3 Keys to Successful Content Marketing
Content marketing is a marketing strategy that involves sharing branded content that is not
directly promotional across media channels. In social media, content marketing can include video, blogs, infographics, podcasts and more. The goal of content marketing is to generate leads, drive web traffic and create lasting relationships between brands and consumers.
There are three keys to a successful content strategy:
1. Share valuable content, consistently.
It takes 5-7 impressions before a consumer will remember a brand. That means that the more often you post valuable content, the more people will learn about your brand. Providing useful information relevant to your consumers will increase your brand's credibility.
Be careful not to overdo it with promotional content, as people do not log onto Facebook with the same mindset that they pick up a catalog. Provide useful content 80% of the time, and direct promotions the other 20%.
2. Optimize each piece of content to be found by search engines.
Every part of a blog post, from photo alt-text to the copy itself should utilize your brand's keywords. Check out this guide to optimizing blog posts for a closer look. The keywords that you use when writing copy is a great source for tags you can use to be found on your blog host's search function, as well as the hashtags you use to promote your post across social platforms.
3. Each piece of content should have a clear call-to-action.
While content shouldn't be directly promotional all of the time, try to direct readers of your content to contribute to the conversation surrounding your brand. You can do this by posing a question, suggesting they share to their followers, or asking them to opt-in to receive more content in the future.
4. Remember that the ultimate goal of content marketing is engagement.
The easier it is for your content to be shared (or engaged with), the more success you will have in content marketing. Engagement includes each share, comment or like that propels your content further into the digital world. Use these numbers to quantify the success of your content each month to optimize your content strategy.
There's no one "right way" to do content marketing. Start experimenting with content strategies against your target market, and analyze the top performing pieces of content.
For examples of how Let's Talk implements content marketing, check out our social platforms and the way we promote our blog posts.
