You know you want to do content marketing. But where to start?
A few of the questions you might be asking yourself are what counts as content, how do I distribute this stuff, and most importantly - how much is this going to cost? Joe and Andrew will help you quickly learn that the people who do this well know that most content writes itself.
Join us as we discuss:
- Identifying content you can use now
- Goal-setting in your content marketing
- Distribution that works, and distribution that doesn’t
Identifying content you can use now
If you’ve heard about content marketing, know that you should probably do it, but have no idea where to start, you’re not alone. Spending, what they describe as, far too much time working on content marketing, Andrew and Joe know the challenges of getting started. To help you along, they share some first steps:
“It's just as much about strategy as it is about distribution, creation, and consistency.” — Joe Martin
- SEO: Find the right keywords that you want to rank for.
- Ideal customer: Find out exactly what they want to know.
- Kinds of content: Know which content is best suited for your ideal customer.
You’re not starting from square one
Content is quite the umbrella term — Referring to anything like blog posts, podcasting, and social media.
“Anything where someone will be reading or finding you through a search, or watching a video that may include something about your brand. That's kind of the broad definition of content,” Joe explains.
Which is good news! Because if content marketing feels overwhelming right now, here’s a secret: You probably already have content ready to go. You just need to showcase it in a way that appeals to your ideal audience.
Goal-setting in your content marketing
Once you’ve identified your content, there’s one important step to take before you deliver that first blog or podcast — Goal setting. Figuring out what can be done to help you from taking on too much in the beginning can help you avoid burning out midway through the quarter.
“Figure out how much you can do first, without over burdening yourself or your team. And something that you can keep up with because you want it to be quality too. And then start mapping out when you would post.” — Andrew Adams
Do what makes you happy
You have your schedule and you’ve done your research. Perfect. But two months in, you’re struggling to stay the course. A big reason content marketing falls to the wayside is due to content creation that isn’t fun.
What works for your competition might not work for you; and that’s ok! Consistency is key with content marketing. If informal instagram posts are easier for you to stay consistent at than a formal blog, go with what works every time.
Repurposing content
Another piece of advice: If you’re not repurposing every piece of content, you’re wasting time. One video can turn into a blog, a social post, an infographic, and more. Think of how much original content you’d have to create to make the same amount of deliverables.
Distribution that works, and distribution that doesn’t
It has to be said: Your content is not special from a numbers perspective. Unless you’re making strategic moves with your content and distributing correctly, your blog or social post won’t get the traction that you’re hoping for.
“Content marketing is just as much about strategy as it is about distribution, creation, and consistency.” — Joe Martin
Odds are, with all the content you’ll deliver, that you’ll have some interest overlap with local small businesses. When everyone is fighting the same battle of getting new customers, teaming up with those organizations to create shared content is a great way to get twice the engagement.
A key takeaway
Content marketing is relatively straightforward: Research ideal customers, create content, and distribute. Where organizations begin to derail, however, is the specifics.
If you’re not creating content that you enjoy, forgetting to repurpose everything, and spending more time on the content itself than the distribution channels needed for your customers to actually see what you’ve created, all your planning and goal-setting goes to waste.
“The importance of content and the strategy behind it is really creating and providing information to your customer that they find useful.” — Andrew Adams
More information about today’s topics:
- Joe’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joemartinmba/
- Andrew’s Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewsadams/
- Joe’s Twitter - twitter.com/joedmarti
- Andrews Twitter - twitter.com/astroma
- Company Website: www.scorpion.co
