As of September 2022, around 69.5% of the world’s population are active internet users. That’s approximately five billion people, and 5.40 billion of the total number are social media users. With this vast online customer base, entrepreneurs can take advantage of this opportunity to promote their businesses and reach broad audiences. One of the best marketing strategies is content marketing.
Content marketing isn’t new. The global content marketing industry is forecasted to reach USD$487.24 billion at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.8% from 2021 to 2026. This data proves that content marketing is here to stay and will continue to be a powerful marketing tool for the foreseeable future.
The big question in our competitive landscape is how to ensure that your content garners positive results and helps you achieve your business targets.
To help you with this, here are four pro tips that will help you set your content apart from everyone else and leave your audience wanting more:
1. Define your target audience
Before you start creating any content, you need to be able to clearly define who your target audience is. Be specific about the type of people you want to reach with your content.
For more ‘tricky’ eCommerce businesses or service-based companies that don’t traditionally churn out exciting and engaging content, you need to have a deep understanding of your audience to know what content they are likely to need to consume.
Take the example of Jobber, which offers management and administrative software for businesses. Their target market are likely looking for innovative solutions to manage or automate their business operations and increase their productivity.Â
As such – what specific content do they require in order to encourage them down the sales funnel? How-to’s, best practices, industry news, and stories from like-minded businesses and entrepreneurs would all be relevant, so in this case, you’d create a content plan based on these themes.
If you are struggling to identify who your audience are, another way to identify this is to craft a buyer persona, a research-based profile of your ideal customer. This method will help you understand your target market better and make it easier for you to create content that appeals to them.
2. Publish informative and engaging content
The primary goal of content marketing is to provide valuable information that can help prospects and existing customers solve their problems. It’s not about selling your products or services outright. But rather, you must focus on creating content that can educate your audience and help them make informed decisions.
For example, suppose you’re offering the latest technologies in your industry. Are there any tools or pieces of advice that you can afford to offer for free that demonstrates your expertise and that will entrust your audience to potentially purchase from you further down the line? Take this simple example of a free downloadable contractor estimate template.
In this case, supporting valuable content shows the benefits of using this tool for businesses.
You can create many types of content to win over your target market. Below are some further examples:
- Blog posts
Create an interesting and engaging blog post to capture the attention of potential customers. Remember, you’re writing for your readers. So, always think about what they’d want and how you can help them.
- Tutorials
People love learning new things, particularly if it can improve their skills or knowledge. You can create how-to guides, step-by-step instructions, and video tutorials. It’s also best to have a premium version of your tutorial content that potential customers can access by subscribing to your email list. This marketing strategy can increase your leads and conversions
- eBooks
Research shows that the eBooks sales sector is expected to reach USD$13.62 billion in 2022 at a CAGR of 3.38% from 2022 to 2027. This statistic proves that eBooks are still in demand, and people are willing to pay for quality content. So, if you have in-depth knowledge about a particular topic, you can consider creating an eBook packed with information about your industry.
- Infographics
Infographics are a great way to present complex information in an easy-to-understand format. People are more likely to remember information presented in an infographic than in text form. Plus, infographics are shareable so that you can promote your content on social media and other platforms.
3. Optimize your content for search engines
You can have the best content in the world, but if no one can find it, it’s useless to everyone. That’s why you need to make sure that you optimize your content for search engines. This means using the right keywords, tagging your content correctly, and making it easy for search engines to crawl and index your pages.
Here are a few tips to help you optimize your content:
- Use keyword-rich titles and descriptions
- Consider alt tags for images
- Add relevant links
- Design a user-friendly website
- Manage the website’s loading speed, especially for mobile
4. Create a catchy headline
Your headline is the first thing visitors will see when they come across your content. This can impact the readers’ first impression of the content. That said, a good headline must be catchy and interesting enough to make them want to read more. In addition, it should be clear, concise, and impactful. It should also be unique and interesting for your visitors.
Check out these tips to help you write headlines that convert:
- Use numbers and statistics: People love numbers and statistics. Incorporating them in your content may help add credibility to your claims.
- Make use of emotions: An emotional headline tends to resonate with people’s feelings. In a study, the main emotions evoked in news headlines are fear, trust, sadness, anger, and anticipation. Moreover, 52% of the sentiments evoked were negative, 30% were positive, and 18% were neutral.
- Consider power words: Power words are persuasive and can help increase your click-through rate.
- Ask a question: Questions pique people’s curiosity, causing them to click, and make them want to know more.
Conclusion
These are just some factors you need to do to create a winning content marketing strategy. Remember, competition is stiff, so you need to be at the top of your game if you want to succeed. But with these tips, you can give yourself a better chance of achieving your content marketing goals.
