Content marketing is like Game of Thrones except without the gratuitous nudity and violent blood baths. As they say, content is king. (Or content is queen if you like a plot twist.)

Your buyers understand how important content is. After all, it influences their decisions. You need to learn how content marketing works before you try it.

Creating content is a challenge in itself. Learn about why you need to create a winning content marketing strategy that beats out your competitors and wins over your customers.

Why Content Marketing is Important

Content Marketing is different from digital and internet marketing. This gives your customers the opportunity to engage with you, not just your product. With your content, they can learn about your brand, product, and what problems it can solve.

Without a proper content marketing strategy in place, you won’t live up to their expectations. These days it’s pertinent to end up at the top of Google search results with high-quality, engaging content. It can feel like you’re fighting dragons without a plan in place.

Here are some tips for your content marketing strategy.

10 Steps to Conquering Content Marketing

Content marketing is tougher than slaying a fire-breathing dragon. That doesn’t mean you should bow out now. This is your chance to learn how to conquer it.

Each of these content marketing tips and techniques has been tested and tried out. Adapt them to your unique practice, and conquer them.

#1: Rebrand Your Blog

If you want to rise from the ashes like a phoenix, rethink your blogging efforts. Don’t just see it as another blog, see it as a digital magazine. This is one way to make it jump to the top of Google search results.

Rebrand your blog by creating a brand magazine that caters to your niche. Consider yourself an industry leader and create think pieces and content pieces that your target audience would fork over money for. You’re writing for your target audience, not for SEO.

What does your audience want to read? What do they want to learn about? Are you the right expert who can give them that content? If not, look to industry leaders and experts in your niche and interview them.

In 2023, the blog will become a thing of the past. Google is sick of seeing people create another boring blog. Instead, create a dedicated page on your website dedicated to industry news and product updates. Maybe each of these pages can stand alone on its own.

Break each of your content into pillars that you should be ranking for and writing about. These pillars allow you to build upon your content and use internal backlinks. Next, you’ll want to combine all of this information into downloadable guides that you can use to capture leads.

#2: Make Use of Your Unique Data

Sorry to disappoint you but there’s no secret recipe to content marketing success. The good thing is the content marketing industry is rife with strategies, techniques, and methods. But, what you need is something that’s unique and makes you stand out from all the rest.

Use your own customers and gather their unique data. Look at their pain points and create content that offers solutions to their problems. The biggest mistake that most retail and tech companies make is creating content that generates high search queries, which is great for Google.

However, they don’t spend enough time creating unique, niche content pieces that their customers will get more value out of. Write engaging articles that make you look like an industry leader with reports, statistics, and studies.

These days, engaging content can only get you so far. Strike a friendly balance between using your qualitative and quantitative user data. Create content that’s educational, engaging, informative, unique, and valuable.

#3: Go 50/50 With Your Efforts

The reason why most marketing teams fail is that they work so hard on a long-form blog post only to have it in flux. It’s time to put that article in front of your audience. For example, you could share it on LinkedIn or on #MarketingTwitter.

Or, you can take that article and turn it into video content. LinkedIn users are 20 times more likely to share videos than articles, according to Ads Marketing Leader Steve Kearns. Find a channel where your target audience is hanging out. You want to make sure you’re sharing one that resonates with the industry. Once you find the right channel, adapt to it and work on increasing your click-through rate.

Putting a little work into the promotion can help as well. Make sure your message is casual and unique and still targets your audience. Create an engaging outreach campaign that encourages your readers to look at the article and share it with their colleagues. It could even spark a conversation on your blog, which decreases the bounce rate.

#4: Conduct Proper Research

There are a wide variety of marketing tools and research methods you can use. But, there is nothing better than qualitative research. This involves analyzing and collecting data that allows you to understand the various facts and opinions out there.

Start out by searching for the keywords and topics you’re trying to rank high for on Google. Next, read the top ten articles on the first page. What may surprise you is that some of these articles are terrible even though they made it to the front.

What was wrong with that article you just read? What can you do differently that will make you stand out?

Write down the top 10 articles and your thoughts on why you do or don’t like them. Find areas to improve on them -- and to SLAY your competition.

The main goal here is to create an informative long-form piece that makes your readers take action and outrank the first-page list of high-ranking articles.

#5: Optimize Keyword Strategy for Better Conversions

Another mistake that most brands make is not segmenting their keywords when creating their content strategy. Instead, they just choose keywords that match their target base and that’s about it.

Conversion keywords are what make you the money, honey. You need to create unique content that caters to your target audience and gets them clicking and buying.

