Whether you are a small business or a large corporation, the fundamentals of content marketing remain the same.<\/p>\n
If you want to increase your customer base and grow your audience online, you need to create a wide range of high-quality content<\/a> that actively grabs users’ attention.<\/p>\n While this may seem like a fairly easy task, you may be surprised at how many experienced marketers are failing to implement a content marketing strategy and are instead simply shooting in the dark when it comes to content.<\/p>\n As content marketing specialists, we know exactly how to use content marketing to grow your business, and in this article, we are going to share this knowledge with you.<\/p>\n Within the below guide, you will discover:<\/p>\n Ready to get started? <\/em><\/p>\n By the end of this article, you should know everything there is to know about content marketing and how to use this digital marketing technique to expand your business and outshine your competitors.<\/p>\n According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is:<\/p>\n While each businesses’ content marketing strategy will be different, most include a combination of articles, videos, podcasts, and other popular media.<\/p>\n Here at Click Intelligence, we believe in the power of bespoke content marketing strategies<\/a>, meaning there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Each business is different, so each content marketing strategy should also be different.<\/p>\n When creating a content marketing strategy for your business, you need to make sure that you have a clear set of goals that are specifically designed to meet your bespoke business objectives.<\/p>\n Although it can be tricky to align your content marketing and business goals, it has to be done if you want your content marketing strategy to be effective within your industry<\/a> and actively help grow your business.<\/p>\n One of the most popular methods for aligning your marketing and business goals is setting SMART goals. If you are not familiar with this method, let us explain.<\/p>\n Start by thinking about the process you currently use to write blogs for your business.<\/p>\n Do you write as many blogs as you can? Churning them out fast and without too much though?<\/p>\n This method is not very effective, but it doesn’t seem to have any real goal in mind.<\/p>\n Instead, you would be better to instruct your content writing team to write 5 high-quality blogs per week with the goal of increasing website traffic by 10%.<\/p>\n This is a SMART goal.<\/p>\n It’s S<\/strong>pecific, M<\/strong>easurable, A<\/strong>ttainable, R<\/strong>elevant, and T<\/strong>ime-bound.<\/p>\n So, whenever you set a content marketing goal, remember to keep SMART goals in mind! If you want to use content marketing<\/em> to grow your business, then you need to be asking yourself:<\/p>\n What type of content should I use?<\/em><\/p>\n Where should I publish the content?<\/em><\/p>\n How can I generate fresh content ideas?<\/em><\/p>\n While this may feel a little overwhelming, especially if you are a busy small business owner, it will become second nature to you and your team once you know how to create great content.<\/p>\n As discussed above, all content should be goal-driven, so you need to think about what type of content will best help you to achieve your business goals.<\/p>\n That being said, several types of content have a high success rate in converting customers.<\/p>\n People like to be entertained. They like to laugh, So, by creating content that is funny or entreating, you can build stronger emotional connections between your brand and your customers.<\/p>\n If you are guilty of creating highly promotional content that isn’t very useful for your target audience, then this could be the reason why your content marketing strategy is not as effective as it could be.<\/p>\n Instead, aim to create content that solves problems you know your audience to have.<\/p>\n Who doesn’t like to feel inspired when reading content online? Inspiring content can resonate with a wide audience, but it is also highly shareable, which can help you extend your online reach.<\/p>\n In terms of content format, there are so many different types of content that you can experiment with, including:<\/p>\n If you want content that guarantees to convert, we recommend you opt for a combination of high-quality written content such as blogs, press releases, and e-books and visually stimulating content such as high-quality images and infographics.<\/p>\n Content creation is only half the battle. The next step is to focus on content promotion because what is the point of creating amazing content if nobody sees it?<\/p>\n Again, there are many different platforms that you can choose from when it comes to publishing your content, including on your social media pages, within your emails, and on your blog.<\/p>\n So, how do you know which ones are right for your business and your content marketing goals?<\/p>\n The truth is, there is no right answer. When it comes to publishing your content, more often than not, it is a case of trial and error to see what works best for you and your target audience.<\/p>\n That being said, there are a few platforms that we know will continue to dominate in 2022 and beyond:<\/p>\n As you would expect, Facebook remains one of the most popular social media sites and is therefore a great place to share your content. In fact, Facebook currently has 1.785 billion active daily users!<\/p>\n To make sure your content gets noticed, be sure to include some teaser text to encourage users to click on and read your post.<\/p>\n All businesses should have their own blog page on their websites, as this offers the perfect place to showcase any content you have created<\/a>. Not only will a blog page give your website credibility and authority, but it will also attract more traffic.<\/p>\n To make the most of your blog page<\/a>, you need to make sure you are posting consistently. Ideally, 2-3 times per week.<\/p>\n Often overlooked, LinkedIn is a great platform for sharing content, especially for B2B businesses.<\/p>\n Again, there is a lot of content published on this platform, so you need to find ways to make yours stand out. One trick is to include a link that keeps them on the LinkedIn platform rather than directing them to an external website.