Content marketing is one of the buzzwords in marketing these days. That’s because it works. The thing is, people THINK they understand it, but most don’t.
Most people think content marketing is blogging. Sure, that’s usually part of it, but that’s also the most basic level of content marketing.
Others think that content marketing is just about creating as much content as you can and throwing it out there on as many channels as you can. There’s actually nothing wrong with that theory. It works for many people.
But at its core content marketing should drive the consumer to take an action. Each piece of content should be created with a desired outcome in mind. It’s not just content for the sake of content.
The best content marketers will create a narrative with all of their content. Each piece of content will build upon the next.
For the majority of small businesses though, the best content for you to create is the one that you will actually do. Done is better than perfect any day of the week!
Some people hate being in front of a camera. They hate the way they look on camera and they hate hearing their own voice. For these people, it will take a lot of coercing to get them to do video or a podcast on a consistent schedule.
But maybe that person can commit to write a blog post every week. Maybe they even enjoy writing the blog post.
I personally despise writing. It’s 5:30pm right now and I’ve been writing all day long. I do it because there is something I can’t stand even more than writing. Cold calling!
But for me, turn on a camera and I’m happy.
Here are some examples of content marketing mediums.
- Blogs
- Articles
- Whitepapers, guides, and ebooks
- Video
- Podcasting
- Memes, gifs, and quotes
A good content marketing plan should include all of these, but the main thing is to just get started somewhere. Once you have one of them down, move on to the next.
Content marketing works in so many ways. The most obvious is you create content, someone reads, listens, or watches it and decide to do business with you.
But that’s just one way content marketing drives new business.
Some other ways that content marketing will lead to new business include:
- The huge SEO benefits you see from having content on all of these different channels linking back to your web properties.
- The authority you build in a space by becoming a thought leader.
- The sheer number of people who know of you through your content and tell others about you.
- Other thought leaders who are willing to introduce you to their audiences through their own platform.
- The “Trojan Horse” effect of inviting your biggest prospects to be a guest on your blog, video, or podcast.
Content gets to a point where it is nearly self-producing.
Here is an example.
- You do a Facebook Live video of someone who is doing something interesting in your industry.
- You upload that video to YouTube.
- You strip the audio track and make it into a podcast episode.
- You have the video transcribed and place it into your website with the embedded video and podcast player.
- You send out an email encouraging people to go watch, listen, or read.
- You post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, SnapChat, and Pinterest about your new content.
From one video you produced written, audio, and video content for your YouTube channel, email, website, and 6 different social networks.
This is content marketing at its best!
Here are some action steps for you.
- Write a blog post and put it on your website
- Pull out your phone and do a Facebook live
- Make a "how-to" video for your prospective clients and put it on YouTube, Facebook, and embed it into your website.
Don't get caught up in perfection. Just get something done. Then set a schedule and do it consistently. Every time you create a new piece of content, strive to make it better than the last.
If you realize the importance of content but don't want to do it yourself, we can do it for you.
We recently helped Scott MacKenzie set up his podcast, The Industrial Talk Podcast. Scott is killing it and doing things right.
I’d love to help you do the same!
To get started, give me a call at 985-662-8419.
Brian Walker
CEO - 5 Stones