Another mistake retail and e-commerce brands make is focusing on volume rather than intent. Your main focus should be on low-volume intent-based keywords. Find out ways that encourage people to make the decision to purchase like a free trial offer.

You should also incorporate long-tail keywords that have a lower search volume, but a higher engagement rate. Next, you want to inject some personality into the content you are writing.

Don’t put your readers to sleep with content that doesn’t move them. Give them a reason why they can’t live without your product.

Show them how their life will change once they become a customer. This gives them an idea of what to expect in the customer success relationship.

Think about the kind of brand you want to be. Convey what your customers can expect from your product. This will help your readers convert and build successful customer relationships.

#6: Get Organic Backlinks

You can’t just get more backlinks. You need to give people a reason why they should refer back to your article. Get noticed for the content you’re putting out there by building up high-quality and organic backlinks.

It’s no longer about getting backlinks for the quality you’re providing. It can be the result of your content marketing efforts. Or, maybe it’s because some people like how your business runs or your writing style.

Backlinks don’t have to take place within your industry. You can win backlinks from graphic designers who love your visuals or marketing agencies who enjoy your content. Build up those likes, mentions, and shares with your high-quality and unique content.

#7: Become Your Own Hype Man

Hook your readers from the start. You can’t just keep them waiting for more. You want to take your customers on a journey. Keep them engaged and interested so they’ll keep reading the rest of your article.

An interesting introduction isn’t all it takes to attract customers. You have to write your content in a way that keeps them interested until they reach your CTA. That way, you become your own hype man who delivers on the guarantee you’ll provide them.

You’ll simultaneously increase your conversion rate and decrease the bounce rate. It’s a win-win for everyone.

#8: Start With Problems, Not Solutions

Many companies forget that people are searching for their solutions when they are considering purchasing their products. What you should do is start with a problem, not with the solution. Your content should focus on the pain points and problems that your product solves.

For example, an email marketing platform can help create better emails or attract warmer leads. When your content marketing plan focuses on the problem you can solve, you will attract a wider net of buyers while remaining relevant to potential customers.

Be specific with that specific problem in mind. Have a goal in mind for each piece of content with the intent to inform and convert. Identify the problems and determine the metrics that can help you hit that goal and attract more buyers.

#9: The Importance of the Chain of Command

Keep your reader in mind when creating your content. The further along the chain your target audience is, the less likely they’ll read long-form content.

If you need to attract Heads of Departments like CEOs, COOs, or Department Directors, you have to keep in mind they’re very busy. They don’t have time to read a 2000+ word article. You have to find another way to get their attention.

Try bite-sized content such as a one-minute TikTok video or a 300-word weekly newsletter that’s packed with actionable tips. Or, create a social media post that provides them with one key takeaway.

On the flip side, assistants, coordinators, and target specialists are more likely to read long-form content. Not only do they have the time to dive into this type of content, but they want to make sure they’re doing their job correctly.

While they don’t have the funds to purchase your product or services, they can become your greatest cheerleader.

Don’t stress over this part too much. There are no mistakes made when it comes to content marketing. It all depends on the audience you’re reaching.

#10: Write Content for Each Stage of the Funnel

Content marketing is about building funnels to guide them there. The best way to get the word out is to hire kick-ass and knowledgeable writers who can deliver your message.

Use your TOFU content for your target market and BOFU content for your brand strategy. TOFU is short for top-of-the-funnel marketing, which includes long-form content such as articles, blog posts, social media posts, and ebooks.

Here are three simple ways to boost engagement and click-throughs with your TOFU content:

1. Focus on your marketing content

2. Choose the appropriate marketing funnel

3. Write for the audience for that funnel

BOFU is shorthand for bottom-of-the-funnel, which includes customer stories, case studies, demos, and webinars and events. You may also want to consider MOFU, which is middle-of-the-funnel marketing such as educational resources, email newsletters, and free downloads.

From there, you can add a unique POV to the market. When you optimize content for each of these areas, you’ll achieve success with your marketing efforts. When you reach people who need you and the solution you provide, that’s when you incorporate SEO into your content.

Each funnel should have a different goal and actionable, informative content that will help your audience reach that goal.

Tying it All Together

Your content marketing efforts improve when you use a knowledge base.

This stores all the important information such as customer profiles, customer behavior research, competitive analysis, writing style, tone of voice, and whatever else you need in your content marketing strategy.

As you can see, content marketing isn’t so scary. You don’t have to feel like you’re in a constant battle with your competition. Need a content strategist and writer who can help deliver those results? Contact me today to discuss your content marketing strategy.