WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING?

Content Marketing means creating and sharing valuable free content to attract and convert prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers. The type of content you share is closely related to what you sell; in other words, you’re educating people so that they know, like, and trust you enough to do business with you.

If you’re interested in marketing your business online (and who isn’t at this point), you can’t escape hearing about content marketing. It’s everywhere you look, or listen.

How to build a Successful Content Marketing Strategy in 7 Steps?

  • Plan- Who you are, Where you are, Where you want to be
  • Audience- Who you want to tell it to
  • Story- What story you want to tell
  • Channel- Where you want to tell it (Facebook, Twitter, Email, Linkedin, Blog)
  • Process- Create and manage, Optimize, aggregate
  • Conversations- Converse & listen (Interact with your audience)

     7- Measurement- Measure and learn

 

Best Content Marketing Company

Building an Authority Blog

An authority blog targets a specific market or group of like-minded individuals. It is designed to be the ultimate resource for that topic. Its primary goal isn’t to make an instant sale. Instead the site is used to educate the user in order to establish a long-term (but profitable) relationship.

The Development Process

There will be three phases for any new blog:

Phase 1 – Building The Foundation

This will be pretty much like building a niche site. I will do basic stuff like:

  • Choosing domain and hosting. (subdomain or a new domain)
  • Setting up website. (WordPress)
  • Content planning& keyword research. (Content marketing strategy 7 steps process)
  • Create publishing schedule (A routine of when what type of content will be posted and how it will be marketed)
  • Hiring content writers. (full-time/part-time from freelancer.com, elance.com, odesk.com, iwriter.com)
  • Creating rich valuable content. (new content or skyscraper method)
  • Marketing content.

Phase 2 – Authority Building

This phase will focus on creating massively valuable content that attract shares and links naturally. We will also start reaching out to bloggers and developing relationships with them for guest blogging opportunities.

Creating content consistently is also a MUST for this phase. Building an authority blog is like a marathon, not a sprint. And don’t forget that it is a long term process.

Phase 3 – Monetize

Although can start monetizing the site from day one with affiliate reviews/links/suggestions, But we would also begin to create my own products.

How to Create Content that Isn’t a Joke?

  1. Answering websites like yahooanswers and quora.com- not just respond to questions but taking ideas from then on what to write about.
  2. Set alerts like Google alerts, en.mention.com, socialmention.comto keep a track on what people are talking about your industry.
  3. Use keyword research tools like longtailpro.com or Google keyword planner tool to find search queries on Google
  4. Contact people/companies in your industry to write about them(success stories, case studies, examples, Interviews)
  5. Subscribe to good blogs in your industry
  6. Be updated for news and casestudies
  7. Be a good and active social animal
  8. Skyscraper technique- This is an highly productive technique not just to find out what content to write about but to make your blog and authority blog. Content written via this technique often ranks well on search engines. In this technique we find top content on web for our keywords/area of interest and re-write it by updating it and adding things which can be added to make it even more comprehensive. Foreg- If there is an article which headlines reads- “11 reasons you should do content marketing” then we can add few more points to it and write – “21 reasons why content marketing is important for your business”

How to find top content?

  • References used by Wikipedia
  • Google search
  • com
  • Content curators
  • com
  • Open site explorer
  • Daily experiences
  1. Daily experiences- Keep your eyes open and seek content opportunity while socializing. You meet all kinds of people daily in meetings, while commuting, in events, get together, etc. For eg- Famous singer Honey singh writes his songs after observing society
  2. Have expert people write for you- Hire experts from your industries to share their experiences with you via webinars, articles, interviews, etc
  3. Be open for guest post- Have a “write for us” page on your blog and let other guest bloggers reach you and write for you.

 

How to market your content?

  1. Social media
  • Facebook
  • Linkedin
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • Instagram
  1. Directories- ebooks directories, infographic directories, video websites, etc
  2. Multiple versions of same content- for eg- an article can be made available in podcast, can be converted into infographic, can be posted on slideshare in form of an PPT, etc
  3. Find who has linked to similar content in past- this can be done by using tools like OSE, Majestic SEO
  4. Connect with Influencers (See 10 step guide on how to connect with influencers online)
  5. Forums- Search for forums related to your industry and create multiple accounts on them and help people by providing more info with your content
  6. Guestpost- Will not give you thousands of visitors but traffic coming in via a guest post will not just be a visitor but may be a second customer or follower.
  7. Email- At times Old is gold. Promoting your piece of content via email is very common but a highly effective method. Shooting e-mailers to your opt-in list increases followers, builds second customers with better brand image.
  8. Second customer- Writing compelling content over a period of time will build lots of second customers for you which will help your content go places and increase its visibility