<\/p>\n You should also aim to grow your number of followers on this platform to share your content more than once.<\/p>\n YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine, yet many businesses are failing to take advantage of its massive reach and influence<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you have created any videos for your website, why not share them on YouTube also? Or, if you are feeling particularly motivated, why not create your own YouTube channel?<\/p>\n Another platform that doesn’t get the credit it deserves, Pinterest has a huge user base of around 333 million monthly active users. Furthermore, most of these users come from high-income households and are actively looking to make purchases.<\/p>\n If you have not used Pinterest before, start by simply pinning the featured image on each of your blog posts and go from there.<\/p>\n This is a problem that nearly all businesses struggle with. Whether you have an in-house content writing team or not, everyone hits a wall when it comes to the generation of content ideas at some point.<\/p>\n Fortunately, if you are experiencing writer’s block, several online resources and tools can help you:<\/p>\n Have a look on your followers’ social media pages to see what they are talking about. This is a great way to find trending topics ideas that are guaranteed to be shared.<\/p>\n Another good resource, each time you post a blog, be sure to read the comments as these can give you some great ideas for future blog posts.<\/p>\n If you want a better insight into what your target audience wants to read about, why not ask them directly? Most people love to be interviewed as it gives them the opportunity to talk about themselves.<\/p>\n Simple yet highly effective, head over to your competitors’ websites and see what topics they are writing about. It can also be a good idea to see which of their content is performing the best.<\/p>\n If you don’t have the time or resources to generate a constant stream of content ideas in-house, you may want to consider enlisting the help of professional content writers. With options to suit all budgets, every business, no matter how big or small, can benefit from a Content Writing<\/a> team.<\/p>\n As with all aspects of digital marketing, if you don’t set KPIs, then how will you know how effective your campaigns are?<\/p>\n When it comes to measuring the success of your content marketing strategy, there are several KPIs that you need to be tracking:<\/p>\n Check how many people are visiting your page on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.<\/p>\n A page visit will only tell you so much, so you need to also be tracking how long each user spends on your webpage.<\/p>\n How many people are linking to your site? If your content is credible, you should gain more inbound links.<\/p>\n Although some consider shares to be a vanity metric, we know that they are important as they help you to see which channels your content is resonating on.<\/p>\n If your blog post generates a lot of comments, then this shows that it has had an impact on your readers and maybe even sparked a debate.<\/p>\n You need to make sure that you are optimizing your conversion rate<\/a> at every possible opportunity so that you do not waste any leads.<\/p>\n\n
What is a content marketing strategy? <\/strong><\/h3>\n
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A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience \u2013 and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.<\/em><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n
How to set results-driven content marketing strategy goals<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nOur top tips for content marketing in 2022<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What type of content should I use?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Content that entertains <\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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Content that is educational<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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Content that inspires<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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<\/p>\nWhere should I publish content?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Facebook <\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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Your blog<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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LinkedIn<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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YouTube<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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Pinterest<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
How can I generate fresh content ideas?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Look to social media <\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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Read blog comments <\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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Carry out interviews<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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Check out competitor websites <\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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Hire a content writing team <\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
How to measure your content marketing campaigns <\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Unique page visits<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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Time spent on page<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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Number of inbound links<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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Number of social media shares<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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Comments and interactions <\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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Conversion rates<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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