If you’re responsible for your brand’s digital marketing, then the chances are that you will have taken part in content marketing.
Whether a blog post, a tweet or a video, content is one of the most powerful ways to promote your brand online.
What’s more, other than the cost of production, content marketing is entirely free and can generate significant returns.
However, with more business owners and digital marketers investing in content marketing than ever before, it can be difficult to know what to create in order to stand out.
Below, we’ve put together four key content marketing tips that will help your business thrive.
1. Don’t succumb to pressure
Pro Blogger suggests that you should aim to post between one to three blog posts a week, but that doesn’t mean you have to.
Although your competitors may be posting more content than you are, it’s important to take into account the quality of your content.
It’s much more effective to publish one piece of well-researched, engaging content per week, rather than six pieces of watered-down, low-quality content.
Be consistent and don’t succumb to the pressure that’s so often associated with digital marketing.
2. Ask your audience what they want
Instead of trying to guess what type of content you think your customers are going to want to read, you should instead just ask them outright.
Run a poll, conduct a survey or even hold a focus group containing some of your most valued customers or readers, and find out their problems and challenges.
Often, speaking to your customers about the issues they’re facing can give you enough inspiration for a month’s worth of blog posts.
You could, for example, consider using an online survey tool such as SurveyMonkey to ask your existing followers what they’d like to see.
Or you could use an online question and answer service, such as Quora, to find ideas for potential blog posts.
If a user there has asked a question that you found particularly interesting, then centre a guest blog around it. And provide valuable resources that will answer their question.
Plus, you can link to your newly-written article in your response to the user on Quora, giving you a chance to score a backlink and increased traffic.
3. Copy, steal and do the things others tell you not to do
While we’re certainly not saying that you should break any laws or steal content directly, there’s no harm in copying good ideas from your competitors.
In fact, you could even go as far as stealing their entire content marketing strategy – so long as the content you create is better and provides more value than theirs does.
If you’re also investing in guest blogging, then another sensible idea is to use a free backlinks checker tool to see where your competitors have been blogging.
From there, you can reach out to bloggers and website owners and ask whether or not they’d be interested in a contribution.
Simply put, don’t be afraid of taking risks when it comes to your digital marketing – which leads us on to our final point…
4. Experiment – and prepare to fail
One of the best ways to become a better digital marketer and improve the types of content that you put out is to experiment.
You may think that, because you’re promoting your real brand online and real customers are looking at what you do, you can’t afford to make mistakes – but you couldn’t be more wrong.
If a social media post bombs or your latest blog post causes controversy, you can simply delete it and try something new. The more mistakes you make, the more you’ll learn about what works and what doesn’t.
Conclusion
We’ve put together just four ways in which you can improve your content marketing – but they’ve only scratched the surface.
Make sure you’re following a small business marketing blog so that you’re always up-to-date on the latest news and trends.
Continually monitor the actions of your competitors and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Good luck!
About the Author
Max Greene is the Managing Director of Muffin Marketing, a UK-based marketing agency specialising in content marketing, search engine optimisation and social media management for small businesses.
Featured image
Image source: Pixabay
