What is your first move when you hear people at your workplace raving over the new café in town?
I suspect you’d instantly log in to your Facebook or Instagram and type its name. You check out its campaigns, reviews, and offers.
This is your first collaboration with the brand.
Such changing consumer behaviors have inspired companies to focus on content marketing. It is important not because it works for generating leads, building trust, and cultivating customer loyalty. But because it has turned into the new normal from the prospects.
A proven way to increase traffic on your website is through the content developed for SEO, social media marketing, and blogs. Even though there are plenty of options living under these categories, it all boils down to the content quality you put in each.
According to the State of Inbound report, content creation is the foremost priority for 53% of marketers.
Brands like Nike and Sephora have become more than companies. Nike has become a way of life, inspiring generations. Simultaneously, Sephora has mastered the brand community with its content, inviting its audience into an inspiring and educational environment.
To sum it up – content marketing has formed a bridge that consumers want to cross to connect with their favorite brands.
Are you doing it the right way?
If not sure, run through our carefully-designed content marketing checklist and see how you are doing.
Here are some Content Marketing Checklist to Boost your Engagement:
Inspire the Audience with New Ideas
Inspiration can be contagious if done right. When something you publish strikes the right chords, people can’t help but share those gold nuggets with their fellows. Inspiration doesn’t necessarily have to be motivating quotes from philosophers.
It could be anything that encourages people to look at things from a different angle. The best information comes from customer testimonials, life-altering narratives, and case studies of successful icons. You can inspire people when you:
Repurpose the Old Content:
You may have published incredible blogs in the past. A little tweak here and there could give those pieces a new glint and inspire new customers.
Use Visual Content:
According to the Social Media Examiner, 32% of marketers say graphical images are the most critical form of content for their business. Infusing eye-catching visuals is your best shot to trigger inspiration among your visitors.
Create Listicles:
Listicles are short articles in bullets or numbers, such as those published by BuzzFeed. This type of content is easy to grab and allows people to act upon the message conveyed by your content.
When going for an inspirational content strategy, it is vital to check what you post against your brand voice. Develop content according to your business values. The best way to do so is by documenting your content strategy.
Provide Relevant Ideas and Updates
Once you have gained some customers, it is always best to keep them in the loop. Whether it is to provide them updates about social issues, current events, or ideas in the oven – customers nowadays deserve to know it all.
Here is how this can be achieved:
- Give your audience tidbits of information about the latest happenings in your industry.
- Infuse snippets of recent political/social events in your blogs. Make sure it aligns with the overall message of your content.
- Design infographics. These are the power-packed visuals to disseminate new information about the topics your audience might find interesting.
Content meant to educate the audience appeals to their rationality. As for how to impart the new knowledge, it is vital to explore your target audience. You must analyze the demographics and create diversified customer personas.
When Wyzowl asked how they’d most like to learn about a new product, over two-thirds (68%) of consumer said a short video would be best, way ahead of text-based articles (15%), infographics (4%), presentations, and pitches (4%) ebooks and manuals (3%).
Take mandatory action in light of these numbers to maintain the relevance of your content marketing strategies.
Answer Questions
Some people need inspiration. Then there are other people prying to know what’s cooking at your end. And the last are the ones seeking specific answers. The content you create should contain information your audience seeks in your niche.
Following are a couple of ways to do it:
- Keep your content straightforward. Using short paragraphs and avoiding jargon will avoid confusion and make your content as actionable as possible.
- Use images to explain your points. A study revealed that after three days, a person would retain only 10-20% of written or spoken information but almost 65 percent of visual communication.
- Dedicate a page for FAQs on your website.
- Keep a strict watch on social media sites like Quora, Twitter and comments left by the readers on your blog posts. Your prospective customers would be asking some questions here. So make sure you are active on all fronts.
Hubspot’s content marketing strategy gives us a lot to learn from. The company has invested in content marketing by writing blog posts, content upgrades like ebooks, and creating videos for Facebook and LinkedIn. It has turned into a multi-million dollar company and gained massive popularity due to its distinct content approach.
Involve them in Community
It is a source of encouragement for some people to get involved with like-minded individuals. They seek viral and visual content to help them explore more or feel part of a community.
As a brand willing to provide wholesome experiences, you must take steps to make your audience feel a part of the community:
- Enhance your social media presence: Take steps to indulge in personal conversations to address all concerns thrown by the prospects. As per Animoto, 73% of consumers have been impacted by a company’s social media presence when purchasing decisions.
- Work on podcasts and webinars: Make your customers feel connected by talking about your niche’s most frequent issues. Demand Gen Report discloses that 64% of B2B respondents cite podcasts as the most valuable content format in the early stages of a buyer’s journey.
An incredible example set in this regard is by Intrepid Travel. It has a content hub called “The Journal.” This is where travelers share their experiences, helping aspiring travelers to connect in a better way.
Parting Notes
Parting Notes
Once you begin working on your brand’s content strategies, you will notice a massive difference in your engagement numbers.
We hope our blog helped you gain some perspective on the subject. Don’t forget to tell us how you plan to go about it!
