Content marketing is an integral part of any company’s digital strategy.

According to HubSpot, it is a marketing strategy that focuses on creating, publishing, and distributing valuable and relevant content online. A goal of content marketing involves reaching a targeted audience and encouraging profitable customer interaction.

Content marketing is critical for long-term and sustainable growth, but what does it really entail?

We’ve got some of the key tips that you should consider when creating your content marketing strategy.

Start with your audience.

An important step is to first think about your target audience. Who are they, and what is your target audience interested in? What are their pain points, wants or needs – what are they searching for online? These are some of the questions that you can use to inform your content marketing strategy and the type of content you create.

While your content should showcase your business, the goal is to provide answers or solutions to what your audience is looking for.

The solution may be to update some of your products based on the data that your audience provides via their online searches. Analytics and social listening tools can help you understand that data and how best to use it in your content marketing strategy.

Copywriting is a key element.

Copywriting is essential to content marketing as it can help persuade your audience to act on the information that is shared.

It is important to content marketing as it promotes the use of different content types that support the vision and message of your business.

From mailing lists to video scripts, blog posts to articles, copywriting is fundamental, and your content should be engaging, clear, and aligned with a measurable business goal.

Copywriting requires knowing your target audience and creating a content strategy that responds to their pain points, needs, and interests with relevant and commanding content.

Implementing an SEO strategy helps with ranking.

Search engine optimisation can help to boost your website’s performance and increase traffic to your website.

When it comes to SEO, try to include relevant keywords in your content that your target audience is searching for online.

By creating compelling content that adds value to your customers and includes targeted keywords, you have a better opportunity of ranking higher in online searches.

The effective use of SEO can create a better user experience for your customers. It can also result in higher conversion rates and improve lead generation.

Use your experts.

Use the expertise of your team and other influential persons in your industry to create thought leadership. Ensure that your content is adding the value that your customers need.

So, instead of writing about how great your product is, it may be more beneficial to have an expert review it and share its pros and cons based on their experience with using it.

You can also audit your content to see what material performs great. Then, take it a step further and review the types of content that do well on your competitors’ websites.

Based on your findings, you may want to update your content to include expert tips or advice, real life experiences, author bios, videos or images showing a human connection to the topic.

It helps to repurpose your content.

Repurposing your content promotes efficiency and allows you to reach new audiences. It also gives your audience additional opportunities to get acquainted with the material. When you do your content audit, you will identity high performing pieces of content that you can use in different mediums.

From turning the main points of a blog post into an infographic to transforming an informative article into a short video – there are many options available.

Other ideas include using an important blog topic to create webinars, email campaigns, or even courses that can add value to your customer’s journey.

Personalise your content the smart way.

You already know your content must provide solutions to your target audience’s questions or needs. This makes it easier for you to create different content topics that add value and gives them the answers they seek. While your products or services may offer the solution, you don’t want to overwhelm your audience with constant blog posts related to them.

This is where a pop up with a call to action (CTA) directing customers to material that will help them to understand your products or services can help.

You can use materials like a guide with a breakdown of how to use a product they are searching for, a link to a landing page where there’s a possible discount on some of the products you offer, or an easy-to-follow video clip demonstrating how to use the product.

This gives your business opportunities to add more value to your customers, helps them to understand and want to try your products, and can even prompt customer reviews from those who enjoyed using a product.

You can personalise your website content to help your target audience understand your company’s values, goals, and other relevant aspects of your business. You can also personalise based on your buyer persona or device (laptop, cell phone, tablet, etc.).

Finally, there is an app for almost everything, and the right personalisation tool can help with the heavy lifting. Personalisation software can identify trends in customer behaviours and can use that data to display content in a more relatable way.

Content marketing requires careful planning, insight, and commitment. With a robust content marketing strategy that’s properly executed, your content will add value, drive traffic to your website, and empower your business and customers.

Thankfully, many tools can help you create an effective content marketing strategy that produces the desired results.

Here at Yello, our content marketing experts can guide you with producing relevant and compelling content that has the solutions that your customers need.

To get started with content marketing, SEO content writing tips, or digital marketing solutions, speak with one of our experts at Imagine Digital Now.

Sources: SEM Rush, HubSpot, WordStream, Digital Marketing Institute, and Entrepreneur.