new audiences.
So you might start by posting on your social media accounts and sending new content to your email newsletter. Then you may want to branch out to communities you’re involved in. That might be Reddit, Quora, or social groups that allow link sharing. And finally, you’ll want to do some blogger outreach to get backlinks.
And this is what you’ll need to do to get your pages ranking higher on Google.
As for YouTube content, there are three main ways we select topics for content:
The first way is for YouTube organic search views. To do that, go to Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer, select the YouTube tab to get YouTube search data, and enter a broad keyword related to your niche. Next, go to the Phrase match report.
Now, since YouTube content is almost always informational you can skim this report and look for relevant keywords to your business. For example, “parenting styles” might be interesting because again, our hypothetical site sells an online course on parenting. And people searching for this would probably be interested in it.
So, take that keyword and type it into YouTube search. Again, look at the top 3 videos and see if there are any commonalities and do my best to create a video that matches searcher intent.
The second way is to create content on unique topics that might draw in your target audience. Now, the reason why we do this is because YouTube is both a search and social platform. And because there is that “social” aspect to YouTube, their algorithm rewards videos that attract a lot of clicks that lead to high watch times.
So by creating content on a popular topic in your niche that no one else has really talked about, you can potentially get a ton of clicks and if your content is good enough, people will watch it for long periods of time, leading to YouTube promoting your content to similar audiences.
Now, coming up with your own ideas will come down to creativity. But a simple formula you can use is [main topic] plus [main attractor]. For example, you created a video called “Link Building with Google Ads.” Your main topic is “link building,” which is a popular SEO strategy. And the main attractor is “with Google ads.
And that’s because no one was really talking about how to use Google ads to actually get backlinks to your site.
The third way is to create a series. Series work well because they’re meant to be watched in sequential order. This can lead to overall longer watch times across your entire channel.
The longer people are watching your content, the more YouTube will promote your videos. The biggest benefit is that if your content integrates your offerings in an organic way, there’s a significant amount of exposure to your products.
Potential series ideas might be courses, case studies, building something in public, or if you want to go with more of an entertainment angle, vlogs and shows work well too, depending on your niche.
Now, as for the promotion side of things, YouTube does a great job at promoting relevant content on their homepage and sidebar suggestions.
Content marketing isn’t exactly a fast process. It’s an ongoing one. And this is why people often avoid it because we’re used to this idea of immediate results, so we turn to things like advertising and direct mail.
There’s nothing wrong with more traditional methods of marketing, but content marketing is unique in the sense that it continues to contribute to your bottom line over time.
You need to think of content marketing like planting seeds. If you want to grow an apple tree, it can take up to 8 years for it to bear fruit. But that same tree will continually put food on the table for years to come. And the longer you wait to plant that seed, the longer it’ll take to start reaping the rewards.
Effective Content Marketing Strategies
Content marketing is a strategy for creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a clearly defined audience with the goal of driving profitable customer action. Some effective content marketing strategies include:
- Creating a content calendar to plan and organize content in advance.
- Identifying and understanding your target audience, and creating content that addresses their specific needs and interests.
- Diversifying the types of content you create, such as blog posts, videos, infographics, and social media posts.
- Optimizing your content for search engines by incorporating keywords and meta tags.
- Promoting your content through various channels, including social media, email marketing, and influencer outreach.
- Measuring and analyzing the success of your content marketing efforts, and using that data to make informed decisions about future content.
- Creating a consistent brand voice and identity across all of your content.
- Creating a mix of both evergreen and timely content
- Creating and curating user-generated content
- Repurposing and republishing existing content in new formats.
Content marketing for blog
Content marketing for a blog involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a specific target audience with the goal of driving profitable customer action.
This can include blog posts, infographics, videos, e-books, and other forms of content. A content marketing strategy should include a plan for creating, promoting, and measuring the success of the content.
Types of Content Marketing
There are several types of content marketing, including:
Blogging:
Creating and publishing articles on a company’s website to attract and engage an audience.
Video marketing:
Creating and sharing videos, such as product demos or tutorials, to educate and entertain an audience.
Infographics:
Using visual aids, such as charts and graphs, to present information in an easy-to-understand format.
Social media marketing:
Posting and sharing content on social media platforms to build a brand and engage an audience.
Email marketing:
Sending targeted and personalized emails to subscribers to promote products or services.
Podcasting:
Creating and distributing audio content to build relationships with an audience.
Webinars:
Hosting live or pre-recorded online events to educate and engage an audience.
Case studies:
Showcasing how a company has helped a specific client or solved a particular problem.
E-books:
Creating and distributing long-form content to educate and inform an audience.
Interactive content:
Quizzes, polls, contests, and other interactive content formats to engage and attract an audience.
Motives of creating good content
There are many motives for creating good content. Some of the most common include:
Educating and informing: One of the primary motives of creating good content is to educate and inform the audience. This can include providing information on a particular topic, sharing knowledge and expertise, or offering tips and advice.
Building brand awareness: Another common motive for creating good content is to build brand awareness and promote a business or organization. This can be done by creating content that is aligned with the brand’s mission and values, and that showcases the products or services that the brand offers.
Engaging with the audience: Many creators of good content aim to engage with their audience by creating content that is interesting, relevant, and relatable. This can include creating content that is designed to spark discussion, create a sense of community, or entertain.
Generating leads and sales: Good content can also be used as a marketing tool to generate leads and sales. This can be done by providing valuable information to the audience, highlighting the benefits of a product or service, and providing calls-to-action that encourage the audience to take the next step.
Building reputation and authority: Creating good content can also help to build reputation and authority in a particular field or industry. This can be done by providing valuable insights, sharing expertise, and creating content that is thought-provoking and original.
Ultimately, the motives for creating good content can vary depending on the individual or organization creating it, but a common thread is to provide value to the audience in some way.
Traits of Effective Goal In Content Marketing
Effective goals have several key traits that make them more likely to be achieved. These include:
Specific: Effective goals are clear and specific, and leave no room for confusion or misinterpretation. They should be well-defined and easy to understand.
Measurable: Effective goals have specific criteria that can be used to measure progress and determine when the goal has been achieved. This allows for tracking progress and making adjustments as needed.
Achievable: Effective goals are realistic and achievable, but they should also be challenging enough to motivate the person working towards them.
Relevant: Effective goals are aligned with the overall mission and values of the person or organization working towards them and are relevant to the individual or organization’s current and future needs and aspirations.
Time-bound: Effective goals have a deadline or time frame within which they should be achieved. This provides a sense of urgency and helps to keep the person or organization on track.
Flexible: Effective goal allow to be flexible and adaptable. They should be open to change and revision as needed, so that progress can continue even if unexpected obstacles arise.
By having these characteristics, effective goals can be set, tracked, and achieved successfully.
Final Words
From the above article you got to know about content marketing for beginners. Apart from above informations, there are so many other aspect which you need to consider while writing an effective content.
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