Content marketing dos and don’ts: 7 tips for creating better content

With all the talk about content marketing lately, it’s surprising how many companies tend to skip right over the “content” part and focus all of their efforts on the “marketing” end.

It’s not hard to see why. According to marketing research firm Demand Metric, content marketing costs 62 percent less than traditional marketing and generates three times as many leads. Yet amid all the frenzy of creating buyer personas and calls to action, businesses need to remember that, as the name implies, content marketing is all about the content. Simply regurgitating info from your sales brochure or PowerPoint deck isn’t going to score any points with prospective customers seeking unbiased, helpful information.

So what spells the difference between useful, high-quality content and uninteresting, uninformative filler? Here are a few tips to help keep your eye on the content ball:

Do:

Consider your customer’s needs: Too often companies approach their content marketing strategy by focusing on what they want to tell their customers. It should work the other way around. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes: What questions do they often ask you? What services do they regularly seek you out to provide? Give your clients the information they really want to know, not what you think they should want to know.

Share your expertise: Everyone is an expert in something. Whether you specialize in commercial refrigeration or complex litigation, you possess knowledge that is useful to someone else. Identifying your areas of expertise and sharing that knowledge in an interesting and informative way are the keys to establishing yourself as an expert in your field.

Offer solutions: What problems do your clients or prospects face? What pain points can you alleviate for them? Use your content to solve their problems and you’ll soon become their first choice when they need your services.

Be consistent: Like traditional marketing, content marketing isn’t something you can jump in and out of when you have a new product to promote or some spare time on your hands. Commit to posting new content on a regular schedule. Consistent content marketing will help engage your prospects and build a following that you can later convert into leads and sales.

Don’t:

Be blatantly self-promotional: Content marketing is most successful when your content offers useful, unbiased information. Content that is too salesy or centered solely on promoting your own products and services will fall flat.

Use jargon: Avoid using technical terms or legalese – even if you think your target audience understands it. There will always be someone who is unfamiliar with your favorite industry terms. Besides, nobody ever lost a client by using plain, concise language – and nobody ever gained one by making a prospect feel stupid.

Waste your content: Once you’ve written your content, use it. Post it on your blog. Include a link to it in your email newsletter. Share it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media platforms. Submit to an industry newsletter or magazine as a bylined article or commentary. And when you’ve gotten as much mileage as possible this time around, reversion and repurpose the info for use down the road.

Good content is good content – today, tomorrow and next month. Provide your prospects and customers with a steady stream of it, and they’ll be back for more.

To learn more about developing a content marketing program for your business, contact Reputation Ink at (904) 374-5733 or visit http://www.rep-ink.com.